by K M Smith
Leo returned his attention to Drew and Sarah. She looked horrified, a nervous wreck. He couldn’t stand to see a dame in such distress, but he couldn’t look away. His job was to help Drew. For now.
Drew nodded at Sarah, “I do.” He smiled, but its insincerity was obvious, even to Leo. Sarah didn’t fall for it either. She kept her eyes away from Drew’s.
“We finally met,” Drew continued. “But now she’s disappeared, and we need to find her. Have you seen her?”
Sarah gripped the doorknob, either she was about to run or slam the door in their faces. Leo and Jake were ready to grab her the second she crossed that line. Was she teasing them? They were the kittens, and she the string: in sight but just out of reach.
Sarah didn’t move, but her face twisted in pain and confusion, and desperation. If she looked toward Leo, he might be able to charm her into letting them in, though charming had never been his strong suit. Brute strength and threats, sure; subtlety and diplomacy, not so much. If Sarah bent to their will, one way or another, they would find Alice, and then maybe this all would be over, and Leo could go back to hunting the streets of lower Manhattan. Something told him that probably wouldn’t happen.
Sarah stepped forward, but as she opened her mouth to speak, she stopped. Frozen in place. Her eyes went wide, and her heartbeat sped up, igniting adrenaline and gearing up her fight or flight response. Leo sniffed the air and followed her gaze to figure out why she froze.
“Adam?” she said, her knuckles going white as she strengthened her grip on the stake.
Leo whirled around and lunged for the unwelcome visitor. Adam dodged Leo’s advance and threw him to the ground. Leo shook it off, got up and ran for him again, growling as he did. Again, Adam sidestepped and again, Leo found himself on the hard, snow-packed ground.
“Dammit! Stay still!” Leo shouted.
“I could do this all night. But I’d rather find Alice. So, if you’d kindly stop trying to do… whatever it is you’re trying to do, and let the grownups talk, that would be wonderful.”
Leo knew Adam could keep going all night, because Leo could, too. But that wouldn’t solve anything, and it would waste precious time, so he gave up. Practicality wins against an opponent with infinite stamina.
“They’re right. You’re an asshole,” he said and shook his head.
Adam tipped his chin and replied, “I like to live up to others’ expectations of me. It’s a thing.”
Leo perched on the porch railing, feigning indifference. For now, he and Jake would wait for Drew’s command. From his corner of the porch he eyed Drew, Adam and Sarah. A more obvious love triangle had never existed, and seeing it made Leo chuckle.
‘What’s so funny?’ Jake thought at Leo. He stood beside his partner, watching the scene play out.
‘Nuttin’, just this whole mess of a love triangle. I kinda wish one of ’em would be man enough to make a move and end this already.’
Jake nodded his agreement. ‘Yeah, clearly there’s some pent-up sexual tension there. Just get it on already!’
They glanced at each other and snickered.
Drew stared daggers at them. “Now is not the time.”
Clearing their throats, they straightened up as though they’d just been reprimanded by the school headmaster. They threw sheepish looks at Drew.
‘I’m right, though. Right?’ Jake looked straight ahead, his arms crossed in front of his chest, by all appearances sober and ready.
‘Totally,’ Leo nodded, smirking.
Drew strode toward Adam, meeting his adversary toe to toe. He squared his shoulders and projected confidence, but Leo still sensed weakness. If Leo sensed it, he knew Adam did, too. Drew leaned forward, nearly touching noses with Adam.
“You shouldn’t be here. This doesn’t concern you,” Drew growled.
“I’m afraid that’s where you’re wrong, Drew boy. Without me, there is no Alice, so I very much am concerned. Just like I was concerned when she was fourteen and didn’t come home when she said she would, and I suggested her mother go look in the library on campus. And, just like I was concerned when she was five, and the kids at school bullied her for not having a daddy. So I sat with her on her roof and helped her think of ways to make her life better than theirs. So, yes, indeed, Alice is very much a concern to me.”
As Adam talked, Sarah’s expression changed with every revelation. With her jaw hanging open, and her eyes shining from tears not quite formed, Sarah shrank into her house and closed the door on them all. They’d lost her.
“Shit,” Leo said.
“Did you really think she’d buy any of what we’re selling?” Jake said, “I don’t even buy it half the time and I wanted to be turned. I wanted it all to be real. I don’t blame her, man. I wouldn’t let us in either.”
“Nah, but a guy can hope. Now what?”
CHAPTER FIFTY-FIVE
Adam
Dejected, Adam remained on the stoop with the others. Lips tight, he stared at his shoes. How did this all go so wrong? He had her before. Sarah understood him, even wanted to be near him. What changed?
“This is all your fault!” Drew rushed him and shoved his shoulder.
Adam grabbed Drew’s wrist and wrenched his arm around his back before he had a chance to do anything else. Even with the advantage of size, Adam was faster and supernaturally stronger than Drew. “I am done being your scape goat. Your leaving is not my fault. Your inability to shoulder any responsibilities has nothing to do with me. Your wife won’t let you in because she knows you don’t deserve her. You’ll find a reason to leave again and frankly, I’m glad she won’t let you do it!” Adam’s voice grew louder and more frightening with each declaration. All pretenses of cool-headedness forgotten. He tightened his grip on Drew’s arm and wrenched higher until it popped out of its socket.
Drew screamed. His shoulder stuck out at an unnatural angle and his hand was so far up his back that it nearly rested on his other shoulder. “You’re a sadist!” Drew shouted. He turned his body to unwind his arm, but Adam moved with him, pulling harder until he pushed him to the floor. On his knees, Drew’s forehead touched the wooden planks of Sarah’s front porch. Adam kept pushing, forcing him to supplicate. “Stop! For Christ’s sake, stop!”
Leaning close to Drew’s ear Adam whispered, “I should’ve killed you that night. You were never good enough for Sarah, never good enough for Alice. Even your current mare has abandoned you. You’re worthless.” He spit and the glob landed next to Drew’s nose. One final push and Drew fell over onto his damaged shoulder, moaning and writhing in pain. Adam rose and turned to leave.
Without warning, Leo drove a stake through Adam’s chest. Gasping, Adam fell to his knees. Blood rushed out of the wound, a crimson poppy blooming in the center of his once white shirt. Instinctively, he grabbed at the stake. Blood flowed over his knuckles and dripped to the floor. Eyes wide, his face contorted in confusion as he looked from his bloody hands to the brutish vampire on the porch. “What? How…?”
“The branch I used the first time was too big. I learned.” Leo snickered and nodded at the now broken railing on Sarah’s front porch. “Whattaya think? Pretty smart, for a brute, right?”
Adam collapsed all the way to the floor, his hands clasped around the stake jutting from his chest. Strength poured out of him as fast as his blood did. Faces turned blurry. He tugged on the stake but it wouldn’t budge. He dared not twist it; he didn’t have the energy anyway. One final look at his adversary, rolled in a ball on the floor next to him, and he said, “I hope it was worth it.”
With that, Adam closed his eyes and stopped moving.
CHAPTER FIFTY-SIX
Leo
“C’mon big guy,” Leo said as he pulled Drew to his feet. He swayed but stayed upright and wrapped his hand around his dangling arm. ‘Distract ‘em, wouldja?’
Jake nodded. “Drew, look at me. Drew, c’mon. I need your attention over here, man.”
Still swaying, Drew turned his head toward Jake.
/> “You won. Isn’t that great? You can finish what we came here to do. But first, we need—”
With a twist and a shove Leo crunched Drew’s shoulder back into place.
“Ahh! Fuck!” Drew shouted. Once his arm was in place he turned and pounced on Leo. “I should kill you!” His eyes were wild, his breathing erratic.
Leo crashed hard onto the porch, splintering boards beneath his weight. Rolling onto his back, he pulled Drew with him and used his weight and momentum to throw the crazed man off him while he regained his footing. “Dammit, Drew. You know I just fixed you.” Slapping his hands against each other, he continued, “You never shoulda jumped the Count. He’s oldern’ you and smarter, too. I’m surrounded by imbeciles, I swear.” He threw his hands up, exasperated. “I’m outta here.” He eyed his partner, “What say you? You stickin’ with these a-holes or what?”
“No way, man. I was ready to go a long time ago. I just stuck around because I thought you wanted to.”
“Me? I stuck around because I thought you needed to feel fulfilled or somethin’.”
“I’m sure I can find other more fulfilling work that doesn’t include doing the bidding of a manchild,” Jake said.
“Too right.”
◆◆◆
On the drive back to Marshall, Leo shifted in his seat as he stared out the passenger window. Barren fields passed by, the vegetation sleeping for the season. Soon, the fields would be full of corn or wheat—another season, yet another trip around the sun. Sometimes, all these trips around the sun hardly seemed worth it. For years, he’d cracked skulls and fanged innocent—and not so innocent—humans at the whims of other people. Sure, the occasional kill for sustenance, but kidnapping? Draining people and leaving them for dead? Maybe it was time for redemption. Or maybe this would be another bloody year.
“I know you don’t need the bathroom, old man. What’s goin’ on with you?”
“Hmmph. Old man.” Pulled out of his morose thoughts on life as the “hired muscle,” he rapped his knuckles on the window and glanced at Jake. “We’re gonna follow her, right?”
“Obviously.”
“Thought so. Were you planning on returning the car?”
“I don’t know. What are you suggesting?” Jake turned his head toward Leo.
“Maybe we hang around until Drew finally decides to do something…and then we fix it? If mommy’s still home, ain’t no way Alice’s gone too far away. I know she don’t trust Drew and no way she lets the Count run off and live happily ever after with her mom.”
Jake performed a three point turn on one of the farm roads west of Albion. Flooring it, they raced back to join the melee. Why did he care so much about this human? She got on his nerves, talked back all the time, Jake liked her. Potential. That’s why. He saw potential in her that he didn’t see with anyone else, except maybe Jake.
“It’s time isn’t it?” Leo said.
“To leave Drew and Eliza? Yeah.”
“Yeah. I feel a little bad about leaving Eliza, but she ran New York long before I got there. I think she’ll be fine without us.”
“It’s Drew she needs to drop,” Jake said.
“Yup.”
“Why did she even let him in in the first place?”
Leo made a rude gesture and sniggered.
“Of course. Why didn’t we benefit from that arrangement?” Jake scratched his head.
Leo shot him a look and snorted, “Have you seen me?”
“You’re handsome, Leo,” Jake said. Leo raised his eyebrows at him. “In a brutish way.”
“That’s what all the dames love… ‘handsome in a brutish way.’”
CHAPTER FIFTY-SEVEN
Drew
Frustrated and angry, Drew wandered around campus after being shunned by Sarah and losing the fight with Adam. If you could even call that a fight. He should’ve been the one to stake his maker. God, that would’ve been amazing. Instead, Leo swept in and saved the day–as usual.
Feeling sorry for himself, he brooded on the shit hand he’d been dealt. Eliza left him. Leo and Jake disappeared, though he kind of expected that. Alice was nowhere to be seen and Sarah wouldn’t have anything to do with him. Absent-mindedly rubbing at his arm, he growled into the dark. “God damnit!” A dog howled in the distance and Drew nodded in solidarity. “I know, buddy. I know.” He headed toward town. Trees lined the sidewalk, their bare branches like bony fingers pointing at him, mocking him. He snapped a twig off its branch and broke it into tiny pieces as he walked.
They were happy once, he and Sarah. In college, they were the “it” couple, the life of any party. All that changed when they left New York. He had floundered while Sarah flourished. Instead of being happy for her and benefitting from her success, he checked out. Gave up. Drank too much, pushed her away. All that before Adam showed up and wrecked everything.
Sarah was mine before she was his.
Fucking Adam. Like being undead gave him the right to go around wrecking lives? Playing God. Handing down the sentence for Drew to walk the earth undead. Making him an uninvolved shadow forced to watch his former life from the periphery. Sarah had moved on without him. Alice grew up without the influence of a father—a real father, not some manipulative bat-brained pseudo-dad. Adam’s lucky Leo took care of him. Drew would’ve left him to bleed out and bake in the sun.
But what about Sarah? How could she shut the door on him? On reuniting? Wasn’t he her first love? She would regret the choice she made tonight. It is not possible that Adam meant more to her than he did. As if she would’ve let Adam in. God, he was glad that asshole was gone.
Drew picked up his pace as thoughts of Sarah and Adam together ground up butterflies in his stomach. Sickening, infuriating thoughts. Had Adam been with Sarah, and charmed her into forgetting about it? The tiny stick remaining in his hand turned to dust as he squeezed until his knuckles blanched and his fingernails dug half-moon crevices in his palms. Faster, heavier steps propelled him to his old watering hole. A plan was forming and he needed a drink.
◆◆◆
At ’Relli’s. he perched on a stool at the end of the bar and surveyed the noisy room. The intentions of the sinners and scoundrels surrounding him bombarded his senses. The smoky desire of adulterers conspiring in the booths mingled with the sharp tang of an arguing couple at the back door. The most impressive, menacing odor oozed out of a disheveled young man trying to blend in near the restrooms. Try something, pal, please. Nerves on a hair trigger, and itching to cause havoc, one unexpected movement was all the encouragement he needed.
Cracking his neck, Drew nodded at the bartender, “Bottle of somethin’ cold?” The blue light of the fridge made the bottles look cooler, more enticing. Not that he needed the encouragement.
“Whatchya want?” the bartender asked. “We got like eight different domestics and some imports.” He scratched at his hairline causing his slouchy knit hat to slide to the side of his head. He turned to preen in the mirror ostensibly to let Drew choose his drink. Drew watched, a smirk curling on his lips, and waited. The bartender pulled a face in the mirror and huffed a sigh, mumbling about rich asshole college kids wasting his time. Drew’s face lit up with mischievous delight when the bartender jumped as he turned back around and realized Drew was still there.
The man let out a tight gasp and blurted out, “Shit, man! I didn’t—I—. Shit. You scared me, bruh.”
Drew winked at him. “I’m still here, man,” he said and captured the man’s gaze. “Now you’re going to get me a cold beer, you choose, I don’t care which one. Then, you’re going to continue giving me cold beers until I decide to leave. You’re not going to look in the mirror again. You’re not even going to realize you have a mirror in this bar—ever again. And take that hat off, you look ridiculous—bruh.” The bartender stood frozen, his eyes wide and unblinking. “Go!” Drew barked, and the bartender snatched his hat off his head and raced to get Drew’s beer.
Drew snickered under his breath and gave the
bartender a tight grin when he returned. Drew grabbed the bottle, easily downing half the contents. He set it down and made a loud, smacking “ahh” sound as he looked at the label.
“Dark Horse Amber Ale? Not the same horse shit you used to sell here back in the day!” he laughed. “It’s good shit. Get me another!” He glanced up at the television. It was February, and Detroit wasn’t dominating the league like they used to. Maybe now he could actually enjoy hockey. “Hey bruh, put the game on, will ya.”
The bartender stopped mid-pour to grab the remote. “Redwings are on a streak,” he laughed nervously as he changed the channel.
“I hate the Redwings,” Drew said.
“Oh, uh, yeah. Uh, me, too. Fucking Redwings. Heh. Uh, but this is Michigan.” He scratched at his head, nerves directing his fingers. “There’s not much else on. Maybe State’s playing?” he turned back to Drew and awaited instruction.
Drew decided to play with his prey a little longer. “Hey, bruh. I fucking hate that word by the way. Never say that to anyone again.” He watched the barman nod rapidly. Satisfied that the man was still charmed, he continued, “I want to watch the Rangers. I need to you stop what you’re doing and only focus on finding me the Rangers game. As far as you’re concerned, I’m your only patron, and I’m Daddy Fuckin’ Warbucks, so you’re going to find me the Rangers game and you’re going to get me another beer. Now.”
Drew couldn’t help but laugh, watching the bartender rattle around the room doing only his bidding. This is how it should be. Tell people what you want, they get it for you. Easy. They don’t do it? They die. Also, easy.
Angry customers shouted at the bartender, and Drew dared them to turn their ire on him. Closing his eyes and inhaling, the bitter smell of aggression hit his nostrils and he smiled slowly, his plan working. Tonight, we dine, he thought and tipped up his bottle until he finished it.