by David Salkin
“We can’t go public with this, I told you that,” said Doug from the driver’s seat.
“No, I mean, if we ever did. Could we call it a ‘man’ hunt. I think it’s more like being on safari, trying to kill some wild animal or something. It’s more like a ‘Thing Hunt’,” replied Roy.
Doug looked at him from his rear view mirror, but didn’t say
• 153 • anything.
“He’s got a point,” said Lt. Alexander from the passenger seat. (They
had given Tim the rear seat, since Doug’s onboard computer and radio
made the front passenger seat a little tight for his huge frame. He was
big even for the back seat.) “From what I’ve seen, I am not sure I’d call
this guy a ‘man’, either. This is some fucked up shit.”
They arrived at the 30th precinct and went to the morgue in the
basement crime lab. A middle-aged doctor greeted them, exchanging
banter with Tim, who was an old acquaintance. The doctor pulled a
drawer out from the wall of deceased and unzipped a black bag. What
was left of a young Latino male was beyond disgusting. All three cops
made a groan and grimaced, Doug never reacted.
“You should have seen him when he came in—before I cleaned him
up,” said the doc.
“Jesus Christ,” said Roy under his breath. “This is after you cleaned
him up?”
“He is the most intact of the four. You can see them also, if you
wish. They’ve all been burned very badly, but this one had enough flesh
to be able to discern some of the wounds. You had alerted us to be on
the lookout for animal-looking bite marks. This young man had been
attacked and partially eaten before being set on fire.”
“I hope he was dead first,” said the lieutenant, thinking back to the
skulls in the warehouse.
“He most certainly was. He is missing his heart and most of his liver.
He was drained of his blood. I mean, completely drained. And then he
was tossed into a dumpster with his buddies and burned. There were a
few areas of undamaged skin, and these guys had enough gang tattoos
on record to help with identification. All four of them were Latin Kings
from 146
th Street. They all had long rap sheets, and all four had done some time. The city isn’t suffering a huge loss by any means, but I am worried about whatever could have done this to four strong men who
knew how to fight.”
“You and everybody else,” said Tim softly.
“There was something interesting I thought you’d want to know.
There was a weapon recovered from the crime scene, assumed to be
taken off one of these guys. There was no blood on it, but we did recover
some old tissue off the blade and in the handle. We ran DNA tests to
see if it matched any unsolved cases, and sure enough, it did. But this
must have been his grandfather’s knife or something that was kept in a
safe place for a few decades. The DNA matches to an unknown suspect
in another unsolved case.”
“Yeah?” asked Joe softly.
“From 1966,” said the doc with a puzzled look on his face. “We’re getting closer,” said Doug. “So help me God, I am going to
catch this animal.”
Twenty-Seven
VWX
Sara
Adam got to Sara’s brownstone a little after nine. He had taken the subway downtown to the Seaport and meandered around until he found a vagrant in the park, separated from the others. He fed quickly and quietly, and dumped the body into the water with a large stone tied to the body as he had done many times in the past. He then returned home, cleaned up and changed, and went back across town to her brownstone.
Sara answered the door with a glass of wine in her hand, and smiled. She invited him in, handed him the glass of wine, and kissed him on the mouth. “I was afraid you weren’t going to show up,” she said as she took his coat.
“I’m not that late!” he replied with his most charming voice.
• 156 • “I guess I’m over anxious. I should learn to play hard to get,” she said. She had flirting eyes that twinkled in the dim light of her foyer. “Come on in.”
He followed her in, and panicked when he saw a large tray of very fancy appetizers laid out for him with a glass of wine. He could feel himself getting angry. It wasn’t her fault—she was trying so hard to please him, but this was very difficult. He was angry at not being able to eat regular food and appreciate her work on his behalf. He was angry at not being able to drink wine and feel any warmth or pleasure from it. He looked at her and heard her heart pounding. At least he was able to enjoy her.
“I made us a little snack,” she said, walking towards her beautiful assortment of food. “I even made you some fresh sushi, although I know it won’t be as good as Kazu’s.” She walked over and grabbed a piece and tried to pop it into his mouth. He grabbed her hand and leaned in and licked the tuna, pulling off a small piece with his teeth. He could get that down…but not the rice. “I told you,” he said leaning closer to her, “there is only one thing I want to eat here.”
He kissed her deeply and she wrapped her arms around him, melting against his strong frame. “Adam!” she gasped when they broke their kiss. “Come on—sit and have something to eat first. I don’t want to just be your fuck buddy…I want to get to know you…”
He picked her off her feet like she was weightless and carried her back to her bedroom. “You’ll get to know me. But first, I want to know you…every inch.” He kissed her as he carried her, and she didn’t resist.
After they had made love for over an hour, Sara was soaked in sweat and completely spent. She looked at Adam and shook her head. “I don’t know if it’s just because the sex is so fucking good or not, but God, Adam, you really get to me.”
“So maybe I get a third date?” he asked. Unlike Sara, he was not out of breath or sweaty at all. He felt the rush of power from his overfeeding the last few days, and was enjoying the warmth of Sara’s body and the pounding of her pulse.
She pulled herself closer to him and whispered, “You get as many dates as you want…”
Twenty-Eight
VWX
Sgt. Roy Ruiz had left the precinct for the night, showering and changing at the station and stopping for a beer and quick bite at the local cop bar. He lived near the precinct and walked almost every day. By the time he had eaten and walked home, it was almost midnight. He was almost at his apartment when his cell phone rang displaying Tim’s number.
“Don’t tell me you’re still up working?” he said with a laugh. “Is this Roy Ruiz?” asked an unfamiliar female voice.
“Yeah, who is this?”
“This is Rachael Clark, over at Mount Sinai. I believe you are friends
with Tim Rosetto?”
• 159 •
“Yeah, is he okay?” asked Roy, now stopped in his tracks.
“Well, he’s had a heart attack. He’s in ICU getting ready for surgery and he asked that I call you.”
Roy was now running as he was talking, looking frantically for a taxi. “He gonna’ make it?” he asked as he ran down the street.
“The doctors are with him now running tests. He is stable, and I am sure he will be fine. He just wanted us to contact you, said you’d be worried if you didn’t hear from him tomorrow.”
Roy thanked her, hailed a cab, and ordered the cabby to fly across town.
They arrived at the hospital twenty minutes later, and Roy paid the driver and sprinted upstairs. He used his shield to get upstairs to ICU and found Tim in his room surrounded by staff and a cop from the Sixth. Tim was groggy, but lifted a hand slightly when he saw Roy.
“Be quick,” said a nurse with a har
d look at him. “We need to take him over to surgery. You have two minutes.”
“Hey Paisano,” said Tim in a faint voice. “Fucking donuts attacked me.” He smiled slightly. “I’m sorry to leave you to do all my work, but it looks like I’m gonna’ be out for a while. You need to catch this fucking ghoul while I get sponge baths from cute nurses,” he said as he smiled at a young nurse nearby.
“What happened?” asked Roy, scared by the number of tubes and machines attached to his friend.
“Usual symptoms, you know—I passed out and grabbed my left arm on the way down screaming. One of my guys at the Sixth was with me, and saved my fat ass. Guess I have a diet in my future.”
“Jesus, Tim. Listen, you need anything, you let me know, okay?” he asked, as the nurse came back pointing to her watch.
“Your friend has a date with a surgeon right now. You can speak with him later in the afternoon tomorrow.”
Roy gave Tim’s arm a squeeze and told him to hang tough, then left as they rushed Tim down a hall to surgery. He grabbed another nurse and tried to get more specific information from her, but she wasn’t much help. He left her his cell number and asked her to call him after the surgery. He walked downstairs and hailed another cab, almost falling asleep in the back seat as he thought about his new friend laying on the gurney.
“I’ll catch him, Tim” he said to himself as his head rocked around in the bumpy cab.
Twenty-Nine
Sunday Morning
When Sara woke up, Adam wasn’t in bed, and she thought he had left again. She moaned as she stretched, a long, very happy stretch after a very deep sleep. She had enjoyed the best sex of her life for two nights in a row, and had found the most interesting man she had ever met. She rolled on her side and curled up, feeling warm under her covers.
“Adam?” she asked with a start. She sat up in her bed, alarmed, as she spotted Adam squatting in the corner of her room, his arms wrapped around his legs and his chin resting on his chest. For a moment, she thought he was asleep, but his eyes were open. “Adam? Are you okay?”
His face changed, from a blank stare back to his charming smile. He quickly thought of an answer for her, speaking from his strange position in the corner. “I’m sorry, Sara,” he said quietly as he stood up.
• 162 •
“I didn’t mean to startle you. I was watching you sleep. You looked so, I don’t know, beautiful and content. I guess I nodded off.” Sara threw her covers open, showing him her naked body. “Well, come over here and you can see better.” She was smiling at him. Had he been watching her for a long time? Maybe he was as smitten as she was, she thought to herself. Adam crossed the small room and slid into her warm bed, feeling her body heat and smelling her skin. He got on top of her and kissed her.
“I didn’t brush my teeth!” she said with a laugh. He ignored her and kissed her, tasting her breath but not finding it unpleasant. (This coming from a creature whose own breath smelled like death when he was hungry.) He continued to kiss her, and she wrapped her legs around him, feeling his strong body with her soft hands. She reached down and repositioned him so he could enter her, and the two of them made love slowly and passionately. Adam was surprised by how much he enjoyed the act of sex with this human. Since his few days with Renee, his only real pleasure had been during feeding. And although he had sexually abused some of his victims, it was done more to increase their fear or pain, or an attempt to feel more human. This Sara woman was different. She made him feel an emotion he might even consider to be like “love”, whatever that was. He knew she made him feel more human than he had since Renee, or perhaps even back to Jena, when he was human.
He was lost in this stream of consciousness when his partner’s orgasms began and brought him back to the present. He looked down at her, her eyes closed, lost in pleasure, and he watched her carotid artery moving with each heartbeat. He felt his mouth filling with teeth and began thrusting against her as hard as he could to shake off the need to rip her throat open. His hard thrusts made Sara scream out, bringing her another wave of pleasure. She had no way to know he was only trying to keep himself from ripping her to pieces and eating her organs as he sucked her blood. He roared once, accidently, as he fought off the urge, and she smiled and screamed with him, a long “Yes! Come inside me!” He relaxed and lay on her, and she wrapped her arms around him.
“God, Adam,” she managed to say between breaths. Adam wondered where God was. And why he had cursed him to be alone in the world while someone he wanted to be with was lying beneath him. He rolled off of her and let her wrap herself around him while she recovered.
“I’ll make you breakfast in bed,” she whispered. “Anything you want…”
Adam sighed. It must be so nice for humans to eat together. Share a coffee. Sit and share each other’s company. Not the great pleasure of feeding the way he did, which was so much more than simply “eating”, but still, the companionship of it all. It made him feel so horribly lonely. This time, maybe for the first time ever, it didn’t lead to anger— only sorrow.
“What’s the matter, Adam? You looked so sad just then. Is everything okay?”
He turned his face at her, his dark blue eyes shining at her. “I feel quite differently around you,” he said, not sure how he would explain anything to her.
She rubbed his chest. “I know what you mean, I think. I mean, I hope. We hardly know each other, and we’re already sleeping together. And, oh my God, it’s been unbelievable—and even though I hardly know you, I just, I don’t know, I can’t stop thinking about you.”
He looked at her sadly again.
“I’m sorry—I don’t mean to sound so serious. I mean, we hardly know each other, right?” She felt vulnerable and tried to put up some type of wall quickly.
He reached over and pulled her close, and she hugged him. “It has been very interesting,” he said, matter of factly. “There is so much to tell you about, but where to begin?” He was talking to himself as much as he was speaking to her.
“Well, that will be half the fun, right? Getting to know each other. We’ll have to spend more time together.” Then she made a pouty face. “But then work starts again tomorrow, and the party is over.”
“What do you do?” he asked, curious to know more about the woman that was changing the way he felt about his lot in life—or afterlife.
She laughed. “This is so bizarre. I know you won’t believe me, but I don’t just hop into bed with strange men. I have been out with guys three or four times and barely kissed them. We’re having sex like porn stars and you don’t even know what I do. I don’t know what you do either, come to think of it.”
“You first.”
“Well, I am a financial analyst for a multinational investment bank here in New York. Been with the same company since I graduated college. I went to Rutgers. And you?”
Adam thought for a moment. “I was in the army for a long time,” he began.
She put her finger on the scar on his chest, made during the American Civil War over a hundred years earlier. “Is that how you got this?” she asked.
“Yes.”
I saw a scar on your back, too. Did it go right through?” “Yes, it did.”
“God, that must have hurt,” she said, caressing his very old scar. “I hardly remember,” he said.
“You traveled a lot in the army? Is that where you learned to speak so many languages?” she asked, leaning over to kiss his scar.
“Yes. I traveled quite a bit while in uniform.” He wasn’t lying; he just hadn’t mentioned it had begun in the early 19th century.
“And what do you do now?” she asked, lightly kissing his chest between questions.
Adam had pondered this discussion while crouching in her corner over the course of the night while she slept. “I do some work for the government, Department of Defense. I’m afraid I can’t really talk about it too much. Sorry.”
“Hmm…a mystery man. A secret agent, maybe? I knew you were fascinating
. Maybe I can torture you and get it out of you…” she said with her version of an “evil smile”.
“I would only give you name, rank and serial number,” he joked, his mind racing with thoughts of torture that he had seen, and participated in.
“How about I make you some coffee? Then you can spill your guts.”
He thought about her choice of words. “Spill your guts”. He had spilled many over the years. There was no remorse about it, he needed to eat. To survive. And it was who and what he was. And in those moments when he fed, he didn’t curse his condition—he reveled in it. There was simply no greater pleasure than sucking the living blood out of a human. The life energy that sprayed into his mouth was beyond any human pleasure, even those he gave Sara in her bed. He could never really explain just how intense and thrilling it was to feel his body fill up with life and hot nourishment as he shredded his prey. He wanted Sara to feel it with him. To join him in his ‘undeath’. To be his partner and see the world. He could teach her so much. He could be her mentor and…he laughed and wondered if he still had a soul? He would have called her his soul mate…but alas, he feared his soul was long gone, left in the woods of Jena.
“Hello?” she said playfully, knocking on his chest. “Is anyone home?”
“Sorry”, he said. “I can’t stay. Coffee in bed would be wonderful, I’m sure. But I really need to get home.”
“Oh,” she said quietly. He could feel her disappointment. It made him angry again. How could it ever work with her until she was undead with him? His rage built quietly inside his chest. “It’s okay. Maybe we can get together during the week?” she asked quietly, feeling desperate in a way—that maybe he would blow her off and she would feel like an idiot for sharing her bed with a stranger.
“That would be very nice,” he said, and kissed the top of her head.
She reached down and started caressing him. “How soon did you have to leave?” she asked.
“I have a few minutes,” he said and inhaled her pheromones. The girl did seem to enjoy sex, he thought to himself. And it