Blood Heavy: Ascension

by S. L. J. Shortt

  Unfortunately, he just kept getting run over by that train of thought. How could Joe be so stupid? Claire may have abstained from human blood for a few decades but it didn’t mean her lust for it was gone. It was a never ending struggle that every vampire that refused to harm humans anymore faced. So throwing a temptation like that in the way was beyond idiotic. Vampires took sensual pleasure from drinking blood, the very same type of pleasure they got from sex and it was a well documented fact that they liked to bite the person they were being passionate with.

  It was like an extra added ecstasy for them. The idea of Claire feeding off Joe was disgusting to Jerry. Maybe it was because he had a scar the size of a apple on his throat where he’d almost been drank to death or maybe it was just that he felt protective over his uncle but either way, he wanted to keep fangs as far away from him as possible. But that was next to impossible when they would be sleeping next to him.

  That night, just after Joe had gone out for some reason, there was a knock at the door. Jerry, out of pure habit, peeked out of the window while his hand held the butt of his sawn-off. He growled to himself and gritted his teeth.

  It was Claire looking just as annoyingly beautiful as ever. Now that she was with Joe she had clearly been making an effort to look as pretty as she could for him. Her hair had been styled and now had a slight curl to it and her tank top barely hid the push-up bra she was wearing.

  He opened the door with an annoyed look on his face. “He’s not here.”

  “I know, he just called and said he’d be back in a few minutes,” she said.

  “Well, you’re no longer invited so -”

  “He said I was,” she said walking past him.

  He hated that. They both lived there and had the ability to invite people in and out but it was Joe's house so he got the final say in it.

  “Look, can we talk about this like adults?” she asked carefully.

  “I’d rather not,” he mumbled.

  “You had no problem with me and Joe being friends. Why are you so angry now that it’s become more than that?”

  “Because he’s the only family I got left and this is a risk that I don’t like taking,” he said quickly, trying to keep his voice down. “Call me paranoid but I know first had what it’s like to almost have your throat torn out by a vampire.” Jerry pointed to the nasty scar on his neck.

  “Well, if it makes you feel better, there is still a much higher chance of me biting you than him,” she shrugged.

  “That’s not comforting!”

  “I’d never hurt him, Jerry!”

  “You’re previous relationships disagree!” he barked. Claire looked pretty hurt by that and a small twinge of guilt gripped Jerry’s gut. It wasn’t her fault that her last attempt to be with a human ended badly. “Alright, that was below the belt.”

  “Yeah, it was,” she hissed and looked away.

  “You know how protective he is of me. I feel exactly the same way about him.”

  “So do I,” she swore and turned back to look him in the eye.

  Just then, the front door opened and Joe stepped through. He gave both of them a weary look. He didn’t like seeing them fight. “Everything okay?”

  “Yeah, it’s fine,” Jerry snubbed and began walking back to his room.

  “Wait up,” Joe said causing Jerry to turn around.

  “What?”

  “Come here, there’s something I wanna show you,” he said beckoning him to the door.

  “I’ve seen way too much already,” Jerry said snidely.

  “Just come out here,” Joe groaned.

  Jerry shrugged to himself and walked out of the front door with his uncle. They traveled down the drive for a moment before stopping at a huge pile of scrap metal. For a second he looked very confused then his eyes shot open in amazement.

  The small pieces of metallic black paint, the silver bumpers, the screwed up frame and dirty rims. Smashed windscreen, bent chassis and crooked number plate. It was a mess, much worse than he remembered but it was still her.

  The 1970 Ford Mustang Boss 429.

  The car he’d help customize and then stolen in order to take on Selena and then wrecked during the battle. The car of his dreams.

  “The Boss!”

  “Yep. She’s in a bad way but I checked her over and she can be salvaged. The engine’s still in pretty good shape but the body needs a lot of work,” Joe said.

  “Where’d you get it?”

  “Brought it from the yard.”

  Even though they had never admitted that it was Jerry that had stolen it, it nevertheless had been stolen and so Joe’s friend was able to claim a big payday from the insurance and Joe never got into any trouble about it. Jerry looked it over quickly, his brain already shifting into mechanic mode. “The chassis twisted up pretty good.”

  “Yeah, you really did a number on this thing,” Joe nodded.

  “Me? Send the bill to Selena, this is her mess!” Jerry said indignantly.

  “It’s yours now,” Joe said simply and tossed him the keys.

  Jerry was struck speechless. He had wanted this car so badly since the moment he’d first seen in and now it was his. Well, it was only about half a car at that moment but it was still his.

  “Since you’re stuck here for the week, I figured you should have something to do.”

  “Thanks...” he finally breathed out looking like he was about to start hyperventilating.

  “Look, I’m sorry that your blood makes it very difficult for you to get close to anyone. I wish there was something I could do about that but I’m not sure that there is. Maybe this will make things a little easier for you,” he said, still a little rusty when it came to being sentimental. “But I’m not gonna stop seeing Claire...she makes me happy.”

  Jerry suddenly felt very guilty about the way he’d acted. It was true that sometimes it hurt him. He’d dream about meeting some beautiful wonderful woman that would rock his world and then the reality would kick in and remind him that she’d probably end up in an early grave just from being around him. It wasn’t easy and it wasn’t fair but that didn’t mean his uncle shouldn’t be happy. Even if it was with a vampire.

  It occurred to him just how selfish he’d been acting. True he was worried about Joe’s safety but he was a big boy and could take care of himself. Maybe he should have been more flexible from the start. And Claire had done a lot for them. She deserved a chance and he should have had more faith in her.

  Thinking about all this only made him feel worse. Not only had he been selfish but he’d also been a hypocrite and a baby about the whole thing. He’d been begging Soph and Joe to have more faith in him and Goose’s abilities and yet he couldn’t have faith in Claire.

  He'd been an idiot. A douche. A douchey idiot.

  “Well...if she makes you happy then, I guess I shouldn’t try and stop that,” he mumbled quietly.

  “Finally, some maturity,” Joe smiled.

  “She gives you so much as a paper cut though and I’m staking her,” he warned.

  “Worry about your own paper cuts kid,” he grinned and turned back towards the house.

  “I’m gonna need to borrow your tools, ASAFP!” he said looking at the boss and getting excited again.

  “You know where they are,” Joe said.

  He went into the house and saw Claire standing by the window with a smile on her face. She had been watching the whole thing. “That was very sweet of you.”

  “He needs something to keep his mind occupied.”

  “You do realize that technically you just bribed your nephew with a car right?” she smirked.

  “It worked didn’t it?” he smiled back before wrapping her in his arms and kissing her.

  Outside, Jerry was already rushing around grabbing tools and spare parts from anywhere he could find them. He also grabbed a few cold beers from the fridge and the iPod and speakers from his room. You couldn’t work on a car without some decent music playing in the background. That�
�s why every body shop he’d ever been to had the radio blaring all the time. It was tradition.

  He decided to start with She Shook Me All Night Long by AC/DC. The lyrics echoed his feelings for this machine.

  For the next few days, Jerry dedicated every waking second of his life to repairing that car. He got up at seven every morning and worked on the Boss until he was so tired that he could barely keep his eyes open anymore. Then he’d get up and do the exact same thing the next day and slowly but surely the Boss was returning to life.

  CHAPTER 11 – CAR TROUBLE

  St. Cloud – Minnesota

  It was another scorcher and Jerry already had sweat patches under his arms.

  After five solid days of work, Jerry finally finished the frame work on the car and was now working on getting the monster of an engine back to full health. He didn’t have a hydraulic lift at the house so he’d gotten Cass and Claire to lift it up onto blocks then yelled at them when they didn’t put it down gently enough. He probably wouldn’t be getting their help again.

  He’d replaced the carburettor and the pistons but the intake manifold was still cracked and he needed some new cylinder heads. Right now the engine wasn’t in the car; it was on top of a metal work table just next to it while Mama Told Me Not To Come by Three Dog Night played from the stereo.

  He popped the cap on another cold beer and held it to his head for a moment before taking a gulp. Working outside on a sunny day like this was almost risking heat stroke but that wasn’t going to stop him from fixing his car. He pulled out a cigarette and lit it before taking a gulp of his beer.

  He looked back towards the house and could see the shadow of Claire moving around behind the curtains. She was staying pretty much every night there now just like when she’d first been assigned to protect Jerry except now she was spending them in Joe’s room. He still wasn’t one hundred percent comfortable with it but even he couldn’t deny how happy they both seemed when they were around one another.

  After a few minutes, Joe walked out of the front door and over to where his nephew was working.

  “How’s it coming along?” he asked.

  “She’ll live again. Still need new cylinder heads though,” Jerry said. “Think they’ve got any over at the auto yard?”

  “Call and ask,” Joe shrugged and took a look at the engine quickly. “Camshaft looks a little loose.”

  “I know what I’m doing,” Jerry said instantly.

  “Okay,” he said backing away from the car. “Soph just called. Eddie took out that chupacabra. He’s now heading down to the areas that we think mystery monster’s been to see if it left any clues.”

  “It’s a long drive to Florida,” Jerry said with raised eyebrows.

  “Well I’m sure the cocktails, bikini clad girls and Miami beach have nothing to do with him volunteering to go down there,” Joe smirked.

  “Maybe we should have volunteered to go down there,” Jerry chuckled. He went back to tightening the bolts on the block while Joe headed back to the house.

  After he was done, he went over to check on the sections of frame that he’d resprayed bringing them back to their lovely metallic black shine. She would still need another spray coat to make her perfect though. As he did, he heard the gravel crunch behind him.

  He turned to see a woman and a man, both in their late thirties, both wearing sunglasses and somewhat formal suites looking at the Boss. They must have been roasting in those outfits.

  “Nice car,” the woman said. She had dark blond hair and slender face and had her hands in her pockets.

  “She will be,” Jerry said cautiously. He kept his distance. “Who are you?”

  Both the woman and her friend reached into their jackets almost causing Jerry to go for the gun tucked into the back of his jeans but he didn’t. They weren’t pulling weapons, well, not conventional weapons anyway.

  The sunlight glistened off the badges they flashed at him. “I’m special agent Sykes, this is special agent Barden,” the woman, Sykes said.

  “And what brings the FBI to St. Cloud?” Jerry asked still being careful. He was carrying an illegal firearm after all.

  “You Daniel, and this car,” Sykes said happily. The fact that she knew his name told him a lot. This wasn’t some random house call. Her partner just stood behind her silently.

  “The Boss? It wasn’t her, it was the one-armed Merc,” Jerry snorted. Sometimes he just couldn’t control his own sarcasm.

  “That’s cute,” Sykes smiled. “You go to Newton high right?”

  “Not at the moment, threw my back out,” Jerry said.

  “And yet, some how you’re still able to work on this American muscle,” Sykes said not even trying to hide her accusations. “You know about the explosion that happened there a few weeks back?”

  “Forgive me but why is the FBI interested in a gas explosion?”

  “Oh, we’re real interested in explosions...in fact, just a few weeks after the Newton high thing, a whole building went up in Waterloo and you were seen on a traffic cam in the area about twenty minutes before. Isn’t that weird?” she was being about a condescending as she could be.

  “Not really, I was there visiting friends,” Jerry shrugged keeping cool.

  “You know what else is weird? A 1970 black Ford Mustage Boss 429 was seen speeding away from Newton high school about five minutes after that building went up. It was wrecked just near the Apollo clock tower.”

  “Don’t know anything about that.”

  “I’m sure you don’t,” Sykes grinned. “And then, a few days ago, another explosion. This time at a disused warehouse in Harvey.”

  “How does that have anything to do with me?” Jerry asked lightly.

  “It doesn’t...but your friend, Greg Gibson,” Jerry fought to keep his face from dropping at the mention of his unofficial brothers name, “his car was seen in Harvey just moments before that explosion. Hard to miss actually, it’s got douchebags written all over it.”

  “He cheated on his girl, that was her revenge,” Jerry said lying quickly.

  “Doesn’t explain why you two like to blow up buildings,” Sykes said conversationally.

  “You got your facts mixed up honey,” Jerry tried to smile.

  “Really? You, Gibson, his car, your car all in the same area of major explosions right before or right after they go off? Coincidence...kinda doubt it. I mean, how many Boss 429’s are there in circulation?”

  “About six hundred.” They all looked around to see Joe standing there with a pissed off look on his face. “So, you’re accusations are gonna need a bit more punch,” he said none too friendly.

  “Joesph Jericho I presume?”

  Joe nodded.

  “Well, my accusations don’t need punch. Your nephew has a big guilty sign over his head and that’s all I need,” Sykes said not intimidated by the ex-soldier. She had obviously done background checks on all of them.

  “That enough for you to arrest him?” Joe asked.

  “No, me sitting back and waiting for him to screw up, that’s enough for me to arrest him.”

  “You got a warrant?”

  “I can get one,” Sykes shrugged.

  “Then get one. Until then, get off my property and stop harassing my nephew!” he growled.

  “No problem. We just popped over for a little chat,” Sykes smiled warmly. She started to walk away but not before turning back to Jerry with a smug grin on her face. “See you soon Daniel.”

  Jerry and Joe watched them walk away down the driveway to the government car they’d parked on the road.

  “Who the hell was that and how’d they find out about us?” Jerry asked in a low voice.

  “I don’t know. I’m gonna call Sophie and find out,” Joe said.

  “Okay, I’m gonna go see about these cylinder heads,” he shrugged. If the Feds had enough to charge him they would have done it.

  The fact was that they were there blowing smoke, trying to get Jerry to flinch in the hopes
that he’d show his guilt. All they’d really succeeded in doing was informing him that he needed to be careful from now on. He wasn’t afraid of the law anymore, not when he knew what was really out there. That’s how he was able to brush this little encounter off as just an annoyance.