by Bill Blume
What he really needed was a brilliant idea to find this assassin and take her out. Every idea he’d had so far just made him an easier target.
Gidion balled up Dad’s note and set it aside. The small pile of mail included a plain white envelope with his name on it. He smiled as he saw the return address was Phoenix, Arizona.
He patted Page on the chest as he held up the letter for her nose to inspect. “My girlfriend.”
Dropping into a chair, he opened it. He wasn’t sure what he’d expected, but a simple hand-written letter that only filled one page wasn’t it. They had email, after all.
Then he read it.
‘I’m sorry I haven’t kept in touch…’ Her apology made him feel guilty for avoiding her this past week, but it wasn’t until he reached the start of the second paragraph that he realized where this letter was going.
‘I’ve been applying to college, and I’ve made a decision that I can’t go back to Richmond. I can’t go out at night alone without being terrified. Getting on with my life has been hard enough here. Even though you’ll be there, going back to Richmond will be like walking back into a nightmare for me. You’re still hunting, and I don’t think you’d stop, even if I asked.’
He slammed his fist on the table. Hunting vampires had brought her into his life, and it was taking her away, too. He wanted to ball up the letter and burn it, but he couldn’t stop himself from reading the rest.
‘The truth is that there’s more to it than that. I’ve met someone.’
Of course she had. Now he understood why her replies to his texts had been so slow. What had she said that first night he’d gone after GQ Drac? She was “out with some friends.” She wasn’t just avoiding him, she’d been hiding him from the other guy.
By the time he made it down to her signature, he felt like he’d been cut open with an ice cream scoop.
‘P.S. If you’re going to keep hunting, please promise to keep the rabbit’s foot with you and stay safe.’
He grabbed his phone to text her but stopped himself. What was he going to say that wouldn’t sound desperate and stupid? She was right. He wouldn’t quit hunting for her. He looked over at Mom’s portrait, all the reminder he needed why it wasn’t even in doubt.
Page rested her chin on his leg. Her large, brown eyes stared up at him as if she knew what had been in the letter.
His phone had already gone dark. He placed it on the table, resisting the urge to hurl it across the room. He stayed like that with Page until just after sunset.
Then his phone vibrated. He snatched it up, thinking it might be Tamara. The text wasn’t from her. It was Andrea. ‘You busy?’
Gidion rubbed his forehead as he debated whether to reply, even though he couldn’t be much less busy. He thought about ignoring the message and climbing into bed. The idea of sleep sounded like the smart choice, except that the idea of sleeping in the dark without Dad here and an assassin hunting for him didn’t sound all that pleasant.
‘No, I’m not busy,’ he said.
He just hoped Andrea and Seth weren’t trying to invite him to tag along with them tonight. Little doubt it wouldn’t be Seth’s idea, not after the other night at Sweet Frog. The last thing he was in the mood for was to watch Andrea cuddle up to her “teddy bear.” He certainly didn’t want to discuss anything after the other night.
Her reply took longer than usual. He saw that little word balloon with the three dots showing she worked on a reply. Sleep was sounding less stupid by the time she finally replied.
‘Want to see Seth at work. Could you give me a ride? My mom is out.’
As long as she’d taken to respond, he’d expected something three paragraphs long, so the short reply was a relief. Even so, he came close to telling her he couldn’t do it, only he knew that was a lie. He didn’t want to sit here feeling sorry for himself either. He needed to go somewhere and do something, anything to stop thinking.
Page, her head still resting on his leg, shifted her eyes in a way that resembled a human arching an eyebrow.
“Fine. Why not?” He scratched Page’s back. After Gidion replied to Andrea, Page strolled into the den and hopped onto Dad’s recliner near the door. Apparently, she agreed with his decision.
• • •
Andrea didn’t live far from his house, so he made it there in less than ten minutes. The entire house was dark except for the porch light. He pulled into the driveway. As he cut off the engine, that sensation that he’d been hollowed out was replaced with an urge to flee. Now that he was out of the house and faced the prospect of human contact, he didn’t trust himself to act like everything was fine.
“Man up.” He slammed his fist on the steering wheel and got out of the Little Hearse.
Andrea walked out the front door before he could even climb the steps. She was bundled in a long, black winter coat. The outfit beneath was also dark and decidedly “un-Andrealike.” Her hair was pulled back into a long pony tail. If he hadn’t seen her walk out the front door, he might not have recognized her.
“Thanks, Gidion.” Her lips quivered in a hard line. “Just sucks not being able to drive, you know.”
“Yeah.” The single word croaked, and he forced a smile.
Neither said much as they got in the car. Gidion scanned the yard, the neighboring properties, and the road. If his vampire assassin was already following him, she had half a dozen ideal places to hide with a rifle. This neighborhood didn’t have any street lamps near Andrea’s address, so the only real light came from her front porch.
“You sure this is okay?” she asked as he cranked the car.
He fought down the first barb to enter his thoughts. Was a little late to ask him now, after all. “It’s fine.” He pulled out of her driveway and made his way to the Midlothian Turnpike.
Andrea stayed blessedly silent for the rest of the drive to the movie theater, an unexpected surprise. Then again, he wasn’t making an effort to hide his mood.
Within fifteen minutes, they reached the cinema where Seth worked, just west of Route 288. The parking lot to the theater was packed.
“Can you park on the side?” Andrea pointed to the far left of the movie theater where there was additional parking. Seth had clued him in that this was where the employees were expected to park.
Gidion didn’t bother to answer. He pulled into one of the better lighted spaces. An irrational part of him kept looking for his assassin, but she’d need to be a fortune teller to know he’d come here tonight. Several cars had followed him into the lot, but none of them had parked near him.
Andrea looked startled when he got out of the car.
“You okay?” he asked.
Even though she was looking over the top of the car, she wasn’t looking at him. He glanced at the cars in the lot and back at her. She seemed just as distracted as he was, but he didn’t think she probably had any assassins gunning for her.
“You mind waiting for me?” she asked as they walked towards the entrance.
“Was thinking about seeing something since we’re here.” Not that he had a clue what he’d want to see, but he had plenty of cash left over from his latest paycheck and the wallets he’d taken from Bonnie and GQ Drac. Unfortunately, the movie posters on the outside of the theater promised little more than a bunch of chick flicks. Great.
They split up once they got inside. Andrea ditched him and ran through the next set of glass doors into the lobby. A hint of fresh popcorn in the air reminded Gidion that he hadn’t eaten dinner. He got in the line that snaked all the way to the door and ended up behind a couple holding hands and violating multiple rules regarding PDA. He tried his best to focus his eyes towards the ticket booth and the light board mounted on the wall that listed the movies and start times.
The only film that had cool guys with swords and/or guns in it was one he’d already seen twice. Given the options, he resigned himself to making tonight his third viewing.
He’d only made it halfway through the line and watched the P
DA violations of the couple in front of him double when Andrea reappeared.
“Let’s go.” She didn’t give him a chance to respond. Hell, she hadn’t even slowed her pace for those two words.
“What the hell?”
She didn’t hear him. She’d already stormed out the door and must have been halfway to the car. He decided the movie he’d picked wasn’t really worth a third viewing anyway.
Sure she was a space cadet sometimes, but this was pushing it, even for her.
“Andrea! Wait up!”
She didn’t wait, and the only reason she hadn’t gotten into the car without him was that he’d locked the doors.
“Andrea—”
“Can we just go!” She stomped her foot, and the panic in her voice left little doubt that if she’d been chained to the spot, she’d have gnawed off a limb to get free.
He hit the button on his keyfob to unlock the car. He didn’t get in with her right away. He looked back towards the theater. He considered going inside to ask Seth what was going on. Then he noticed what he’d missed when they got here, what should have been obvious.
They’d parked in the same place as the theater staff, and Seth’s green Mini Cooper wasn’t here.
He pulled out his phone and sent a text to Seth. ‘Dude, where are you?’
The response was prompt. ‘Sorry. Can’t talk. Out with friends.’
If Seth had been standing there, Gidion would have slammed his face into the asphalt. That was the same kind of thing Tamara had said in her text the other night. “You goddamned asshole, tell me you didn’t do this.”
He needed to know, as much for Andrea as himself. ‘Are you on a date?’
Seth’s reply didn’t come right away. ‘Why are U asking?’
‘Because Andrea just figured it out.’
Gidion put his phone away. As he opened his car door, he heard the cat meow sound effect that Andrea used to let her know she had a text. He didn’t bother asking her if it was Seth.
Her face was turned away from him as she read the message, but the light from her phone’s display made her face visible in the passenger door window. Much as he wished he could, taking her back home wasn’t going to be an option, but he knew where to go.
Chapter Nineteen
One of the benefits to Gidion’s patrols was that he knew when and where to get a lot of things at night. Instead of driving Andrea home, he took her to Church Hill. They made it to Proper Pie just before it closed.
While they waited in line, Andrea’s phone did the “meow” sound effect to alert her to a text message. Gidion worried it might be from Seth, and the thought of that made him want to plant his fist in Seth’s face.
“It’s my mom checking on me.” Andrea showed him the text which asked why she was in Church Hill.
“How did she know where you are?” He and Andrea had the same kind of phone, and it made him worry that if her mom could track her, then maybe his dad could do the same to him.
“What can I say? Big Mother is watching.” Andrea muttered the explanation, managing only a small smile to show she was intending it as a joke. “She loaded the app on both of our phones when we got them. As long as she can get online, she can log into the account and plot our phones.”
Andrea sent her mom a message to let her know she was okay and out with Gidion. She left out the part about what happened with Seth.
By the time she finished texting with her Mom, it was their turn to order. Gidion got a slice of chocolate chess pie. Andrea went for a lamington, which was this cube of chocolate sponge cake covered in grated coconut, which was the only reason he wouldn’t eat it.
“What have you got against coconut?” Andrea asked, as they walked across the street to Patrick Henry Park. As far as parks went, there wasn’t much to it, taking up only half a square block. It was trees, tables, and an absurdly short brick walking path.
“It’s a texture thing.” He couldn’t hold back a cringe at the thought of eating coconut.
“I’ve always loved coconut,” she said as they sat on top of a wooden picnic table to enjoy their desserts. The sun was long gone, and the only light came from some of the nearby street lamps.
Gidion kept looking around as he took another bite of his chocolate chess and washed it down with a chug of coffee. This wasn’t exactly an ideal place to take Andrea in terms of safety, because the park had lots of shadows with neighborhood rooftops that were all too accessible for a sniper eager to target him. Fortunately, he felt certain they weren’t followed here, and since they hadn’t run by his house, there wasn’t an opportunity for anyone to pick up their trail. In that sense, sitting in the shadows of a park at night was probably the safer option. He’d armed himself before leaving his house, just in case, with his box cutter and sword. Both were concealed beneath his hoodie and jacket.
The picnic table was across from a fire station, and an engine responding to a call whined to life in a blinding display of red lights. The noise eventually faded somewhere up North 24th Street.
They hadn’t spoken since sitting down, but for whatever reason, the passing of the fire engine brought Andrea out of her silence.
“It’s that girl who started working at the movie theater before the holidays, Laura Hefner.” She didn’t look up from the black lid of her coffee cup. “She wasn’t there tonight either. I asked.”
Gidion just nodded, deciding against pointing out he’d already guessed as much.
“Things haven’t been so great.” She slid a finger along the slit in the lid, trapping and then releasing the steam. “It’s not like he’s ever made a demand, but I could tell. At first, he’d say it was okay when I’d try to slow things down, but then I noticed him roll his eyes when he’d look away. Lately, he hasn’t even really bothered to hide it. You can tell a lot in a kiss, especially when the person kissing you doesn’t want to.”
Her last few words crumbled before she could form them. When she recovered, she looked at him with a gaze as hard as bullets. “Don’t you ever do that to Tamara. You understand me, Gidion Keep?”
“Yeah, I don’t think that’s gonna be a problem.” Gidion retreated into his coffee. When he came up for air, the steam of his coffee breath only partially obscured the look from Andrea that demanded details. “She dumped me. Did it in a letter. Just got it today.”
“Ugh, that lousy bitch!” She slammed her foot on the bench of the picnic table. “I never liked her.”
Gidion leaned back from the outburst. She sounded angrier about Tamara than she was about Seth. “You were the one who said she was a really nice girl.”
Her head shook in a mild seizure as she pulled together her protest. “I said that’s what I’d heard. Never said I liked her. So there.”
“You are so full of shit,” he said as they both laughed.
“Hey, at least my best friend isn’t an asshole.”
“You’re not an asshole.”
She slapped him on the shoulder. “I was talking about Seth, you ninny.”
He nudged her with his elbow and leaned towards her in his most conspiratorial fashion. “I know what you meant, and I know what I meant.”
She hooked her arm in his and scooted closer to place her head on his shoulder. “For a Moody Mike, you’re not half bad. You know that?”
“Who are you calling moody?”
She lifted her head from his shoulder to give him that ‘you-must-be-an-idiot’ look again. “You always walk around in dark hoodies and go out at night doing God knows what. If you acted any more like Batman, you’d get sued for copyright infringement.”
“I think Time Warner has better things to do with their lawyers.”
Oh, damn. And there was that look again.
“I’m just saying.” His plea must have worked, or she simply took pity. She withdrew the “Look” and put her head back on his shoulder.
“Put your arm around me,” she said. When he hesitated, she added with a smile in her voice. “Relax, Gid. I’m just cold a
nd out of coffee. It’s not a marriage proposal.”
He put his arm across her shoulders, pulling her tight. After a moment, she chuckled.
“What?” he asked.
“You’re much more handsome when you shut up and do as you’re told.”
“Don’t get used to it.”
“Then don’t expect me to call you handsome very often.”
Even as he laughed, a small twinge of guilt twisted in his heart. Part of him enjoyed this, being alone with her, and he’d missed it since that night at Sweet Frog. Seth had been right about how Gidion felt about Andrea. No matter what Seth had done, that didn’t change what Gidion had been doing. At some undefined moment during the past few months he’d stopped hanging out with Andrea because of Seth and had started hanging out with Seth because of Andrea.
He thought about trying to kiss her, but he couldn’t work up the nerve to do it. He stroked her hair. This close, he could smell the floral scent of her shampoo. Even if he wasn’t bold enough to kiss her lips, he was willing to kiss her on the forehead. She canted her head and smiled, about to say something.
Then a loud electronic tapping sound, like a woodpecker on steroids, made both of them jump and pull apart.
“Sorry, I need to check this.” He stood and then stepped off the park table.
He’d chosen that obnoxious alert in case anyone sent an email to Bonnie the vampire’s account. Considering there was no way to know what that vampire assassin might send him, he couldn’t risk Andrea seeing it. He walked a few steps deeper into the park’s shadows.
When he opened the email, he found a picture embedded in it. The latest image had that same red, fanged smiley face, but it wasn’t spray-painted this time. This looked like someone had used a brush or their fingers to paint it on a door.
The door.
He recognized it.
That was the front door to Grandpa’s house, and it was cracked open.
Chapter Twenty
Grandpa’s answering machine picked up on the fourth ring and played the same generic greeting as always. The damn beep took forever.