by C. J. Pinard
“Shut up, Brandon! You ain’t runnin’ nothin’ but your mouth at this point, so take it or get the hell out of here. I really don’t care, but if you continue to dish out disrespect, that’s all you’re going to get in return. Are we clear, or do you need me to teach you some respect in another way?” Darius’s fists were clenched at his side, and you could hear a pin drop in the room. The four older vampires were smirking, trying not to laugh. Angel, too, was trying to hide her smile.
“No, I’m good,” Brandon said, glowering at Darius.
“Sit your ass down.” Darius was definitely more Samuel L. Jackson and less Morgan Freeman at this point. He looked at the rest of them. “Before we disperse, I need to say one more thing. I plan on keeping peaceful relations with the local law enforcement – both humans and the others. I don’t want any trouble in my club, and I don’t want any trouble in or from this clan. Those Immortal cops don’t mess around, I’ve dealt with them first-hand and as long as I’m running things, that’s the way it will be. We follow human laws, no illegal shit, and no feeding off non-donor humans.”
The room let out a collective groan.
“Look. I know it happens. I get it. Just try to keep to willing donors only, and no killing. I will personally deal with any vampire who kills a human – donor or not – and my justice will be swift. You feel me?”
They all nodded.
“Thank you for coming, dismissed.” Darius waved.
∞∞∞
Seth and Malachi were driving in Seth’s new mustang down to Winchester Bay to the trailer park where Sheena had died. He was very interested in speaking to the manager of the park. He had planned on going eventually, but this new information from the Pole Cat owner, Mr. Barnes, had lit a fire under his shapeshifting ass.
It was dark as they pulled into the gravel parking lot, the tires of the car kicking up dust as it crunched over the lot, slowing to a stop in front of a small tan trailer with a sign above the door that read OFFICE in blue letters.
As they got out, Seth looked over at Winchester Bay and smiled at the full moon casting a glare on the surface of the water, which was as still as a sheet of glass. There wasn’t very much wind and the night was clear, with a star-shot backdrop.
Seth and Malachi entered the small trailer, which was a cluttered office with two desks, cork bulletin boards littered with paper, and the smell of stale cigarettes clung to the yellow walls. An older woman with a cigarette hanging off the side of her mouth looked up over her cheap reading glasses as the shapeshifters walked in.
“Can I help you boys?” she asked in a deep, raspy voice.
Seth cleared his throat and put his hands in his pants pockets. “Yes, ma’am. Are you Matilda?”
She glared at him. “Yeah, who wants to know?”
“Mr. Barnes told us that you were on duty the day that trailer blew up out there,” he pointed out of the window, “a few months ago?”
Matilda removed her glasses and set them on the desk, and then stood. She took a long drag from her cigarette and blew smoke out of her nose. “Yeah. I’m always on duty.”
“Can you tell us what happened?” Malachi asked.
She measured them with a long stare. “Why? You guys cops?”
They both shook their shaggy heads. “Definitely not. We just want to know what happened to the woman who was in the trailer when it blew,” Seth answered.
Malachi was playing with the strings on his maroon-colored hoodie. “Yeah, we are friends of hers. Nobody will give us answers. We work for Mr. Barnes at his club in Portland and he told us he owns this park. Said you were real nice and would tell us what happened.”
She crushed out the cigarette in an already filthy ashtray and folded her arms. “Yeah, well there’s not much to tell. Two cops came in here with a photo of Sheena and asked which trailer was hers. I pointed to it, since it obviously sat right outside of this one near the water,” she was pointing outside at the empty space, “and they thanked me and left.”
“Wait, they were cops? In uniform?”
She nodded. “Yeah, but they weren’t in uniform. Plain clothes. Two men.”
Malachi asked, “Can you describe them?”
She put her hand to her lips, which were smeared with bright pink lipstick. “I remember one was pretty tall,” she looked at Seth, “probably your height, maybe a tad shorter, he had blonde hair and looked to be in his thirties. The other was shorter, dark hair, very young, pretty blue eyes.”
Seth and Malachi looked at each other. Seth’s face turned red but he swallowed down the rage and plastered on a neutral expression. “Go on, Matilda.”
She looked at him for a minute, then continued. “Okay, so they go outside and I went back to my desk. Let’s just say I wasn’t surprised the cops were lookin’ for that girl. She seemed a little shifty, if you know what I’m sayin’?”
Malachi started to laugh but pretended to be coughing-choking instead. Seth glared at him.
“Yes, go on,” Seth said.
“So I was working for a few minutes when I heard a loud pop, then a scream. I looked out my window to see the tall cop standing over Sheena, with a gun in his hand. But what was even weirder was that Sheena was naked and outside in broad daylight. I wasn’t sure what the hell was going on, and I ran to my desk and dialed 9-1-1, ‘cos I could see Sheena was bleeding. She seemed scared of the tall one.
“As I was at my desk on the phone, I heard another scream. I hung up and ran back to the window to see the tall cop dragging her body into the trailer. Now, my eyesight ain’t what it used to be, but I could swear she had no head. It was the most repulsive thing I had ever seen. Sometimes I still wonder if I was imagining it. I ran back to the desk to call the police back to tell them to hurry. My hands were shakin’ so bad, I could barely dial. Ya know, I’m gonna get me one of those cell phones ‘cos having a corded phone totally sucks.”
“When did the trailer blow up?”
Her eyes got big. “That’s the weirdest part. After he put her in the trailer, not a minute later, the tall one and a blonde woman came running out and dove into a white van and drove off. The woman had something around her neck, like one of those neck braces, but it was black.” She furrowed her brows. “It was a weird day.”
“So what happened when the cops showed up?”
She shook her head and laughed. “After the shock wore off, I realized, as I heard the sirens in the distance, that I might be in the shit now.”
Seth cocked his head to the side. “Why?”
“Because those were cops! I knew they wouldn’t believe me. And of course they didn’t.”
“What do you mean?” Malachi asked.
She laughed humorlessly and pulled a cigarette from a pack sitting on her desk. “I told them the same story I just told you. Of course they wanted badge numbers, names, et cetera. But I didn’t get none-a that. I never even did find out if they were real cops or not.”
Seth shook his head. “They weren’t. We know who they were. So don’t worry, Matilda, you did the right thing.”
She lit the cigarette and took a puff. “If you say so. I’m sorry about your friend, Sheena. I knew she was into some crap but she really was a nice person. To me, anyway.”
Seth had to turn away as tears filled his eyes, and with his back to her, he said, “Thanks for your help.”
Malachi smiled at her. “Yes, thank you.”
“I’m driving,” Malachi said, snatching the keys from Seth. “I don’t like your rage driving.”
Seth didn’t even put up a fight. He slunk into the passenger seat and growled, “Take me to the forest. I need to run. I need to think.”
“You got it,” Malachi said.
Chapter 18
∞∞∞
San Francisco – 1947
Kathryn was again manning the reception desk at the Hyde Street building when two men walked in. One was a little older, short and sort of pudgy, but the other was what Kathryn would consider to be “A tall drink
of water.” She had to tell herself to close her mouth. The man was just beautiful. Tall, with dark hair and olive skin and gorgeous brown bedroom eyes.
“Hello, miss. We are the new tenants of the sixth floor,” said the shorter one. He pulled out his billfold and produced I.D. “Agent Adam Swift, and this is Agent Tony Bianchi, U.S. Department of Justice. We’ll be leasing the whole floor.”
Kathryn got up, eyed Tony briefly, then said to Adam, “Sure, we’ve been expecting you. Let me show you the way.” She then went to the elevator and pushed the call button, and it responded with a steely shrill. She couldn’t ignore the electric thrill she felt standing so close to Agent Bianchi.
They waited in silence for the elevator to show. As the two men got in, she reached inside the elevator car and around Tony to push the sixth floor button, and informed them she couldn’t leave the reception desk.
“But I’ll be here when you boys get done looking around up there,” she winked at Tony as she forcefully closed the grate to the elevator. She stood and watched it disappear on up. She spent the rest of the day thinking about Tony.
The next day when he showed up at the building again, he actually asked her out. She gleefully accepted and they went to dinner and a movie. She was thrilled with his company. He was very easy to talk to, and of course very easy on the eyes. She felt herself deeply attracted to him, although she was sure most women were. They’d have to be blind not to be. And she could tell he knew it.
After a drive around the city, he asked if she’d like to see his hotel room. Now, she was no naïve kitten. She knew what this meant, and while she knew she should say no, she found herself saying yes. It had been a while since a man had made her feel like Tony did, and she didn’t want the night to end. It turned out to be wonderful and perfect, complete with a sweet note and a rose for her in the morning when she got up.
The relationship with Tony lasted a few months. What she found the most amusing was Jonathan’s constant “warnings” about how Tony was an “international playboy” – and she knew Jonathan and Tony went way back – so she took these warnings with a grain of salt, but mostly, she didn’t care. She was having fun, and while she wasn’t in love with Tony, she was happy to have date nights and someone to spend time with. She knew Jonathan was watching her from afar and occasionally she would peer into his mind. She didn’t find a lot of sadness, but more jealousy, and this made her happy.
Then, one fateful night at Sal’s Diner, after she had just gone to dinner and a movie with Jonathan and Thomas and was heading home, they ran into Tony. He had a beautiful brunette on his arm. Kathryn was crushed, embarrassed, humiliated, and angry. She never saw Tony again after that, instead sought comfort from Jonathan who was happy to oblige, and surprisingly remained sweet, despite the “I told you so’s.”
“Why do we keep breaking up if I just end up in your bed after a while?” she asked, trailing her finger down his bare chest as her head lay on it.
He was running his fingertips up and down her arm. “I guess my love for you eclipses my judgment.”
“Face it, John, this is how it is with us, and it will be forever,” she said with a sigh.
“I suppose.”
That moment was fleeting, however. They were soon back in the friend zone, and in 1951, Jonathan met a woman named Sheena with whom he had a brief but life-changing affair with. Kathryn mostly tried to ignore this affair but he talked about Sheena quite often, until Agent Swift informed him she was indeed a shapeshifter with the power to hypnotize, and he should stay away. Kathryn hated to admit the deep satisfaction she got from the revelation, but in the end, she did feel sorry for Jonathan. He’d been hurt as much as Tony had hurt her a few years prior, so she welcomed him back with open arms.
By the 1960s, Kathryn had given up on trying to define her relationship with Jonathan; instead, she thought of it as a long marriage with its ups and downs. She noticed that even when they were apart, Jonathan never really had relationships with other women. He would flirt, or go to strip bars with clients, and he’d always – always – talk a big game, but when it came down to it, he was always home at night.
He knew he always had something safe with Kathryn, and she knew deep down he loved her in his own way, and that was good enough for her.
It had to be.
∞∞∞
Portland, Oregon – Present Day
Jonathan, Thomas, Kathryn, and Tyler were sitting around the dining room table in the apartment having a meeting with cocktails. The sun had just gone down and they were going later to stake out the vampires’ home. Thomas was his usual depressed self, but was trying to concentrate on what the meeting was for to distract himself, but it wasn’t working very well. The pit of worry was eating a hole in his stomach lining and the single-malt scotch wasn’t doing much to repair it.
“I have a lot to talk to you about,” Jonathan started. He pushed the sleeves of his long-sleeved blue T-shirt up to his elbows. “The first is that Tyler has been ordered to Island Duty for two years, to start when his internship is over at the hospital.”
“It’s a residency, not an internship, and it’s four years,” Tyler said.
“Well I hope you’re at the end, ‘cause you’re going to Island Duty sooner than later,” Jonathan said.
Tyler shook his head. “No, I’m only two years in.”
“Then put it on hold. This is more important.” Jonathan’s glare was serious.
Tyler swallowed the lump in his throat, his hazel eyes focusing on Jonathan. “I can’t. I have student loans to repay, and I obviously cannot receive my doctorate without completing the residency.”
“Student loans will get paid by me, okay? Done. Now you will request a two year sabbatical – and I know you can because I Googled it – and you will report for Island Duty.” Jonathan wasn’t asking.
Tyler felt like he was going to cry. He did not just complete six years of intense, grueling school to go play corrections officer in the Gulf of Mexico. Truth was, even though he did get a choice after his run-in with the vampire in Oakland, he was starting to think he chose wrong. He should have just chosen to be the BSI’s liaison bitch. At least he could have stayed at the hospital.
“Look, kid. I know it feels like your life is over, but it’s not. Two years will pass in a blink. It’s just a drop in the bucket compared to eternity. You will come back better and stronger, and you will have plenty of time to perfect those skills. That gift you have, it’s incredible. We need you.” Jonathan’s steely-gray stare was intense.
Tyler just nodded and ran his finger around the rim of his glass. He was thinking about telling them his little secret, wondering if it would make any difference. He then determined it wouldn’t and decided he’d tell them when he got back in two years. And if they didn’t like it, he’d set them on fire. He laughed a little at his own joke.
Kathryn looked at him and said, “I heard that.”
Tyler turned three shades of red. “And I expect you will keep it to yourself.”
She grinned and stood up, her pink tracksuit casting a glare against the hardwood floors. “Yeah.” She looked around the table. “Refills?”
They all shook their heads no.
“What was that about?” Thomas asked.
“Don’t worry about it,” Kat replied, sitting back down after refilling her own wineglass. She winked at Tyler.
Thomas shook his head. He didn’t have enough energy to pursue it.
“Okay,” Jonathan said, looking around the table. “Next order of business. Tyler and Jason went to the Pole Cat and learned the owner’s name is Mr. Barnes. They think Jeff may be his first name, so Jason’s gonna run him through all the DOJ background check programs and see what spits out. I’m going to assume he’s a shifter, and he should be approached as such, if the need ever arises. I know they plan on running drugs and prostitution through their club, so it’s been referred to the BSI. They will decide if they want to get the FBI or Portland P.D. involved. I think w
e should lay low with that.”
“But I’m sure you’ll need to go in and do periodic monitoring of the club, just in case, right, John?” Kathryn teased, her wineglass paused at her lips.
His face lit up with a grin. “Of course. Isn’t that right, Tom?”
“Sure,” Thomas replied without enthusiasm.
“Okay, lastly, Darius contacted me.”
Thomas looked up from the invisible figure-eight he had been drawing into the wood tabletop with his finger. “From the nursing home?”
Jonathan smiled. “No, from the vampire lair. Apparently he’s been brought back, thanks to Angel. Now that Pascal’s gone, he’s running the show and he called me personally to let me know we wouldn’t be having any problems from the clan. Of course, I’ll take it with caution. Because if a vampire’s lips are moving, he’s probably lying.”
“I don’t know,” Kathryn said, “after what he’s been through, he may feel like he has a new lease on life. I wouldn’t doubt if he was sincere. He’s seen first-hand what happens when you mess with us.”
Jonathan pursed his lips. “True. Anyway, he says he will run Pascal’s club on the up and up, and there won’t be any feeding going on. I informed him we’d be by to make sure, and he said we’re welcome to at any time.”
“I’ll believe it when I see it,” Thomas said.
Kathryn snorted. “Me, too.”
∞∞∞
Seth’s wolf paws crunched over the dried leaves he was pounding as he ran through the Siuslaw National Forest. Malachi in his pitbull dog form was close on his heels. It was night, and the tall hemlock and red cedar trees were towering over them in a protective manner. A slight fog was resting on the forest floor, getting swished away as the animals ran through at top speed. After running for an hour straight, Seth slowed when he came to a stream and bent over for a drink. Malachi did the same. After taking large gulps of the cold water, Seth backed away from the stream and shifted back into his human form. Malachi followed suit.