Halting him, I called out, “Um, Donny, leave the door open. I don't want to be closed up in this um...” I glanced around at the vulgarity, “room. Don't forget to tell the boss, I won't wait for long. Not my style.” Flashing him a quick grin, I watched his dark eyes grow wide and his face redder, but he nodded and left the door open.
What the hell have I gotten myself into this time, flashed into my thoughts as I stood in the ugly room. Donny's footfalls continued down the hall, coming to a stop, then a soft knock on one of the heavy doors reached my ears, telling someone inside that Mr. Tepes had arrived, and he was waiting. That someone bellowed to get the hell out and I'd be waiting for awhile.
Gathering myself to leave, I strolled out of the room's door, meeting Donny on my way. “Tell the boss my time is important too. I'm getting the hell out of here.” His face reddened once again, knowing I'd heard the conversation between him and Mr. Crifaseno. He was probably going to get smacked, but hey, it wasn't my problem.
Opening the door, I stepped out into the warm night and looked into the nighttime sky. The stars were amazing. If I couldn't have the sun, at least the stars were still able to twinkle down, sharing their meager light. Glancing toward the wrought iron gate, I made my way down the long drive when there was a scuffling behind me.
“Mr. Tepes,” a small feminine voice pleaded, “Mr. Tepes, forgive my father's arrogance.” Her voice was surprisingly educated. What the hell was she doing in a place like this?
Turning to the voice, my eyes were met by a strikingly beautiful young woman. Her stature was small and athletic, her auburn hair long and curling over her shoulder, but her most stunning feature was her eyes, sharp with knowledge and bright blue, almost glowing in the night's darkness. My heart thudded hard, she made me want to catch my breath.
Holding out a hand, I introduced myself. “I'm sorry, you seem to have me at a disadvantage, I'm Vlad Tepes, and you are?”
“I'm Sheree Jennings, my father is Franco Crifaseno.” She smiled up at me, showing a dimple as she threaded her arm through mine, leading us back to the house. “You know, Mr. Tepes, he thinks he's showing you how powerful he is by making you wait. Can't you give him his little bit of power this one time?” She smirked just a little, she didn't think her father was as big a deal as he thought he was, and as I gazed into her clear eyes, I chuckled back. She tinkled a laugh, and I swear when her face lit up, it was like the sun bursting into the night sky, glorious in its beauty. I was glad my sunglasses were in place or I'd have to squint against its glare.
Blinking, not sure if my eyes weren't deceiving me, I gazed back at the young woman as I let her lead me back inside the house I'd been so anxious to leave moments before. Suddenly, it didn't seem like such a bad place to be, pretty nice actually. She led me back into the gaudy room with the blood red sofas. “Ms. Jennings, do you live here?” Suddenly, my beast clawed inside my skin, there was something about this woman, and I wanted to know more.
She laughed, crinkling the corners of her eyes. “Please, call me Sheree.” She beamed like a ray of sunlight, bringing her own special light to the night, before answering my question, and my heart stopped for a moment before thundering. “God, no, I couldn't stand living in this monstrosity. We have a small house in the suburbs, Lake Park, my husband and I.” Her gaze became darker and shadowed. “Not that Bobby spends much time there, which on most days is a good thing.” She shivered as if a sudden chill possessed her body, her brow creased “My father may have money but I want nothing to do with how he makes it. I'm only here today because it's my mother's birthday. We have dinner together once a year.”
“I'm sorry. I had no intention of intruding on your dinner, please forgive me.” Now I felt contrite, bristling with annoyance. “Why would your father call me here when he should be spending time with you and your mother?”
Her face darkened again. “Mama passed away five years ago. It's an old tradition that's too hard to break. I should try to come more often, but it's too difficult being here. Since Mama passed, Daddy and I don't get along. She was our buffer, the peace keeper. It's been better since I'm out of college... and married with my father's approval.” The last part was said with loathing, whatever had happened, she wasn't happy with its ending.
“Again, I apologize. I can't seem to keep my foot out of my mouth this evening. I'm sorry for your loss. Can I ask what happened?”
“Cancer, of course, it's the great equalizer. It doesn't care how much money you think you have or how powerful you think you are, it comes and takes whoever it wants.” She twisted away, the memory of hurt lingered in her eyes. I knew about death coming and taking whoever it wanted.
“The pain never gets old, does it? The loss of someone we love.” Gods, I'd only met the lady, but her spirit called to me. I wanted nothing more than to wrap her in my arms and promise the pain would never come again. It would be a lie, but one meant to comfort. Seldom have my sensibilities been effected like they were at this moment. I shook my head, trying to clear the cobwebs away.
She wandered over to the mantle, running her hand along the cool marble surface. It was a warm night, yet she wore wrist length sleeves and a blue scarf around her slender throat, the same color as her eyes. “I could start a fire. Are you cold, Ms. Jennings?”
“No, why do you ask?”
“Oh, I thought with the scarf and—”
“Let me check to see if my father is available yet.” She cut me off. Her lips may have curved up, but in politeness. I felt the distance between us grow and become frosty. I'd said something wrong. She was another mystery for me to figure out.
Moments later, the robust man who came to our home during the beginning days of our leadership, bustled into the room. His broad shoulders stretched his tailored shirt almost to the point of ripping the material. His face was slightly squashed, probably from one fight too many. Franco Crifaseno had finally found the time for me, after demanding I'd come to this atrocity he called home.
He strode across the length of the room, holding out his beefy hand, and as he grasped mine, he squeezed, just for a second, a bit too tightly. “Mr. Tepes, you're Vanic Tepes's son if I remember correctly. Nice of you to come.”
“It was nice to be asked, Mr. Crifaseno.” I let a little sarcasm leak into my voice before becoming serious. “You have a lovely daughter, and your home is...” I glanced around, clearing my throat, “one of a kind.” I smiled down at the man, not to put him at ease, that wouldn't have been possible, but to let him know we stood on equal footing.
He must have understood my intentions because he reached over and clapped my shoulder.
“Call me Franc, Vlad. You and I, we're going to be friends.” He leered and I got the distinct impression of a shark circling the room, and I didn't like it.
Chapter Seventeen
“Perhaps you'd like to explain... Franc?” My beast was uncomfortable with another predator in the waters, but I kept it at bay, soothing its nervousness. The need to hunt was growing, it always came with anxiousness. Too bad I'd already sent Raymond away.
His face creased, his lips lifted into a grin, but it wasn't pleasant. His predator was enjoying having the upper hand. “I hear you've got a problem. And, I might be....ah...persuaded to give you a hand.” He circled one the sofas, a nervous predator unsure that mine wouldn't strike. Finally, he came to rest and chose a spot he thought best to his advantage, sinking into the cushions and throwing his beefy arm over the back. “Why don't you sit down, get comfortable, and we'll have us a chat.” He scratched the underneath side of his clean shaven chin, just the hint of gobbly fat starting, opulence wasn't good for him.
Unease filled my body. I didn't want to sit on the grotesque blood red sofa. I wanted to leave this place that smelled of copper and death. My beast liked both. Rolling my shoulders, I tried to relax, to ease the beast with platitudes and assurances of a hunt later. Reluctantly, I chose the sofa across from him, and sat on the edge. “Okay, I'm listening. What have you g
ot for me?”
He shook a fleshy finger at me. “Not so fast. We got to make a deal.”
Sighing, I rolled my shoulders again, trying to release some of my tension. My beast growled loudly, soon it would burst from my body. It liked the little bit of humanity that still resided in Franc, it liked it a lot. “What kind of a deal would that be, Mr. Crifaseno?”
“I told you, call me Franc.” He grinned again, his pearly whites glistened in the room's light, salivating as with a fresh kill. “You got a problem. One of them bloodsuckers's on the loose, and you need to catch him. We've never had any trouble with the bloodsuckers before. But this thing's bad, you gotta get rid of it.” He eyed me up and down. “And don't you try to tell me you don't know what I'm talking about, I know more than you think. Can't tell you how I know, just that I do. It's my business to know these things.” He sneered back. He was taking pleasure in his attempted show of power.
Unfortunately, my pinky had more power than this little man. I reached out to touch his thoughts, but death, blood, gore was in the forefront of his mind, and I had to jerk away.
“My problem is I want to open a spot across the river,” he continued, never knowing of my intrusion, “but every time I send out some of my boys, things seem to happen to them. You know what I mean? I'm running out of boys.” He laughed but without happiness, and then he went on. “You got to cut me some slack. I don't want my own boys to think I can't handle myself.” He pulled on the collar of his neatly tailored shirt, easing the tightness around his thickening throat.
Standing, I shook my head. “Sorry, not going to happen, my friend.” I smiled. “But thanks for the invite. We'll return the favor real soon.” My beast gave him a grin, and he looked uncomfortably away. Walking across the room, I turned one last time. “Say goodbye to your lovely daughter for me, she's the only reason I stayed. Night, Franc, have a good one.” I met his eyes for a moment before turning away to leave the gaudy room.
“Wait, all right, just wait a fucking minute. I'm still going to help you, this bloodsucker's been after my people too. Boy, you're a real hard ass, you know?” He struggled up and out of the cushions.
“Yeah, I've been told. So, Franc, what do you mean by bloodsucker? Don't tell me a big strong guy like you believes in those stories about vampires? You know, that's only make believe, right?”
I slumped against the door jam and looked at my host, just a little fang peeking out. It was one thing to play vampire with him or his thugs, but quite another to acknowledge the existence of vampires. For all I knew, he'd try to find a few, pay someone to make a few. No matter where you are, there's always someone willing to try anything for power. The bloodlust of a vampire combined with the little humanity some of Franc's enforcers had, say someone like Bobby, would be a scary thing. If he lived long enough to make it work. It might be a blood bath of unknown proportions.
“I only know my boys have been finding bodies, homeless mostly, looks like they've been drained dry.” He shrugged his massive shoulders as if to say, not my problem.
“How's this going to help me?” I asked, letting my boredom show. I'd already figured that Loupgarin was on the lookout for easy prey. The homeless would be a natural target. I'd planned on sticking close to the population most at risk and laying a trap. Crifaseno was actually distracting me.
His look grew crafty, his eyes hooded. “But do you know where we've been finding the bodies?” He bounced on his toes, his beefy hands rubbing together. “There's a trail, looks like where he might be holding up.”
Finally he captured my interest. “No, we haven't seen any bodies on our side of the river. I've been tracking some kind of animal ripping bodies apart, might be a mad dog or a wolf, in the rural areas, but nothing close by.”
“See what I mean, me and you, we're going to be friends.” Franco Crifaseno bellowed out a chortle and my beast roared.
*****
“Donny,” Franco barked, drawing the man back into the room, “get the car brought around. Feel like taking a ride?” He didn't wait for my answer before striding away.
With my senses stretched to the point of breaking, we headed out into the night, driving through some of the poorest streets in Chicago. People in the worse possible conditions lived here, the drug addicts, the infected, the lost, the desperate. There was no need to inhale the night, the scent of coppery blood laced the air.
Down one of the squalid alleys where prostitutes hurried toward the Cadillac was our destination. Franc turned toward me. “Here's where we found the first bodies... lost a couple a girls too. But, they fight back, easier to take some of the others.” His face grew serious. “We have to get this guy, we’ve found ten bodies so far. Not a big loss, but I figure he'll start working his way out. See how far he can get.”
Glancing around his domain, I could see how he'd be worried, the bad side of town wasn't that far from home for him, for any of us really. “You said a group of bodies was found together, maybe a trail. Show me where.” Disgust filled my face, the aroma of blood laced Valerian stank in the air, it was everywhere. Donny eyed me in the mirror. I reached out, brushing his arm and he jumped. “You're safe in the car, remember?” It was impossible to even show pleasure, the man's face echoed the terror in his eyes.
He nodded, the fear still there. He inhaled and exhaled a shaky breath, hands clenched the steering wheel. Franc clapped a hand around his shoulder. “You're watching out for the boss, aren't you, Donny?” Franc sounded earnest, but it was a slam, Donny and I both knew it. “Yes, sir.” He made eye contact again with me, and my beast came to life. Fear rolled off of him in waves, I could smell it and I forced my glance away. Instead, my gaze fell upon the window, we were in a bad neighborhood before, but this place was where people came to die. Any humor in the car vanished, desperation clung to the air like raindrops to eye lashes.
My vision grew steely and I hardened myself. These were the people society had given up on, the people in the cracks, no longer seen. “This is it?” I questioned Franc. “This is where the trail led?”
He pointed out the window. “Yeah, you see that place over there, the one with the broken boards on the windows, found six bodies inside the door, more in the basement, my boys didn't want to go down there, but there's a trail, you can't miss it. God awful mess it was, the bodies were ripped apart.”
Donny's thoughts flowed into mine. He'd been one of the boys, he'd seen the bodies, I didn't need to imagine. No wonder no one wanted to explore the basement, it was a bloody mess, still was by the way it smelled. No one had even tried to clean it up, hide the evidence.
“Can you pull up over there, Donny?” I requested and he obliged. Paulie hopped out and hurried around to open the car. Smiling, I pushed the Caddy's door open and climbed out. “Thanks, Paulie, I'll remember you were the nice one.” His face reddened and he turned away.
Donny had the other door open and Franc was standing on the sidewalk. “I'm not going in there. The boys said it was bad. I've seen enough bad to last a lifetime.”
Raising my face to the night breeze, I inhaled. “Don't think anyone's at home right now, might as well take a peek. I'll understand if you all want to stay with the car.” Donny and Paulie flanked Franc, as if nothing could get by them. “I wasn't kidding,” a new seriousness flooded my voice, “if I were you, I'd get back in the car. Just cause no one's home now, doesn't mean they're not going to be back some time soon. If I were you anyway, but that's just me.”
Sneering, with a little more fang slipping out, I leaped onto the leaning porch, boards threatening to give away under my feet. I shifted my weight, allowing only the balls of my feet to brush against the surface. Before entering the ramshackle place, I scanned the neighborhood one more time. It felt like eyes were boring into me. Franc remained standing, as if he were untouchable, girdled by Donny and Paulie, disregarding my words. Not smart.
Pushing the remnants of the door wider, I stuck my head inside the rank dwelling. The place reeked of death, both
old and fresh. Whoever was using this place was someone well versed in the art of taking life, a cold-blooded killer. Slipping inside the room, I could see where the remains had been, pools of dried blood caked the rotting floorboards.
Jiggling what was left of one of the caved in doors, I called out, “Anyone home?” A few bats in the bare attic eaves rustled with no other signs of life, living or undead. I edged closer to the basement, only to hold back a gag, the scent was much worse here. The smell of death was so thick even my beast roared back and away. One of the most useful tools a vampire possessed was our preternatural sense of smell, but right now, it was a curse.
This place took me back to being that child of the Black Death, the scent of death had sunk into everything, even the tired soil smelt of it. Whatever hunted here was sloppy, filled with madness, old and antiquated. My beast reared its head in protest, self-preservation overrode the need to feed, hunt, rest. Everything left inside where my humanity still resided screamed get away, run, hide! My head throbbed, strands of thoughts clung to mine as I stood on the edge of the stairs, sick thoughts, vile with need. What was this aberration? What awaited me if I reached the bottom? Did I want to know?
Reaching out, feeling my way clear, I forced my feet to leave riser after riser, until I stood on the grubby dirt floor of the basement. The smell here was ten times worse. There was a crude nest made from the remnants of a urine stained mattress covered in rags, leaves, and bits of decomposing matter. Creeping closer, I inhaled through my mouth to keep from gagging. But as I glanced around uneasily, as much as I hated to admit it, I needed Loupgarin's foul stench to keep with me, to identify it, to remember the horribleness of his deeds. He had sunk low into his sickness. This was more than a onetime Valerian poisoning, I was sure of it. What was this? Who had done this to him? Was this all about revenge? Had the Valerian affected him so greatly, he was incapable of understanding his actions?
Vlad Tepes, the Vigilante Vampire Page 12