by L.J. Hayward
Chapter 30
Something woke me just before dawn. Not a clue about what it was, but a moment later, bam! Mercy’s whammy wore off just like that. It wasn’t the mind wiping pain of when Big Red fell on it, or even the piercing stabbing of when it had first been smashed. Still, it was a big ol’ ball of throbbing, bone aching pain that had me clenching my teeth so hard they were in danger of grinding away.
“Mercy!”
“Matt!” After a second, there was a frantic rattling of her cage door.
Goddamnitall!
I pulled a pillowcase off one of the pillows, wadded it up and bit down hard. Standing was an exercise in self torture, so I settled for sitting on the floor and hauling myself backwards with my arms, pushing with one leg. Not that that was much better. Tears were streaming down my face by the time I reached the kitchen, halfway to Mercy’s room. And there, spilling across the floor like a golden swathe of expensive silk, was the morning sun.
Even if I made it to Mercy’s room, managed to open the door, reach up somehow to get the cage key and then unlock it, she would be about as much use as a surfboard with handlebars. Damn dozy vampires.
I leaned against the kitchen wall for a while, panting, trying not to think about the pain. Maybe it would just go away. Mind over body and all that malarky. Screw it. Who was I kidding?
Hauling arse, literarily, back to my bedroom, I crawled into the en suite. A small monumental effort later, and a strangled scream when I lost balance and landed on my bad leg, I had my little emergency kit on the tiled floor beside me. It was only little, because it held only a few small items. Syringes, needles and ampoules of morphine.
Last time Mercy had taken the pain away and it had ended like this, I’d just slept it out. Okay, and bitched and moaned it out, too. This time, I didn’t think I would have the luxury of letting nature run its course. Two clashes with Big Red and he didn’t seem to be understanding that no meant no. And he’d brought Erin into it. Whammied her harder than I’d ever seen before. That wasn’t going to go unanswered.
So I broke the ampoule, drew up the morphine and like any helpless addict, shot up on the floor of a bathroom.
I totally zoned out for I don’t know how long. Came back to reality with a busting bladder and dry, dry, dry mouth. Managed to take care of the first with only a little mess, but the second was a bit more of a challenge. I weaved my way back into the bedroom, strapped on a knee support and managed to stand.
Okay, this wasn’t going to work too good. I rummaged in the closet and pulled out Old Faithful. Stick all but glued to my leg, I hobbled out to the kitchen, collapsed into a chair and drank water straight from the bottle.
It was about then I saw the time.
Fantastic. What a brilliant end to a completely blasted day. Erin was going to be pissed. Didn’t think she’d appreciate me showing up three hours late. I suppose I should really find her card and give her a call. Try to find an excuse for why a man could walk away from such a fight as she’d witnessed with no issues, but be floored by pain the next day. Somehow ‘my vampire’s anti-pain compulsion wore off and she was catching a snooze so couldn’t fix it’ didn’t feel like it would go down too well.
I made it to the bed, found my pants from the night before and Erin’s card. It was half soaked in vampire blood. Couldn’t read the number.
With a terribly manly effort, I lugged myself into the library to get the number from the website. All my books on weres caught my eye.
Damnshitbugger.
I plonked down in my office chair and rolled back to the bedroom, found my phone and called Tony. It rang out and went to message bank. I left a message. Then promptly rang again. I mean, you never know. Hoping he was at the movies or at the vet having the mutt put down, or just low on battery, I scooted back to the library, turned on the laptop and got the number for Sol Investigations from the website. Erin stared at me from the screen, daring me to not call. I turned my back on her and called her office.
Another no answer. I considered leaving a message but decided against it. Might put a dint in my mysterious air. I’d try on Monday. They probably wouldn’t be at the office this late on a Saturday anyway, especially if the day’s work hadn’t come off well. Settled for trying the kid again. Still no go.
All these people I needed to talk to and no one was talking back. Well, my stomach was. Apparently word in the lower torso area was that the throat had been cut. I ordered a pizza over the net and spent the wait calling the kid over and over. By the time I whizzed on out to the front door to get the pizza, I still had no answers.
I went through all my books again while eating. No more enlightening than the last time I’d looked. I know my collection was far from complete where any supernatural beastie was concerned but my guts still told me there was nothing freaky about this kid’s dog. On the other hand, I had a little nagging sensation I hadn’t exhausted every avenue of research.
The sun was touching off the west horizon when the morphine dropped to levels conducive to real thinking and I remembered Aurum.
“Mr Hawkins,” he answered before I’d even announced myself. “I was wondering when I’d hear from you again.”
“Don’t like to be too predictable,” I said.
“Did you discover anything more about Big Red?”
I had a nasty little surge of superiority. “Spies not catch last night’s episode?”
There was a speculative pause. “No, they didn’t. Did you locate him?”
“Not even close.” I gave him a quick rundown on what Kermit had told me and my spectacular and daring escape from their trap. Aurum didn’t seem that impressed.
“Ghouls.” His tone was akin to that used to comment on the dog shit on the bottom of your shoe. “You should know better than to trust them.”
“Yeah, that’s the popular consensus. Kermit isn’t so bad, been around the block a time or two and he knows the score. If he wants to survive in this world, he’s got to work at blending in some.”
“He tried to kill you, Mr Hawkins.”
“Gosh, so does Staphylococcus aureus, but I don’t hold that against it personally. It and Kermit are just opportunistic diseases.”
Aurum sighed. “Hardly comparable, I should think. Still, it is your city. You may deal with its infections as you see fit.”
I nearly choked on my gratitude. “Thank you so much. I really needed to hear that.”
He ignored my sarcasm. Or maybe like Mercy he didn’t get it. “You encountered Martínez last night?”
I told him about searching the industrial areas on the southern side of the river mouth. He made appropriate noises in appropriate places. Got really keen when I told him about Mercy sniffing out Big Red and tracking him down. I glossed over a lot of the details of the fight, but one thing jumped around for Aurum like a wounded antelope to a lazy lion.
“This woman, who is she to you?”
I’d very carefully avoided mentioning Erin in any terms other than ‘the woman’. Aurum didn’t have to know about this other issue.
“What makes you think she’s anything at all to me?”
I could almost hear the smug bastard smiling that don’t-shit-me-boy-I-knew-that-game-before-your-grandfather-ever-wondered-what-your-grandmother’s-knees-looked-like smile he did so well.
“The fact that you took such care to make me aware of how unrelated she was to you, and the fact that Martínez went to the trouble of hunting down someone who would catch your attention.”
“Now, see, I don’t think that was his whole intention. I think he was looking for someone who knew me so he could, ah hem, pump them for information. He put a major weight compulsion on her. She felt it when he was hit with Holy water.”
That gave Aurum something to think about. “In that case, I think you’re correct. A feeding compulsion is not that binding. You’ve heard the term thrall?”
The pizza made little uneasy movements in my guts. “Yeah, heard it, know it. I thought that was just fi
ction.”
“Oh, really, Mr Hawkins. You have a scientific mind. Use it for once. Take what you know and extrapolate. I should have thought after our first meeting all this would be clear to you.”
I knew what he was getting at. Psychic links between vampires, a link between me and Mercy. Psychic links between vampires and their food to keep the humans docile. Yeah, yeah. Obvious and all.
“Scientific minds can also suffer deniability,” I said. “It’s not like I’ve had a relaxing three days to ponder all this crap. Next time you want to rock into town to give me a lecture and exam, do it when the freaks are on holiday or something.”
“Send me a memo,” he shot right back.
“Don’t worry, I will.” And for a change, I was the one to pull us out of the school playground. “So, why I was calling. Do you know anything about werewolves?”
If Aurum minded the topic change, he didn’t say so. Did nothing phase this geezer?
“A bit. What is your question?”
“This is going to sound a bit stupid, but can an animal become a were-creature?”
Aurum’s snort was delicate and utterly refined. “What do you think humans are if not animals?”
“Yeah, okay, got me. But I mean something like, oh I don’t know, some kid’s floppy eared, totally domesticated dog?”
“If the dog was bitten by an infected creature, then yes.”
I swallowed hard. “How? Infectious agents rarely cross species.”
“What are considered to be ‘normal’ infectious agents, yes. But the were virus is not normal. It was unleashed on our world by demonic forces. Dogs becoming werewolves is rather common, actually. It’s just not that well known because people are more prone to killing animals that act strangely than they are their friends or family.”
My stomach ended up somewhere in my toes. And I’d told Tony there was nothing to worry about.
“Thanks,” I mumbled and hung up.
I rang the kid’s phone again. Still no answer. Fuck.
It was about half an hour off nearly complete dark. Mercy would be getting up soon. She could track weres as well as she could track vampires. I guess we’d just have to do our best and hope a whole lot. I rolled into my bedroom to get dressed and was in the en suite before I’d thought about it. This time, I measured the dose and aimed just to stave off the pain and not get high. And felt sick the entire time.