by David Salkin
“And what do we do when we find it?” asked Roy, finally speaking out loud.
The man walked to Roy with fire in his eyes. He leaned close to Roy’s face and hissed, “Den you kill it!”
“How?” asked Roy, his face an expression of stark fear.
The old man nodded and walked around the office for a moment. “Dat is the harder task for you. The books and legends tell of these monsters. And I have seen pictures of the monsters heads up on pikes. So I know dey can be killed. I just don’t know how.” He played with his long white beard for a while, still walking in circles.
“How many people dis t’ing kill?”
“We don’t know. We do have some evidence that suggests he may be sixty or seventy years old though. He might have killed a lot of people. We just don’t know,” said Tim quietly, still trying to digest what this man had suggested.
“Sixty or seventy is nothing. Dis creature might be a thousand years old. It is undead. It is
cursed . It eats human blood and tissue to stay alive. Der are stories of whole villages being eaten over the course of months or years. It will just keep feeding until you kill it. Dis t’ing… it is strong. It is not afraid of anything. And it will be difficult to kill. I will pray for you,” he said quietly.
Tim and Roy looked at each other. This was apparently the end of the scare session. They thanked Father Eduardo for his time, took their bite model, and walked back out to car in silence.
When they closed the car doors they looked at each other.
“He scare you?” asked Tim.
“Shitless,” said Roy quietly.
“Me, too.
Twenty-Two
VWX
Adam & Sara
They walked out of the show with Sara holding on to Adam’s arm very tightly. She was sniffling and resting her head on his shoulder as they walked out into the street. They hadn’t walked far when she stopped and pulled him to her.
“Adam, I don’t know what to say. This has been one of the best nights I have had in a long, long time. The show was beautiful. I bawled my eyes out. The music, the acting, it was amazing. And dinner? And you…” she leaned in and gave him a hug, then looked up waiting for a kiss.
Adam looked down at her and actually felt something human. He wasn’t sure what it was. His heart was still beating with the blood of four men he had recently eaten, and he wasn’t hungry for Sara’s blood,
• 131 • but he felt something for her—a need to be close to her, perhaps. Decades ignoring anything that felt like loneliness seemed to creep into his being. He leaned down and kissed her mouth, hoping his own mouth didn’t taste like death or blood. Sara’s own breath tasted of sake, and most likely, that was all she tasted as she kissed him deeply. Adam tried to recall kissing a human like this. Renee perhaps? It was so long ago, he couldn’t be sure. But he did enjoy her taste and her smell. And something else—her company.
“Want to take me home now?” she asked quietly as they broke their kiss.
He smiled and wondered about that. Was their date over, or did she want to have sex with him? Humans did love to copulate, he knew well. But if he did go back with her, would he be able to keep the animal inside all night long? He enjoyed this woman. He would have to be very careful. He really didn’t want to eat her.
She laughed out loud. “I’m sorry—I didn’t mean it the way I said it. I just mean, it’s getting late. If you want, you can take a ride back to my place and we can have a glass of wine or something, that’s all. You’ve been such a great host all night, it’s my turn to buy you a drink.”
Adam smiled. “Sure,” he said. “I’d love to see where you live.”
They grabbed a cab and drove across town a bit and she stopped the cabbie in front of a beautiful brownstone building. It was an old building, but kept up very well. It was very “old world” and charming. It reminded Adam a bit of Europe. He flashed to Renee, naked, covered in blood after days of having sex with her and feeling almost human. He sighed and kept the talons in.
They got out and Sara opened the front door for him, and then led him down a small hallway to her apartment on the ground floor. She opened the door to a spacious home, with hardwood floors covered by Persian rugs, and pretty furniture that seemed very feminine. He admired her collection of art and photos that adorned her walls. It was definitely the apartment of a human woman.
“Come in,” she said. “What do you think?” She entered quickly and headed to a wine rack. “Do you prefer red or white?” she asked. He contemplated that. He much preferred the smell of red wine, its subtleties very interesting, like the subtleties of blood. But knowing he couldn’t drink it, and knowing he would be pouring it around her apartment, he requested white.
“I would have pegged you for a red man, myself,” she said with a smile. “But I have some nice white. You like French?”
He thought of Renee again, her throat exploded hot blood into his mouth. “Oh yes, French is wonderful,” he said.
He watched her move in her kitchen quickly and efficiently, grabbing glasses and popping the cork as he wandered about, admiring her photos. He realized she had signed them.
“You are the photographer?” he asked.
“Yes,” she replied as she returned with two glasses of white. “They aren’t great, but I think I’m getting better. That’s my favorite,” she said, pointing to a dancer on the street done in black and white.
“Ah, like your friend Gellman?” he asked.
She cocked her head and looked at it. “That’s so funny,” she said. “I never really thought about that. I’ve looked at that picture a million times and didn’t get it. You’re so right. The body position is like hers, huh?”
Adam walked over to Sara and put his hands around her waist. “Yes, Gellman seemed to like the arched bodies, the strain in the muscles… very sensual, don’t you think?”
Sara was still holding the glasses and she blushed. Adam kissed her neck, smelling her hair and skin and perfume and fighting to keep his fangs from sliding out. He wasn’t hungry at all—there was no need to feed, but he did feel a hunger for this woman that made him smile. He could feel her heart beat slightly faster as he kissed her neck and even let his human teeth slide over her skin.
She giggled and her skin got goose bumps on her connected arm. “No marks!” she said jokingly. He smiled and pictured her throat ripped open.
“No marks,” he said quietly, and took the glasses from her. She allowed him to take them from her, realizing his intentions, and not resisting.
“It’s only our first date,” she said quietly as she put her arms around his broad shoulders.
“The first of many, I hope,” he said softly, and leaned in to kiss her. They kissed, more passionately as they went, and Adam was very aware of his date becoming lost in her passion as her heart increased its speed and her hormones began to pump into her bloodstream. He could feel it building inside her quickly, and had to fight so hard not to open her arteries. She would be so delicious, he was sure.
Adam picked her up and brought her to her large sofa, then placed her in the center of it. He knelt between her legs and pushed up her sweater dress slowly, feeling the leather of her tall boots and then the soft skin of her legs.
“Adam…” she whispered, trying to control her sexual urges that Adam could smell and practically taste. “It’s our first date, I don’t want to ruin it, okay?” she whispered.
He ignored her and slid her dress up slightly higher, then gently opened her legs wider, and kissed the inside of her thigh. He could feel the heat through her panties, smell her sex and hear the blood pumping harder through her veins. She whispered a soft, “Don’t”, which he ignored as he continued kissing up her thigh to her femoral artery. He was trying so hard to keep the fangs from sliding into feeding position. His claws were tingling in his fingertips, but he kept them inside. His mouth brushed over her silk panties, and he exhaled his warm living breath over her pubic mound, making her slide dow
n closer to him as her legs spread wider. She was breathing heavier now, and he listened to her softly moaning as he teased her.
Adam began kissing her outside her panties, and then licked her crotch and let his hands slide over her soft warm thighs. She began groaning louder and he could feel her panties getting damp from the inside. She was so alive, he thought to himself—her senses so heightened in her sexually hungry state of arousal. Perhaps she could start to understand how he felt around blood, and he pulled her panties to one side as he slowly buried his warm, long tongue deep inside her. She grabbed his head and pressed against his mouth, moaning loudly as she orgasmed quickly, lost in her own bliss, forgetting her rules about first dates. Adam took his time, enjoying her smells and tastes and the pounding of her blood inside her heart and arteries. She climaxed several more times and finally screamed for him to stop. He leaned away from her and looked up at her, his face wet with her, but not covered in her blood.
“Oh my God, Adam” she said over and over. “Stand up!”
He stood and she fumbled with his belt and unsnapped his pants, pulling his slacks to the floor and quickly taking him inside her mouth. He smiled as he looked down at her. She was obviously trying very hard to please him, and
that was something he hadn’t felt in decades. It was as arousing as her mouth, and he felt the blood of the four men he had eaten pounding inside his sexual organ as it grew larger and harder. He was lost in thought when Sara snapped him back to the present and shouted, “I want you inside me,” as she slid lower on the couch and ripped her panties off over the boots that were still on…
Twenty-Three
VWX
Sixth Precinct Taskforce – Saturday Morning
The group had reassembled Saturday morning at ten, and Captain Ammiano had even sprung for a box of good coffee and doughnuts. The officers helped themselves to the treats, Tim taking two to no one’s surprise, and sat down around the large table. Heather entered the room with a professional looking gentleman in a suit. He had “FBI” written all over him.
“Good morning everyone. This is FBI Special Agent Doug Patmore. Agent Patmore works in a special service unit and has been assigned to help us with our case.” She extended her hand to the Agent, who stepped forward and addressed the room. Doug Patmore was midforties, in excellent physical shape, and had a typical cop haircut— high and tight. His blonde hair and blue eyes made him look like a
• 137 • recruiting poster for the Feds.
“Good morning everyone. Doctor Connell is correct that I am in a
special service unit, but I’m not sure whether I have been assigned to
help you with your case, or use you to help me with mine. The cases
you are following up on and investigating overlap a special project I
have been working on for almost two years. My ‘special service unit’
works with Missing Persons, Unsolved Violent Crimes, Homicide, and
Sexual Assaults. I am a ‘unit of one’. My job is to find the overlaps
in the cases from all of the units I have mentioned as they pertain to
solving one particular case—the same one you are working on now.” “And that would be the cannibal-vampire-werewolf-monster
creature that’s approximately a thousand years old?” asked Tim with a
mouthful of doughnut.
“You are further along in your investigation than I expected,” he
said, only half smiling.
Tim wiped his face and swallowed. “Seriously Agent Patmore…” “You can call me Doug,” he said.
“Okay, Doug. Seriously. Tell us what the fuck is going on. Yesterday,
me and Roy here visited with Father Eduardo from some VooDoo
church uptown who is completely convinced we are dealing with a
monster that drinks human blood. We have a bite model for something
that isn’t human, but has appeared at our crime scenes, which are
leaving a trail of half eaten bodies...”
“He’s eating half of the bodies now?” asked Doug. The room went
silent. “He used to only drink the blood and eat small pieces. Has he
begun eating more?”
“Are you fucking kidding me?” asked one of the patrolman, putting
down his doughnut.
The fed looked at him, and he wasn’t smiling. Doug walked closer and pulled a chair, joining the group at the table. “I have been tracking an individual—at least I believe it is an individual—for twenty months. My unit originally had three agents in it, but homeland security issues have stretched manpower, and now my unit is just me. I have investigated almost two hundred and fifty missing persons and unsolved homicide cases, just like you have been doing, and I keep coming up with the same scenario. The killer, or possibly killers, are draining the victims of their blood, possibly even drinking it. The victims have been torn up pretty badly at almost every crime scene, and some of them were missing organs or had organs half eaten. Bone and wound marks indicate something that looks like animal fangs, or a human using something made to look that way. Some female victims, but not many, appear to have been sexually assaulted, but the sexual attacks seem secondary to the violent nature of the murders. Quite frankly, I think the attacker gets off from the killing so much he doesn’t need to have sex with the victims. I have spent more hours than I care to admit working with FBI psychiatrists and analysts trying to build a profile on this guy. The opinions of our professionals vary enough to
make all of them useless.”
“Any of your professionals have a vampire-werewolf-cannibal
theory?” asked Roy.
Doug paused. “Just me.” The room remained silent.
The officers looked at each other for a moment. Doug cleared his
throat. “Gentlemen, and lady, I have spent almost two years of my life
following facts that are unbelievable. The lab techs I have worked with
can’t explain a lot of what we have found. The problem we face is not
only the horrible nature of the crimes we have come across, but also the
professional way in which they are carried out. This guy isn’t a Charlie
Manson type who leaves lots of gory mess for the papers to talk about. We believe this has been going on for years, maybe decades, and this
guy has yet to be even remotely in anyone’s radar.”
“We found fingerprints from a 1959 unsolved homicide at a crime
scene last week in which the victim was sexually assaulted in some way,
prior to being partially eaten and bleeding to death in a room with very
little blood,” said Heather quietly.
“And I have cases with evidence that suggest the same perpetrator
going back even further, when fingerprinting was in its infancy,” said
Doug. “And I also have cases that cite specific patterns going back
much, much further than that.”
“Yeah, like maybe a thousand years or so, give or take?” asked Tim. “Give or take,” said Doug quietly.
Captain Ammiano had heard all he could take. “Does someone
want to clue me in about what the fuck you are all talking about? How
did we go from a possible multiple murder suspect to a thousand year
old vampire? Are you people fucking kidding me?” Ammiano’s face was
a pleasant shade of purple.
Doug took a breath and began again. “Captain, with all due respect,
the case that has been put together over the past two years defies
convention. There are aspects of this case which are almost impossible
to believe, but quite frankly, I am beyond caring about whether I believe
it or not. I just want to catch up to this maniac so I can arrest him.” “So you did say him, not ‘it’,” said Tim.
Doug shrugged. “Have you looked at cases outside the city?” he
the country, and I’ve looked around the world. If you think you feel
self conscious asking other cops in the City about cases like this, try
using Interpol to track ‘vampire – cannibal killers’. I’ve had agents in
other countries hang up on me. I’ve also had a few thank me for asking about these cases so they knew they weren’t nuts. There are cases like this one all over the world folks. And they aren’t anything new. And as far as Father Eduardo goes, I have spoken to him myself, although it was quite a while ago. I’ve also spoken to clergy from other parts of this country and around the world. I have even traveled to other countries to conduct face to face interviews. Quite frankly, I am surprised I haven’t been taken off of this case and committed to a psych ward based on some of my own reports. We are dealing with some very strange
circumstances.”
“No shit,” said Roy quietly.
Captain Ammiano lit a cigarette directly below the “no smoking”
sign. His hands were trembling only slightly. “Okay, so let me get
this straight. The FBI—the fucking FBI of my country—is officially
investigating something they consider supernatural, or a monster or
vampire or some shit. That is your official fucking case?” He was trying
very hard to sound like he didn’t believe any of it.
“Captain Ammiano, twenty months ago, I wouldn’t have believed
any of this, either. And honestly, this case is so bizarre; we can’t go to
the public with it. Most of our cases are solved with help from the
public. But what are we supposed to ask in this case? ‘If anyone has
any information regarding a vampire, please call your local FBI office?’
We have more than enough crazies calling in daily now. Sorry to say,