by Lou Harper
It was a good thing traffic was relatively light at that time of night. The way Harvey was zipping around cars and rushing through changing lights made Gabe nervous.
“So it’s true what they say about Asian drivers,” he grumbled, trying to hang on to his dignity.
“I don’t know what you’re talking about.” Harvey’s smirk contradicted his words.
“You may be past it, but I can still die. How would you like that on your conscience?”
Harvey rolled his eyes but subdued the madness of his driving to a small degree.
To distract himself from the lights of the city and his life flashing before his eyes, Gabe looked at Harvey and asked the question foremost on his mind. “Why does it bother you so much that your friend might get turned into what you are?”
Harvey frowned. “It’s not something to do willy-nilly, and there’s no turning back once you’ve done it. I don’t think Dill truly understands what it means. You can’t easily find someone to do it for you at the drop of a hat, but he might, and it’s fucking dangerous, beyond stupid.”
“Dangerous? How?”
“Turning somebody isn’t like in the movies; not something any vampire can do at a whim. It takes skill.”
“It does?”
“First the vampire has to fully drain the person. Then, just before the moment of death, the person has to drink the vampire’s blood. The window of time to act is very short. If you wait too long, the human dies. If you act too soon, he dies in agony…or worse.”
“What could be worse?”
“Supposedly, if the person survives, he becomes a vampire, but it’s all wrong.”
“Wrong how?”
“I don’t know! I’m no expert, okay? It’s stuff I was told. Ray always made out it to be one of those scary stories for misbehaving children.”
Gabe couldn’t bite his tongue anymore. “Okay, that’s it. Who the hell is Ray?”
Harvey took a moment to reply. “Stan and Ray are Dill’s…boyfriends. They took care of me right after I was turned.”
“So they turned you?”
“No,” Harvey said, clamping his mouth shut.
Fair enough, Harvey had as much reason to be wary of him as he was of Harvey. It stung all the same.
They screeched to a halt. Harvey put the car into reverse and maneuvered into a space too small for it. He wedged it in, but not without tapping the cars parked on both sides.
“What? They’re called bumpers for a reason,” he said, catching Gabe’s accusing gaze.
They were at the Nightcrawler, a seedy-looking bar far from the touristy parts of town. Above the door, a green neon worm attempted to drown himself and his sorrows in a tall cocktail glass. A familiar prickling sensation alerted Gabe to the nearby presence of undead.
Harvey turned to him, his face pulled tight. “It’s a vampire-owned bar…but you figured that already, didn’t you?”
Gabe nodded.
“Keep cool, okay? There’s no real danger in there. The owners wouldn’t stand for it.”
“No worries,” Gabe said, doing his best to sound convincing.
At first look, the place was no different than an average neighborhood dive. A battered pool table took up one corner, and a dartboard and tacky bar mirrors hung from the walls. Some classic rock song was blaring from the jukebox. The customers, both male and female, were clad in denim and leather. Gabe couldn’t have easily told the living and undead apart just by looking.
The bartender was the biggest vampire Gabe had seen to date—a tower of bulging, tattooed muscles, sparsely clad in black leather. He greeted Harvey with friendly familiarity. For whatever reason, Gabe didn’t like it. He tried to listen in on their conversation, but the two leaned close to each other, and the music blared too loud. So Gabe detached himself to explore a little. Like a shift in tide, the other patrons moved around too, seemingly aimless, but Gabe found himself in close proximity to a couple of vampires—a male and a female—who were eyeing him with open and hungry interest. Before anything could happen, Harvey appeared by his side, put an arm around Gabe’s waist and pulled him outside, to the obvious chagrin of the other two.
“You didn’t have to rescue me like a damsel in distress,” Gabe grumbled once they were on the street.
“Rescue? Never crossed my mind. I was simply marking my territory.”
“That’s all right, then, I guess.”
“You’re too scrumptious to let wander around alone.”
“Now there you go making me sound like a girl again,” Gabe groused, but in truth, Harvey’s audacious ways were rubbing off on him.
“Never, my Angel,” Harvey said.
“So what did you find out?” Gabe asked, getting into the car.
“Nothing. Gus hasn’t seen Dill recently.”
“Was he a regular here?” It cast a certain shadow on Dill’s character in his eyes.
“He and I came here a few times. You know, boys’ night out, to give the old guys a break. It’s more like my kinda place than Dill’s, but I thought if he was looking for a vampire to turn him, he might try it here,” Harvey replied, driving down the narrow street with the velocity of a bat out of hell.
“Your kinda place?”
“Yeah, I like my men a little on the rough side. Does that surprise you?”
“I guess not.”
If anything, it made complete sense. He had no false ideas about himself. He came from hardy peasant stock. Here in the melting pot, he didn’t exactly stand out, but back in the Old Country, he’d blended in seamlessly. If Harvey liked him for his lack of refinement, that was nothing unusual—everyone had their kinks.
So he turned the conversation back to the matter at hand. “How did you become friends with this Dill? And what kind of name is that anyway?”
“Stan and Ray met Dillon about a year ago and became besotted with him enough to give polyamory a try. I hit it off with Dill. He makes me feel old sometimes, but he’s a lot of fun.”
“Did Dill meet your friends at a place like the Nightcrawler?”
“Nah, somewhere much more upscale. Stan and Ray are very classy these days. Right now they’re going around their sort of places looking for Dill, though honestly, I don’t know what good that’ll do.”
They spent the rest of the night driving everywhere from dive bars to fancy clubs; anywhere vampires or Dill might show up, in Harvey’s estimation. The entire night of rushing about got them a whole lotta nothing. A quick call confirmed that Stan and Ray hadn’t fared any better.
They returned to Harvey’s place close to dawn, worn out. Harvey was in low spirits, clearly worried. Gabe was too much of an outsider to have much of an emotional reaction to any of it. However, Harvey’s moods were getting to him. Chewing his nails and pacing around room, Harvey looked so very human. Gabe wanted to gather him up and tell him everything would be fine. Unfortunately, Gabe didn’t know if it was true.
Chapter Four
The sex was different this time, slow and tender, and they fell asleep in each other’s arms. However, when Gabe woke up again, he was alone. Despite being daytime, the apartment was shrouded in darkness, except for the hallway light. Harvey lay on the sofa, supine, body straight, hands crossed over his stomach, and extremely still. He could’ve been a dead body laid out for a wake. Spooky. When his eyes popped open, Gabe jumped, startled.
“Hey, are you all right?” Harvey asked.
“You scared the pants off me.”
Harvey ogled Gabe’s briefs with a leer. “Too bad your underpants are less easy to startle.”
“You didn’t have to leave the bed.”
“When I’m asleep, my heart rate slows down to about a beat a minute. My breathing too. It would be like sleeping with a corpse. I didn’t want to freak you out.”
“It’s your bed.”
“Doesn’t matter, I can sleep anywhere.”
“How come you knew I was standing here?”
“My senses don’t sleep—except
when I drink my nutritional tonic. That knocks me out.”
“Okay, that’s freaky.” Gabe shuddered. Harvey seemed perfectly normal sometimes, but other times…not so much.
Harvey prattled on, oblivious to Gabe’s sudden unease. “Did you know that dolphins sleep with half their brain at a time, so they can stay alert to predators?”
“No, I didn’t.”
Harvey got off the couch and pulled the curtains open, letting the afternoon sunlight in. Being a basement apartment, the windows were high above, just under the ceiling.
“Doesn’t it bother you?” Gabe asked, surprised.
“What, the sun? No. Direct, full sunlight is a bother—like getting a sunburn but faster. But this room gets about ten minutes of direct sun a day. This is fine. Why, did your commie vamps burst into flame, like in the movies?”
“It never came up. Why do you keep the curtains closed, then?”
“Because I see just as well in the dark, and it’s weird to think that anyone could look inside.”
“I see.”
“I’m gonna call Stan to see if they’ve heard from Dill yet.”
Gabe went off to take a shower. When he returned, clean and dressed, he found Harvey on the couch, chewing his fingernails.
“Any news?” Gabe asked.
“Nothing. I wish I knew where the little idiot got off to.” He heaved a sigh. “You must be hungry. We could order delivery.”
That afternoon, they still had no news of Dill. Gabe watched Harvey pacing around the room. He’d been doing it for hours. Gabe should’ve gone back to his hotel but couldn’t leave Harvey alone in that state.
“Is there any place Dill could’ve gone aside from the night spots?” he asked, trying to be helpful.
“What do you think I’ve been racking my brain about all this time?” Harvey snapped back.
“Don’t have to bite my head off. Does he have family in town?”
Harvey glared at him. “I’m not a lot of fun right now, and this is not your problem. You can go.”
“If I wanted to leave, I would’ve. I’m here because I chose to. So stop fighting me, all right?”
Harvey spun away and stared at the bookcase, but Gabe didn’t miss the slump of his shoulders. So Gabe stepped close and brushed Harvey’s arm with the back of his hand. “Harv?”
He meant to be reassuring but didn’t expect Harvey to turn and clutch him. He returned the embrace and patted Harvey’s back. “It’s gonna be all right.” He still didn’t know if it was true, but it was the thing to say.
Harvey untwined himself from around Gabe. “Sorry. I get bitchy when stressed. You’ve been a trooper. Dill moved up from some small town in Iowa. He doesn’t have anyone here, apart from us.”
“Do you think he might have gone home?”
Harvey shook his head. “I don’t think he got along with his family. Plus, he wouldn’t leave the guys. Fuck, it’s all my fault.”
“How do you figure?”
“If Stan and Ray weren’t drinking my tonic, they wouldn’t have been so out of it, and would’ve noticed Dill leaving.”
“That’s stretching—”
Gabe was interrupted by Harvey’s cell phone ringing. He watched intently, but Harvey muttered only a few yeses and noes while the person on the other end of the line did most of the talking.
“That was Stan,” Harvey announced, hanging up. “There’s news. I need to go to them.”
“I’m coming with.”
Harvey looked at him dubiously for a second. Then he stepped close to Gabe for a brief kiss. It seemed to help him make a decision.
“Stan and Ray are my best friends. More than that. If you hurt them in any way, I swear I’ll go Eastern Bloc on your ass; rip your heart out and eat it in front of you,” he said in a conversational tone.
“That wouldn’t be very vegetarian of you.”
“I’m not joking.” A yellow flash of his eyes underscored his words.
A cold chill ran through Gabe. “I’ll be good, I promise,” he said, dead serious.
“Let’s go, then.”
Harvey drove them to a place in Old Town. That alone told Gabe that Harvey’s friends had to be well off. The two-story red brick and pale stone house wore its bygone-era elegance with pride. Gabe knew there was a name for its style—Queen Anne perhaps? He knew little of architecture.
The trim vampire opening the door appeared to be in his mid-thirties, although his actual age was anyone’s guess. He sported short, reddish-brown hair and rather nice sideburns. He gave Gabe a nonplussed look.
“Stan, this is my good friend, Gabe. He helped me search for Dill last night.”
Stan let them in but not without hesitation. Another man, who had to be Ray, waited for them in the living room. He was more heavily built than his partner, and his blond hair was long enough to be drawn back into a ponytail. He had sideburns too, but shorter ones. Ray regarded Gabe with even more suspicion. Harvey repeated what he’d said to Stan at the door.
“He’s met Dill before,” he added. It wasn’t an outright lie.
“Does he know?” Ray asked.
“Yes, he knows who we are. He’s cool, I promise.”
Gabe did his part, playing cool by acting reserved and inscrutable. Ray only nodded noncommittally.
“So what happened?” Harvey asked as he and Gabe settled on the sofa.
Stan stood in the back of the room, next to the fireplace, while Ray sat on a high-backed chair. “We got a call.”
“From Dill?”
“From a man holding Dill. He asked for money to let him go.”
“Do you know for sure he has Dill?” Harvey’s agitation was easy to see.
“Yes. He put Dill on the phone. Then he asked for fifty grand in small bills.”
Gabe observed their dynamics. The two older vampires kept their composure, but the tension in their body language was unmistakable. Ray came across as the more authoritative of the two, and he was more physically commanding as well.
“Do you have that much?” Harvey asked.
“Not in ready cash, but we got what we had from the bank and borrowed the rest.”
“I’m guessing we can’t go to the police.”
“Correct, but it’s not because of me and Stan.”
“Ray’s convinced that the kidnapper is like us,” Stan chipped in.
“A vampire?” Gabe asked, speaking up for the first time.
“Yes.” Ray replied, turning his less than friendly eyes to Gabe.
“How can you tell?” Gabe pressed on, unflustered. He had a tendency to get cool and collected in moments of crisis.
Ray gave him a hard look. “Long experience.”
“It makes sense, if Dill went out to get himself turned,” Gabe admitted.
Gabe realized he’d said too much. The stares Harvey caught from both Ray and Stan were clearly reprimanding, but he glared back stubbornly and scooted closer to Gabe on the sofa.
“There’s more, isn’t there?” Gabe asked, breaking the heavy silence.
Ray answered him, not without reluctance. “Yes. For one, the guy sounded unstable. For another thing, he wants Harvey to deliver the money.”
“What?” Harvey asked.
“Did he ask for Harvey by name?” Gabe asked.
“No. He said, and I quote: ‘the pretty Asian friend.’”
“He must have seen them together.”
“I’ll do it. It’s my fault anyway,” Harvey said in determined tone.
“No, it’s not, and I won’t let you. It’s too dangerous,” Ray snapped.
“I can take care of myself!”
“I’ll be with him,” Gabe announced calmly.
“What?” Stan and Ray asked in unison.
“Aw, that’s sweet,” Harvey cooed.
“Have you both lost your minds?” Ray asked.
“No offense, honey, but what can he do?” Stan added in a more conciliatory tone.
Harvey and Gabe exchanged glances. Gab
e knew what Harvey was after, so he nodded in consent.
“Gabe’s a slayer,” Harvey announced.
Predictably, the pronouncement was followed by chairs being overturned and all four of them standing poised to do…well, something. Harvey threw himself in front of Gabe as a shield. Futile gesture, if it came to a confrontation, but Gabe appreciated it nonetheless.
Harvey’s words were more helpful. “Just hear me out. They were a bunch of stinky, deranged, communist vampires in Europe. He didn’t slay anyone over here, I swear.”
Technically, that was true, but Gabe was thankful to Harvey for leaving out the details—those could’ve made the situation extremely uncomfortable for him.
Something about Harvey’s speech had taken the other two vampires aback.
“Did you say ‘stinky’?” Ray asked.
“Yes, he said—”
“What did they smell like?” Ray asked Gabe directly, ignoring Harvey.
“Kinda like garbage someone forgot to take out, and sort of sweet. Hard to describe.”
“And what happened once you’d slain them?”
“They turned into a goopy mess.” Gabe thought that was a strange question. What else was supposed to happen?
“Hmm,” said Ray. He and Stan exchanged a meaningful glance.
Gabe didn’t get the significance of it, but whatever it was, it calmed the two vamps down somewhat. Everyone settled back down, although Gabe felt under extreme scrutiny.
“So what do we do now?” Harvey asked.
“We wait. The guy’s supposed to call with the time and place to drop off the money.”
Three kinds of tension hung in the air as the seconds ticked by. Ray stared at Gabe like he was trying to impale Gabe with his gaze. Stan looked at Harvey with the expression of a disappointed mother hen. In turn, Harvey glared back with the sullen expression of a reprimanded teenager. The whole scene was an almost exact reenactment of Gabe meeting his then girlfriend Julie Swinton’s folks at fifteen. Needless to say, Julie’s parents hadn’t approved of him. They had done their best to break them up and had succeeded. And they were only human. Gabe didn’t look forward to finding out what a couple of disapproving vamps could do.