Hunter's Kiss

by Niall Teasdale

  ‘I get it, Dione, no need to spell it out.’

  ‘Okay, sorry.’

  ‘How’s Leanne? Mike was not very communicative when he called.’

  ‘They don’t know yet. They think she’s just battered, but they’re being cautious. Look, if this guy was a carpathian, then we’ve got an issue here. You’d better make sure the isolation room is ready to receive a patient. Winthrop will bring her back with him.’

  ‘Damn. Quade has some explaining to do.’

  ‘Yes, well, there may be some extenuating circumstances, considering someone tried to end him, but it’s not going to go down well with the Concilium. I’ll brief them when we know more, but first we have to find him.’

  ‘I’m on it,’ Mary said, and the line went dead.

  ~~~

  Leanne opened her eyes and, for a second, wondered where she was. Then the pain hit her and she groaned loudly before trying to sit up. A hand landed on her shoulder before she had moved more than half an inch and pressed her back against the pillow.

  ‘Lie still,’ Dione’s voice said.

  ‘How are you feeling?’ That was Mike from the other side.

  Leanne decided that looking in either direction would just hurt. ‘My head’s throbbing. My jaw feels like someone hit it with a baseball bat. Oh, God, my stomach’s been used as a punching bag.’ Memories started to come back and she realised how appropriate the last sentence was. ‘Shit… Juliana?’

  Dione did not believe in sugaring the pill around people intelligent enough to work out you were delaying. ‘I’m sorry, she didn’t make it. I’m going to get your attending. Just stay still until he’s declared you fit to move.’

  ‘How bad is it?’ Leanne asked once Dione had gone.

  ‘Well, that’s what the doctor’s going–’

  ‘No, how bad’s the enormous bruise on my jaw?’

  ‘Oh, it’s… impressive.’

  Leanne groaned. ‘I don’t want to know what my stomach looks like. I think he hit me… four times. She wasn’t even twenty-one, Mike.’

  ‘Yeah,’ Mike said. Mary had sent the data on Juliana Nails to their phones an hour ago. Born on the second of January nineteen ninety-four, she was six days away from her twenty-first birthday. Police and hospital staff were on their way to tell her parents she would not be getting there. ‘We’ll get the guy who did this.’

  ‘I should tell you what I saw. Thought I saw.’

  ‘In the morning. Now you do what the doctor says. I pulled a couple of strings and flashed my badge, so I’ll be with you all night.’

  ‘Thanks. I think… I think I’m in shock. I’ve got a mild concussion. Feels like… Feels like bruising across my shoulders, stomach, and jaw. They should test he didn’t damage anything internal…’

  Mike grinned. ‘What do we need the doctor for?’

  ‘Easy. I can’t prescribe painkillers for myself.’

  28th December.

  ‘The paramedics must have made a mistake,’ Leanne said, ‘because that guy was dead when he came through the door.’

  ‘It wouldn’t be the first time,’ Dione said. ‘It’s also possible that he expired before he got to you, but was still fighting when they loaded him into the ambulance. It’s not really an issue. Someone set him on fire and he’s dead.’

  ‘There wasn’t just the fire. I pulled a spike out of his chest. Did you get it?’ Leanne looked at Mike.

  ‘I did. Chain of custody is blown, but Winthrop will match the break to the part we found at the scene.’

  ‘There were no fingerprints,’ Dione added, ‘so it’s no help in finding out who this madman is. Unfortunately. Now, Mike thought he heard a scream over the phone.’

  ‘Yeah. I was about to tell Mike about the spike… blade, whatever, and I heard Juliana scream.’ Leanne rolled her eyes. ‘I know it was stupid, but I ran in and they were gone. Juliana and the patient. So I told Mike something was wrong and I went out the back. I’d got about halfway down the corridor there and I started realising that I was being stupid…’

  ‘Intelligent people can sometimes take a while to come to terms with doing something they know is, perhaps, foolish.’

  ‘Huh, yeah, thanks. I was about to turn around and get help and… I think I heard a moan. And then it just happened so fast. I’ve been trying to remember details, but it doesn’t make sense. Someone came out of the storeroom and hit me. After that it gets foggy, but the guy had to be wearing a mask. A balaclava maybe. I… couldn’t see his face. No, had to be… a mask, or something.’

  Dione, standing beside the bed, could smell the confusion, the fear. Leanne was looking a lot better after a night’s drugged sleep, and the pain was easing a little. There were a few internal organs which were not as happy as they might be, but not seriously. Bruised, but not broken. Her physical condition was not the source of her emotions now.

  ‘Just say what you think you saw, Leanne,’ Dione said softly. ‘We won’t think you’ve gone mad or anything. We deal with the weird stuff, remember?’

  Leanne closed her eyes. ‘I swear I saw burned skin. Like it was the corpse attacking me. That’s impossible, right?’

  ‘For a corpse to attack you? I won’t say it’s impossible, because I haven’t seen everything in the world, but I’d say it was highly unlikely.’

  ‘We could probably say it was impossible,’ Mike said, ‘to simplify things.’

  ‘Huh, thanks,’ Leanne said, opening her eyes again. ‘Anyway, I think security arrived, and he dropped me and ran. I remember seeing Juliana before I passed out. I kind of knew she was dead. I hoped…’

  ‘There was nothing to be done about her,’ Dione said. ‘She’d lost too much blood by the time help arrived.’

  Leanne frowned. ‘It’s funny. There didn’t seem to be that much on the floor.’ She shook her head, then winced. ‘Remind me not to do that.’

  ‘Don’t shake your head, Leanne,’ Mike said, grinning. The grin did not quite make it to his eyes.

  ‘Thanks. They’re saying, if I continue to improve as well as I have been, I can go home on Tuesday. I’d kind of prefer–’

  ‘You’ll stay at my place,’ Mike said. ‘Dione and I already talked about it. There’s a chance, a small chance, that this guy might come after you. You saw him, might be able to describe him. He might decide to tie up loose ends.’

  ‘So Mike or I will be here until you’re released,’ Dione continued, ‘and you’ll stay at Mike’s apartment during your recuperation. His place is more secure. Even if he’s not there, you’ll be safe.’

  ‘You really think he might come after me?’ Leanne asked.

  Mike glanced at Dione. ‘There’s the other thing… We think the guy who attacked your walking corpse killed a couple in Central Park before Christmas. The guy was dressed up like Dracula or something and this nut thought he was a real vampire. He killed the girl because he thought she would turn into one. You were attacked, so…’

  ‘I’ve got a vampire hunter after me? Oh, this just keeps getting better.’

  ‘We don’t know that,’ Dione said. ‘He may not know about the attack on you. Miss Nails’ death was reported in the newspapers today, but your name was kept out of them. However, being cautious is the best way to proceed. I think you’ll recover better with some TLC from Mike anyway.’

  ‘Ain’t that the truth,’ Leanne said, grinning.

  29th December.

  ‘Quade is in the wind,’ Mary said. The team were gathered in Winthrop’s lab for a quick briefing, except for Mike who was with Leanne. Mary was itching to get back to her own room. ‘My best guess would be that he hid out in the subway tunnels rather than riding the trains. He has a pass, but the crime scene people found that in his apartment.’

  ‘This is aberrant behaviour,’ Winthrop said. ‘He should have gone to the Concilium and petitioned for a new identity, as I understand it.’

  ‘That’s the normal procedure when a vampire is, apparently, killed,’ Dione agreed. ‘Usually y
ou relocate to another city.’

  ‘So he may be worried over his reaction on waking. He killed a human, hurt another. Then there is fear of the one who attacked him to consider. Mister Quade is almost certainly not in his right mind.’

  ‘Well,’ Mary went on, ‘he’s got no money, no plastic, no ID, and no shirt since they cut that off him at the hospital. I’ve put a watch on burglaries from clothing stores, but this guy is not exactly B and E material. I ran his background with Chicago. Turns out he was orphaned, more or less. His creatrix abandoned him after about two years and the local Concilium were sloppy. They assigned him to one of their seniors who just wasn’t that interested. He took the first chance he got to relocate. The psychological background on him suggests he’s the kind of vampire who broods in libraries reading medieval romances and old poetry. He’s blonde and blue-eyed, otherwise he’d be Byronesque. Not exactly a realist.’

  ‘His bibliography bears that out. Byron, yes, but also Coleridge, Keats, Wordsworth, Macpherson, and Shelley. Apparently he reads French since he also has de Musset and Gautier in there. There are three different editions of Le Morte d’Arthur, as well as Sleepy Hollow, The Scarlet Letter, and a number of works by Poe.’

  Dione grimaced. ‘Well, everyone has to have a hobby. Anything on the would-be slayer of vampires?’

  ‘He remains elusive. No fingerprints, no unidentified blood at the scene. If Mister Quade managed to fight back at all, there’s no evidence of it. I confirmed the use of a petroleum-based charcoal lighter fluid as the accelerant. There was residue on Quade’s shirt. The broken weapon was, indeed, homemade. Our hunter is relatively skilled, but no metallurgist. He used a hard steel for the blade which is more liable to brittle fracture under lateral stress. From the fracture pattern, I’d say he stabbed Quade, who then twisted to the side, snapping the blade off at a weak point where it narrows to fit into the hilt.’

  ‘Okay, well… keep digging. We need to find these people. Preferably before anyone else dies.’

  ‘There is one other thing,’ Mary said before Dione could leave. ‘I got somewhere with the bank accounts Delvalle was siphoning funds from. They belonged to a company called Early Worm Biotechnologies which turns out to be owned by a German investment company, Drakon Investitionen. Drakon is… a rather vaguely organised private company. Finding out who runs it is proving difficult. Early Worm is apparently working on life extension pharmaceuticals.’

  ‘Worm and Drakon? I don’t like it. Send a message to Leo, and ask him to get the Berlin Concilium involved in working on Drakon. You dig further into Early Worm.’

  ‘I’ll put it on the list.’

  ~~~

  The room was dark. She could see nothing, but her other senses seemed to be working overtime. She could hear sounds, soft skittering, something that might have been flapping wings. She could smell and even taste blood, lots of blood, and something else, something… burned.

  She turned and he was there, rushing at her. Her arms tried to lift, but they were sluggish, weak, and he grabbed her, lifting her up. He roared and she saw the white fangs gleaming against blackened, twisted flesh. He was pulling her towards those fangs and she tried to fight them off…

  ‘You’re having a nightmare, Leanne. Let it go. Wake up. You’re safe.’

  The voice, warm and velvety, sensual, cut through the dream and the burned man evaporated before her. She fell into the blackness.

  ‘Come on, Leanne, up you come.’ Warm arms caught her, wrapping around her and lifting…

  And she was in her bed in the hospital, her sweat-slick body pressed against Dione’s who was sitting on the bed, holding her up. The scent of her hair filled Leanne’s nostrils, driving away the stink of overcooked pork.

  ‘There we are,’ Dione said. ‘You’re all right. Just a dream. Nothing to worry about.’

  Leanne figured she should probably ask to be let free of Dione’s arms, but the burned face was still in her head, and the scent of the olive-skinned woman was warm and comforting, and just a little exciting. ‘I was dreaming about the man. Quade,’ Leanne said. ‘I was in the dark and I could smell blood, and then he was there. I must have got that story you told at Christmas mixed in there, because he was going to bite me. He had enlarged canines, like you. Isn’t that weird?’

  ‘Yes, it is. Unless it’s more common than you’d think.’

  ‘Maybe. It must have been the story. I mean, dreaming he was a vampire… It’s… Vampires aren’t real. Are they?’ The question was supposed to come out as a request for affirmation and came out more like a plea for confirmation.

  There was a look of slight disappointment as Dione lowered Leanne back to her pillow. ‘Your unconscious mind is trying to work through the details and make sense of them,’ Dione said. ‘You have a man, apparently dead, who seems to have returned to life and attacked your nurse and you. He had, for want of a better word, fangs. Your reaction is quite natural.’

  ‘I… suppose…’

  ‘But, for the sake of argument, let’s just examine the structure of the problem. Vampires. The dead brought back to life. How many times have you performed CPR on someone who was, technically, dead?’

  Leanne blinked. ‘In anger? A dozen, maybe a few more, but that’s not–’

  ‘Humour me. Medical science has had to revise its view on what life and death are as technology and technique have pushed the boundaries of what state a person can be recovered from, haven’t they?’

  ‘Yes. Yes, they have.’

  ‘And what is life anyway? A biochemical process. Neurons firing to regulate certain functions. Hormones and proteins, neurotransmitters. Death, cell death anyway, is the same. A biofeedback mechanism where the demise of a cell initiates the death of the cells around it. There are known drugs able to eliminate almost every sign of life from a person and still be recoverable. Could there, perhaps, be other chemicals able to arrest the process of necrosis? Could there be something which would chemically stimulate a body, apparently dead, back into a state we would describe as living?’

  ‘We would have found something like that…’

  ‘Everything was unknown until it became known. The chemistry of life continues to be uncovered, new molecules are found or created. Is it not possible that something like a vampire could exist? Even if only as a transient event.’

  ‘So… some disease. Something which suppressed vital signs, or even killed the guy. Biologically dead, but with something in him which fired him up again.’

  Dione smiled. ‘It’s just a mind game, Leanne. A hypothesis we’re exploring.’

  ‘Of course… And it doesn’t explain the blade in his heart. Unless… Unless it was keeping him dormant. If it inhibited the reaction… And I took it out.’ Leanne curled up, pulling her arms in across her chest.

  Dione chuckled softly. ‘And this is why one should never discuss hypothetical circumstances with a traumatised individual.’ She reached out, cupping Leanne’s cheek. ‘You did not cause Juliana Nails’ death. There was nothing you could have done to prevent it. If I find you recriminating yourself over this, I’ll be very stern, possibly sarcastic.’

  Leanne giggled. Dione’s scent was in her nostrils again, quelling the disquiet. ‘Sorry. Um, where’s Mike anyway?’

  ‘I sent him home to get some proper rest. You’ll be out of here tomorrow and he should be awake for that.’

  ‘Yeah. I should get some sleep. It just seems like it’s all I’ve been doing.’

  ‘And you’ll want yet more of it before you’re recovered. I’m happy you liked the pendant.’

  Leanne reached automatically to the fob of silver hanging between her breasts. ‘Yes… And it’s job-appropriate.’

  ‘Indeed. Now, sleep.’

  ‘Okay,’ Leanne said brightly, and settled back under the covers, closing her eyes.

  Dione went back to her chair and sat back, listening as Leanne’s breathing settled into a resting rhythm. Leanne was getting close to realising the truth. This incident
had pushed facts at her which might, if she chose to look at them the right way, make her a believer. Dione was just not sure what the reaction would be when that happened.

  30th December.

  An ambulance carried Leanne and Mike the few blocks to his apartment. She was functional, but still weak and a little slow, and was under orders to get plenty of rest. She had nodded at her attending physician and vowed to ignore him, but the journey in the back of the boxy vehicle had done nothing for her constitution and she had to admit that, maybe, rest was a good idea. It was going to make New Year a bit of a let-down, but at least she would be free and not on call.

  Leanne was about to open the back door of the ambulance herself when Mike stopped her. ‘Hold on,’ he said, pressing a finger to his right ear. ‘Okay, we’re clear.’

  And the door opened to reveal Dione standing outside. ‘Let’s get you inside,’ she said. ‘It’s not exactly a balmy July day.’

  ‘Huh,’ Leanne responded. ‘Where’s global warming when you need it?’

  The reason for the hurry was obvious to Mike: Dione wanted Leanne out of sight as fast as possible. Leanne said nothing to suggest she had guessed, and did actually shiver as the door shut behind her.

  ‘I checked inside as well,’ Dione said, lifting a key from her pocket and holding it out to Mike. ‘No sign of anyone, or that anyone tried to get in.’

  Mike reached for the key and then pulled back. ‘Keep it, for now. You may need to get in here and I’d rather keep my door where it is.’

  Dione gave a shrug and pocketed it. ‘Okay. Mike, you have your research to do. Leanne, you have your resting to do.’ Leanne grunted at that. ‘I have other things to be getting on with, so I’ll leave you to it.’

  ‘Coffee,’ Leanne said when Dione had gone. ‘I haven’t had a decent cup, make that a mug, since Saturday night. I know I’m supposed to rest, but I’ve had enough of beds for now.’

  Mike nodded: he had expected such and was not going to argue. ‘Okay, but change into your night things and we’ll wrap you in a blanket on the sofa. If you feel like nodding off, you can just stretch out.’