by C. J. Pinard
Sean arrived with their wine and informed them their meals would be out shortly.
“May I ask why you inquire about the Enchantment, Tom?” she asked, sipping her wine. It was strong, dry, but flavorful, and went down her throat with ease and warmth.
After taking a swig of his own, he grinned. “Don’t worry. I am not thinking about it. I was just genuinely curious.” He then lowered his voice an octave and darted his eyes around the restaurant briefly. “It hit me one day when I killed a vampire. He just exploded into dust after I shot him in the heart with the UV pistol. I thought he would lay there like a dead body and we’d have to dispose of him, but it wasn’t that way at all. He just kind of turned to dust and blew away. It was very odd,” he finished, looking around again to see if anyone had heard him.
“Yes, that’s how it works. The older they are, the faster they evaporate. It’s like death brings them a true passing – their ‘real age’ catches up to them instantly. If you were to say, kill a very newly-turned one, he would not disappear. You would have to dispose of him, like you mentioned,” she answered. Now looking around herself.
“That’s interesting. I haven’t spoken much about this to Jonathan. We don’t kill very many of them, as you know, with the Treaty and all. But this one was unruly – feral – and he had to be put down, like a wild animal,” he said. “Speaking of animals, is it the same with the shifters?”
“No, and nobody knows why. Maybe because they are alive, and not ‘undead’ – frozen in time – like the vampires. Shifters have heartbeats, warm blood, and DNA. They just possess a gene that allows them to shift into animals. The biggest mystery about them is that they seem to stop aging and become immortal once they reach adulthood. We need to acquire more scientists to study them, but none of the shapeshifters seem to be too willing to volunteer for study, and the Treaty says we can’t use them as ‘lab rats’… no pun intended,” she giggled.
“Can’t say I blame them,” Tom said, chuckling.
Their food arrived and they both hungrily dug in.
After dinner, Malina walked with Thomas out to his car. A light drizzle had started to fall from the bloated clouds above.
“This is… awkward. I’m supposed to walk you to the front door and have my awkward moment there, not here,” he teased.
She gave him a half-smile. “Well I can’t very well call a portal in the middle of the restaurant, can I?”
“Sure you could. I would pay money to see the faces of the patrons as you disappeared into thin air,” he quipped. Then he grew serious. “Well, I need to get back to the building and get Darius his dinner. Thank you for meeting me.”
“No, thank you for a lovely dinner, Tom.” She stood on her tiptoes and kissed his cheek, then waved her hand in the air and disappeared through her airy doorway.
Thomas rubbed his cheek where he’d been kissed and could feel the flush on it.
∞∞∞
San Francisco – 1947
Perhaps it was the alcohol, or just the built-up sexual tension, but Tony was barely able to pull the key from the lock and toss it on the side table of the hotel room before he had Kathryn up against the wall. He had both her wrists pinned above her head and he was kissing her like he meant it. She was definitely kissing back, her soft tongue exploring his silky smooth lips and tongue.
Without breaking the kiss, he used his free hand to rub it down the side of her body. His hand glided over the side of her breasts and when it reached her waist, he squeezed, pulling her as close as he could to his own hard body. He let go of her wrists and brought both hands up to her face and rubbed her cheeks with his thumbs.
She had her hands in his hair and moved them down his back, pushing his suit jacket off and onto the floor; then she pulled his dress shirt out of his pants and ran her hands under the shirt over his smooth chest.
After five solid minutes of this, Kathryn finally broke the kiss, gasping for air. She looked into his mischievous brown eyes and breathed, “What are we doing?”
He grinned wickedly at her. “Enjoying ourselves,” he replied breathlessly.
“Do you think this is a good idea?” she asked, immediately regretting asking the obvious rhetorical question.
“Of course I do,” he replied while trailing his finger up and down her bare neck.
Casual sex was not something Kathryn did. It definitely was not proper, lady-like behavior in 1947 – although Kathryn suspected more people did it than would admit to – still, she was not a woman of this era. She was from an even older time, a time she barely remembers. A time when women weren’t as prim and proper as they seem to be now.
She let Tony kiss her while she was contemplating her decision. He’s an international playboy, Kat… Jonathan’s words resonated in her mind. Speaking of minds, would it hurt to take a peek into his? Nah, she thought, she’d been down that road before; it never ended well.
She decided to roll with it. To have some fun. She let go of her intrusive thoughts and kissed Tony back with more fervor this time. He took the cue like a well-seasoned actor, and in true Bogart fashion, he scooped her up and carried her over to the queen bed, never breaking the kiss, and had her clothes off in record time.
∞∞∞
Joseph was sitting in his unmarked police car at seven p.m., watching the Hyde Street bank building. He knew something wasn’t right and he was going to get to the bottom of it once and for all. Between Jonathan Murphy’s odd background check, to his new job with the BSI, he was sure that this building had something to do with finding his son.
As he sat there drinking a cup of stale black coffee, as he had for the past eight nights, he was about to fire up the engine and leave to go home to Nell when something caught his eye. A car pulled out from the parking lot hidden behind the building and pulled into the sparse traffic. The driver of the car appeared to be Jonathan Murphy.
Joseph decided to tail him. That’s when he noticed him: Thomas, in the passenger seat. Or was it? Was his grieving mind making things up to compensate for his loss? Were the shadows from the dim streetlamps playing tricks on his desperate heart? Joseph wanted to leap from his car and jump in front of Jonathan’s Chevy and demand they stop. But the small part of his mind that still held logic and reason told him no. So, he decided to follow them. With his heart racing in his chest, he put the car in gear and followed them.
Strangely, the car drove around the city for what seemed like forever. It would make slow circles around alleyway entrances, and Joseph could see whoever was in the passenger seat shine a flashlight down the alleys. When they would be satisfied it was empty, they would move on to the next.
This went on for hours, until Jonathan Murphy’s car went back to the Hyde Street building and pulled around back. Joseph decided to park his across the street and walk around the back to the lot.
As quickly as he could, he sprinted across the street. As quietly as possible, he peered around the corner of the massive brick building and watched as the large car was put into park and shut off. Joseph still couldn’t see the occupants that well. It was an especially dark night with not a lot of moonlight, and there were no lamps in the parking lot. He stood there and watched. He desperately wanted to see who that passenger was, mainly to ease his crazy mind that it was not his missing son, but rather, it was his mind playing tricks him. Because surely, if Thomas was alive and well, he would not be casually driving around town at night with Jonathan Murphy and letting his poor, old parents think him dead.
Would he?
His moment was here. The driver’s door opened, and Jonathan unfolded his tall frame from the car and stood there for a minute. Joseph could see and hear the passenger door opening, but Jonathan was blocking his view. Joseph took a step to the right to get a better view and his foot crunched down on a broken glass bottle. He looked down temporarily to see what the offending noise was, and when he looked up, he literally saw the passenger door close by itself and a large gust of wind blow Jonathan Murphy’s hair b
ack.
Joseph shook his head, thinking now that he had surely lost the plot as he watched Jonathan walk into the back entrance alone.
“Criminey,” he mumbled to himself on his way back to the police car.
Chapter 17
∞∞∞
Portland, Oregon – Present Day
“What the?!” Jonathan exclaimed when he got down to Darius’s cell with a bag of O-Negative.
Thomas was standing with him, confused. “Um. Where’s the vampire?”
“That’s what I would like to know! I left him in the cell, locked up tight. He was hungry and weak, and I checked the lock myself before I went upstairs to ask you to go to the blood bank. I don’t get it,” he said, still reeling with shock.
“Do you have the key, boss?” Thomas asked.
Jonathan pulled it out of the pocket of his jeans and handed it to Thomas.
Thomas proceeded to unlock the door and look around the cell. “Well, I don’t see any ash, so at least we know he’s not dead,” he said.
“Yeah, there would be some evidence if he were. Darius is only about fifty years old,” Jonathan replied.
“I don’t see any evidence of lock tampering, either. Vampires can’t shape shift, can they? Like, turn into bats?”
“Very funny, kid. No, they cannot,” he said, annoyed. “You need to back off the video games.” He laughed humorlessly.
“Funny,” Thomas said, not smiling.
“Well, shit. What do we do? How do these stupid bloodsuckers keep getting away from us? I used to be much better than this. We are better than this, Tom,” Jonathan finished.
“I know, boss. I know.”
Thomas locked the cell back up and handed the key back to Jonathan. They decided to make their way upstairs to deliver the bad news to Kathryn and Lillian. They caught sight of the elevator just as it was closing.
Jonathan yelled, “Hold the door!”
The door opened back up again and the night janitor was in there with his supply cart. It stunk up the elevator, which didn’t help Jonathan’s already-sour mood.
“You know, Steve,” he said, eyeing the janitor’s name embroidered into his uniform shirt, “there’s a service elevator round back for the service staff.”
Thomas, embarrassed by Jonathan’s condescending behavior added, “Unless you need to get to the sixth floor, otherwise, this is the only elevator.”
“You are a bright one, sir. I am heading to the sixth floor to clean,” Steve mumbled, smiling with his lips closed.
Thomas simply nodded. Jonathan was still too angry over Darius’s escape to notice what Thomas was noticing.
Steve had shifty eyes. He was pale and looked sickly. He spoke with his head down and barely moved his mouth when he spoke. Thomas tucked these little observations into the back of his mind and decided he’d do some checking up on Steve. He thought maybe the guy had a record or could have been wanted for something by how nervous and shifty the guy was. Or maybe he was on drugs. But they had another immediate problem to deal with.
Steve and his cart exited the elevator on the sixth floor. Jonathan and Thomas stared at him as the doors closed. He was looking back at them, grinning.
“Creepy,” Jonathan said.
“Definitely,” Thomas agreed.
Once at the top floor, the boys exited and went into the apartment. Kathryn and Lillian were watching a movie.
“We have a problem,” Jonathan announced. Nobody was surprised when he went to the credenza to knock a couple back, which he did in quick succession.
“What’s wrong?” Lillian asked, pausing the TV with the remote.
“Darius is gone,” Thomas simply said.
Kathryn jumped up from the sofa. “What do you mean he’s gone? How?”
“That, we don’t know,” Jonathan said as he set his empty tumbler on a side table.
Jonathan relayed the entire events from the conversation with Darius about needing blood, to Thomas retrieving some, to their discovery of the empty cell.
“I saw that Igloo cooler in the fridge, I was wondering what was in it but I was afraid to open it. It looks like those containers they use to transport human organs,” Lillian said, making a face.
“Some people actually use those for their lunch, Lilly,” Thomas said, chuckling.
“Take the packs out and stick them in the freezer in case we run into this problem again,” Jonathan ordered Kathryn.
She went to the refrigerator to set about her task. “Do we have any idea where they could be?” she asked as she worked.
“We could check Night Crawlers,” Lillian said. “I could glamour myself to look like a regular human girl and go in and look around,” she suggested.
Thomas looked at her thoughtfully. “No, I don’t think Darius would be at the club, he’s stupid, but not that stupid.”
“Maybe we could shake the information out of Pascal. We need to pick him up for kidnapping and theft anyway, after what he stole from Malina,” Lillian said, her face serious.
“This is true, but something tells me Pascal is behind this, and I don’t believe he would be at his club anyway. He’s no doubt hiding out somewhere, laying low.”
“What did Darius say the other night when I had my gun pointed at his crotch? Didn’t he say Pascal and Angel were heading for the vortex? Did we ever figure out what that was?” Kathryn asked, closing the freezer door and walking back into the living room.
“No, we didn’t, but I have an idea,” Lillian said.
She walked over to Jonathan’s laptop and shook the mouse to wake up the sleepy computer. The screen flickered to life and illuminated her face. She pulled up Google and typed in “Vortex club Portland” but it returned no real hits. Then she typed in, “Vortex Oregon” and hit payday.
The other three wandered over to the computer when she gasped.
“What is it, Lilly?” Thomas asked.
“Have you ever heard of this place?” she asked, pointing at the screen.
She had a website up, showing what looked like a tourist attraction in southern Oregon. Upon closer examination, however, they read that it was an area of unexplained phenomena located in the mountains. Someone had clearly capitalized on this strange piece of land, and decided to call it ‘The Oregon Vortex.’
“Why would the vampires go there?” Lillian asked, turning around in her seat to face them.
“How far is that from here?” Thomas asked.
“Just looking at the map, I’d say a good four hours at least,” Lillian replied.
They all looked to Jonathan, who was staring at the computer screen from his standing position. His brows were furrowed in concentration, and he had his hand to his mouth.
“I think this has something to do with the Enchantment they stole,” he finally said.
The other three let out a collective, “Ohhh!” and the decision was made. They’d leave tonight.
Thomas said, “Do you think we ought to get Malina involved in this?”
Malina, always on his mind.
“We’re getting our dose tomorrow, aren’t we?” Jonathan asked.
“Yes, but if I call her now, I bet she can have four vials ready and meet us via portal somewhere.”
“I have an even better idea. Let’s have her meet us here, we’ll take our dose, then we’ll have her open a portal to this Oregon Vortex place and we may be able to beat the vampires there.”
“Can she do that, just open a portal anywhere she wants?” Kathryn asked.
“Guess we’ll find out,” Thomas said, grabbing his cell phone.
Chapter 18
∞∞∞
San Francisco – 1947
Kathryn woke up alone in the posh hotel room of the Ambassador Hotel. Before opening her eyes, she smiled at last night’s memory. The gray light of an early morning dawn was peeking through the curtains. As she opened her eyes, she squinted to adjust to the light and yawned as she took in her unfamiliar surroundings. She then looked over to the other s
ide of the bed.
Empty.
A confused and hurt expression quickly passed over her features before she got up to check the restroom – she had to go anyway. Her bare feet made a swishing noise on the plush carpeting as she groggily made her way to the bathroom. It was also empty.
After taking care of her business, she went back to the bed to collect her clothes. Her bra was hanging over the bedside lamp, her dress was in a crumpled heap on the floor, and her two thigh-high stockings were also on the floor, one on each side of the bed. Her shoes were both near the bathroom door. She had no idea where her panties were. She quickly dressed (going commando), located her purse, which was tipped over by the front door, and went about putting the contents back in. As she went to leave, not looking forward to the walk of shame back to the Hyde Street apartment, she took one last glance back at the room, and that’s when she saw it.
Sitting on the opposite nightstand from where she had been sleeping – Tony’s side – was a single red rose and a folded note propped up with the word, “Kat” written on it. She went over to the note and opened it. Scrawled in neat handwriting, it read:
A beautiful red rose for a beautiful woman. Thank you for a lovely evening, Kathryn. You are truly unforgettable…Tony
Kathryn closed her eyes and sniffed the rose then held the note to her chest for a brief minute, smiling. She then turned on her heel, put the note in her purse, and walked out of the hotel, twirling the rose between her fingers, and grinning like the Cheshire Cat.
Once back at the Hyde Street building, she walked through the front door of the apartment, with nothing on her mind but a much-needed bath. She set her purse on the sofa and kicked her black shoes off. She looked up when she heard the sound of chuckling.
“How was your night?” Jonathan asked, smirking. He was dressed in a three-piece suit, and was adjusting the band on his watch as she looked up at him.