by Eve Paludan
Sam wanted to stop what was going on, but since she was here in this invisible state, she couldn’t really stop it and wasn’t sure she even should, in case Kevin Holden did something stupid like kill Amber in a panic if she went back inside her body and raced over here to save the woman.
Sam felt like an unwilling voyeur, which she kind of was, but it had been necessary. When Kevin Holden was done feeding, he closed up the bite mark with a lick or two to seal the edges of the much-bruised skin back together. The bleeding instantly stopped, but the fresh bruises over old bruises remained on her skin like so many claiming marks.
Now through feeding, Kevin turned Amber around to lower her body on him, reverse-cowgirl style. There was no more blood-sucking, only the kind of hot sex that Sam couldn’t bear to watch anymore… Moreover, she didn’t need any more evidence of infidelity. It was happening, but there was a catch, a big catch. Amber might not be doing this of her own accord. In fact, if Sam had to lay money on it, she would bet not. The good wife was under a psychological and physical vampire compulsion.
It made Sam feel so dirty to watch this hot, erect, naked vampire sexing Amber up until she was panting that Sam pulled her consciousness out of there and went back into her physical body before she could verify that a climax was going to take place between her client’s wife and her… vampire owner.
Sam already had enough to close the case and call her client, but what in the hell was she going to tell him? That his wife was cheating, but that it wasn’t her fault because she was under a vampire’s compulsion? That she was his slave?
Sam decided she needed to figure out a way to tell Tyrone what was going on in a way that was believable. She also thought she should follow Kevin Holden, to make sure he didn’t have a whole harem of helpless blood feeders stashed away in different parts of the city. It wasn’t like she hadn’t seen such things before.
Back in her body, Sam finally drove home and showered in extra-hot water and used lots of soap, trying to scrub away images her mind would never forget. Then she slept the day away, which was easy to do because it was a school day for Tammy—Anthony was on spring break from alchemy school, and he had gone somewhere, too. Probably, he’d taken the bus to the Cal State Fullerton Library to visit with his alchemy mentor and school sponsor, Archibald Maximus. Max had gotten Anthony into that school, and he was doing great there. Sam missed him, though, because it was too far to return home every night, so Anthony lived on the campus in the San Bernardino Mountains. Luckily, his school’s quarters were short, and she did get to see her son pretty often.
Unfortunately, Tammy’s spring break was on a different schedule from Anthony’s school; otherwise, maybe the three of them could have taken a little vacation. Sam’s mind harkened back to the years when Tammy and Anthony were little, and Danny had been alive and in love with both her and with fatherhood. They had gone on vacation together, not far away, just to Disneyland, but they had stayed in the Disneyland Hotel and had ridden the monorail to get in and out of the park and had had a wonderful and heartwarming time with their small kids over the delightful weekend.
Sam fell asleep thinking of a time when life had been simpler, before she had been attacked herself and had become a vile creature of the night.
Chapter 5
Sam didn’t wake up until she got a phone call. She bolted upright in her bed. Anthony’s ringtone was the Rocky theme—Survivor’s “Eye of the Tiger”—and who could sleep through that song going off next to their bed?
“Anthony, what’s the matter?” Sam answered her cell, afraid something bad had happened.
“Mom, it’s our fast-food family dinner night! Did you forget? Tammy and I are waiting for you.”
She relaxed. It was no emergency, only Anthony’s bottomless pit screaming out for food to fill it. “Sorry. Where are you guys?” Sam said sleepily.
Anthony laughed. “In the living room, Mom!”
“Why didn’t you two just knock on my bedroom door?”
“We did. We even went in there and shook you. We couldn’t wake you up. Tammy was freaking out. She said you had no brain activity. She mind-read you and said there was nothing but blackness. She was freaking out that you were more than undead. You know, actually… dead.”
“I’m still undead. I must just have been really tired,” Sam said, yawning and stretching. “And, I can’t remember the last time I had a dream. That might explain the lack of brain activity.”
“No. You were in a vampire coma, Mom. I’ve never seen anything like it. Tammy and I were scared because we couldn’t wake you. We didn’t know if you were dead or undead, especially since you don’t breathe or seem to have a pulse.”
“I was just really beat. I’m good now. Give me fifteen minutes. I’ll get myself together and we’ll go out for fast food. Sorry, guys.”
She hung up.
A little while later, Sam and her kids had just come out of a drive-thru and were headed home in the minivan with fragrant bags of burgers, fries, onion rings and shakes when a text from Sherbet arrived.
Sam pulled over in the parking lot to read it and shot him a reply, a brief thank you. Then, she turned to address her kids, Tammy in the front passenger seat and Anthony, spread out lengthwise across the minivan’s back seat bench and twisted sideways in his seatbelt.
Sam put her phone back in the console charger. “Kids, I have good news and bad news.”
Anthony stuffed his mouth with French fries and mumbled, “Can we hear the good news first?”
“The good news is, I don’t have to wait until tomorrow morning to continue my surveillance gig that I recently started. I just got a tip with a location and a time. In about a half hour and about five miles away, I can continue watching her.”
“You’re watching a woman this time?” Tammy asked.
“Yep. But the bad news is, I need to send you guys home via Uber.”
“Mom,” Tammy said, “not that I don’t want to go home right now. The new season of Bosch drops tonight on Amazon Prime and I want to watch it before all the spoilers get posted on Facebook.”
“Heavens, you can’t miss Bosch,” Sam said dryly.
“Mom, let me finish. I was going to say, but first, you need to check and make sure the Uber trip isn’t too expensive. They charge more for rides when the demand for rides gets high. And judging from the heavy traffic, I would say it’s a peak time for Uber rides in this area.”
“I didn’t know that,” Sam said and opened her app. After a few moments, she said, “You’re right, Tammy. Because of the high demand, the current cost of the ride for two people is more than half of what I make a day on this job.”
“We could take the bus home, Mom,” Anthony said. “It’s only one transfer point. But we aren’t allowed to eat on the bus, and we have all this food that’s going to get cold in that wind out there while we sit on the bus bench waiting.”
Tammy said to Anthony, “Your food never has a chance to get cold. You practically eat it while it’s still defrosting. Hand over my food before you accidentally inhale it.”
He handed a bag up to the front seat.
She took one look in the bag and said, “Dorkasaurus! Did you eat almost all of my onion rings?”
“I ate three,” Anthony admitted. “Okay, five or seven.”
“You clearly cannot be trusted with food that belongs to other people,” Tammy said, annoyed, giving Sam her best do something about this look.
“At least I didn’t lie about it,” Anthony said.
“Hang on, kids. Simmer down and let me think for a minute about what to do with you two.” Sam drummed her black fingernails on the steering wheel.
Tammy narrowed her eyes at Anthony and delicately ate an onion ring.
He stuffed a French fry in each nostril and stuck out his tongue at her.
“You’re so gross. Please tell me you aren’t going to eat those,” Tammy said.
He did eat them, and she gave a little scream of horror.
&nbs
p; “Mom, Anthony is—”
“Anthony and Tammy, are you two still in elementary school? Because you’re sure acting like it. Just stop!”
“I was just goofing around to lighten the mood. Sorry, Mom,” Anthony said.
“Thank you. Look, I don’t want to miss this surveillance opportunity, but I don’t want to endanger you two by having you with me either. Especially if you two insist on being so bratty. You’re acting like small children instead of responsible teenagers.”
“Just take us with you,” Tammy said. “We’ll be your cover in case anyone sees us sitting in the van on the street. Who would ever think a vampire private eye was spying on them with teenage kids in her vehicle? With all of us scarfing down burgers and fries.”
“Kids, it’s a somewhat more dangerous surveillance than usual.”
“What do you mean, Mom?” Anthony asked.
“Here’s my deal in a nutshell. I’m following an alleged cheating wife and she’s a cop—and she’s participating in a drug bust tonight in a sketchy part of town.”
He said, “Oh, we’re definitely going, too. I’m not missing that for anything. I want to see what you do on stakeouts.”
Tammy chimed in, “We’ve both got your back, Mom! Anthony can be extra personal security, and I can be your mind reader.”
Sam shook her head but reluctantly pulled out into traffic and headed the minivan in the opposite direction from their usual route home.
Anthony pumped his fist up and down. “Yes! We’re going on Mom’s stakeout!”
“This has bad idea written all over it, but I just have a sinking feeling I shouldn’t miss this opportunity tonight.” Sam stole a side glance at Tammy. “Why aren’t you kicking up a fuss? After all, you’re going to miss Bosch.”
“This is more important, and I can always watch those episodes later. I just suddenly feel like I’m supposed to be there with you, Mom. And Anthony, too. You’ll need us.”
“Please tell me you’re joking about this feeling.”
“I never joke about mind reading or being a bit psychic. I just wish I had more of a lead time on the premonitions before all hell breaks loose. Sometimes, it’s only seconds ahead of time that something’s going down.”
“Yeah, better work on that, Tam, if you want to claim you’re psychic,” Anthony said.
“Shut up, Fire Warrior Boy. You need to work on your maturity to go along with those humongous flaming arms that just have to compensate for something else.”
Anthony scratched his head, trying to digest what she meant.
Sam briefly rolled her eyes at Tammy and said, “I just feel kind of weird about this whole thing. I mean, Detective Sherbet gave me a referral for this investigation, and he just did me another huge favor and texted me the time and place where my subject is scheduled to make a drug bust—tonight.” She paused. “Even if you two weren’t with me, I feel a little funny about that—him sharing the whereabouts of another cop on duty to benefit my P.I. business. Something is just very off about this stakeout, and we aren’t even there yet.”
“I know I’m not supposed to spy on people, Mom, but do you want me to look in Sherbet’s mind and see what’s up with that?” Tammy offered.
Sam grimaced guiltily. “Just for a minute, if you can. Get in his mind and find what you need and get out.”
“Fine, a quickie,” Tammy said.
“Please don’t call it that,” Sam said.
“Oh, Mother, the places your mind goes.” Tammy closed her eyes. “In Sherbet’s mind, I see boxes of donuts, no wait, I see a man who makes the donuts.” She opened her eyes. “This is so random that it makes absolutely no sense. Does that mean anything to you?”
Sam said, “Yeah, I’m watching the donut man’s wife. She’s the cop I’m surveilling.”
“That’s pretty good, Tam,” Anthony said from the back seat. “What else?”
Tammy looked back at Anthony. “Sherbet has some sort of hunch power. I don’t know if it’s something supernatural or just from being a cop for years, but we better get there soon to the address he gave you. Wait, I’m getting something else.”
Tammy faced the windshield again and shut her eyes. Her eyeballs moved back and forth rapidly under her eyelids. “Sherbet is worried something is going to go wrong with the drug bust. He’s not in charge of it, but he’s worried that Lieutenant Doofus didn’t put enough men on it.”
“Lieutenant Doofus!” Anthony repeated and laughed.
Tammy opened her eyes and looked over at Sam. “That’s what Sherbet calls the Narcotics lieutenant in his head. Mom, something is probably going to go wrong tonight and by the way, it’s Friday the thirteenth.”
Sam replied calmly, “I’m not superstitious. I don’t believe in that sort of stuff.”
“Said the vampire,” Tammy murmured softly.
“Very funny, Tammy,” Sam said.
“I’m not being funny. I’m being serious.” Tammy swiped to an app on her phone. “It’s Friday, April 13th. We’ve got a waning crescent moon with eight-percent illumination, so it’s really dark for a stakeout. Also…” She opened another app. “Here, let me just enter your birthday in my astrology app.” A few moments later, she said, “Mom, it says to be extra conscious of security today and that there is going to be a sudden event. Proceed with caution until your path is clear.”
“I don’t believe in that either.”
“Mom, your boyfriend is a werewolf whose existence is pretty much governed by the moon. And he’s mostly governed by you, of course.”
Sam protested, “I do not boss Kingsley around.”
“You don’t have to because he’s yours in every way. If you were ever lost, he would scour the planet until he found you.”
Sam smiled but said, “Stay out of his head.”
“Mother, I don’t have to get in his head. He’s a werewolf. He broadcasts his feelings like they’re top-forty hits and he’s an actual radio station antenna.”
Anthony laughed as quietly as he could.
“Stop talking about my boyfriend, Tammy,” Sam ordered. “Now.”
“Fine. I just want you to know that if something goes down tonight, it might already be happening in an alternate universe and about to intersect with ours,” Tammy said. “Or we could have a pre-destiny thing going on.”
“What are you talking about?” Anthony asked.
“It’s true. Everything we are, and everything we do, is affected by celestial matters. We aren’t just tied to each other. We’re keeping things in motion in the order—or the chaos—of this particular universe by either cooperating or not.”
“Point taken,” Sam acquiesced. “I’m glad you’ve been working on your gifts.”
“I’m trying to learn everything I can,” Tammy said. “It’s not easy being me and turning my mind-reading abilities on when I need them and off when it’s not polite to eavesdrop on someone’s mind. It’s just easier to stay on the whole time but sort of send that ever-boiling pot to the back burner of my brain. And then, I just lift the lid every so often and peek into the pot.”
“Your boiling pot is more like Pandora’s Box,” Anthony piped up.
“Even if that’s true, I can’t help what I am any more than you can, or Mom can,” Tammy said. “So, I just have to figure out how to harness all of this power and focus on something that will help people.”
“I wish I could do what you do,” Sam said. She glanced at Anthony and said, “And I wish I could do what you do, too.”
“We all have different gifts, and we’re supposed to work together. It’s like together, our family is living alchemy,” Anthony said.
“Yes.” Sam’s eyes misted a bit. She was so proud of her kids at this moment. She took the freeway exit for the sketchy neighborhood where the drug bust was going to go down.
She apologized to Tammy and Anthony, “I just didn’t have time to take you guys home and still make it to the surveillance point before it’s too late. And now, it seems like I bett
er get there and wait for what will come.”
“We’ll wait with you,” Tammy said.
Anthony, with his mouth full, replied, “That’s cool with us, Mom. We know the drill. If anything goes down, we stay in the van with the doors locked. In theory.”
Tammy said, “Look, they’re getting ready. Two detectives are sneaking up on the house from the alley behind it where the dumpsters are.”
“I see them, too,” Sam said, “probably better than you can see them.”
“I see them more in my mind than physically,” Tammy said.
Sam glanced at each of them. “You guys are going to have to sit tight. I’m going to park on a hill a couple streets above the drug house and do surveillance from up here.”
Anthony said, “If something goes down like Tammy thinks it will, I can hop out of the car with my flamethrower arms and help out.”
“No, Anthony. Stay in the vehicle unless it’s on fire.”
“Right.”
“Mom,” Tammy said, “things are getting to a danger point in that house down there, the adobe one with the broken roof tiles, right?”
Sam nodded.
“I say this as a mind reader who can send out my feelers pretty far. There is evil in that house. Not just people who do bad things, but the invisible black snake things that wind up and down their arms and go in and out of their ears and mouths. Those death snakes.”
Sam looked at her daughter sharply. “Oh, no, not those things again. They are bad, bad news. What do you see in people’s minds, Tammy?”
“Those people in the house, the drug dealers, are armed and drugged up on something. They’re addicts with sores on their faces and arms. Filth is on them and on the floors. Drugs are sitting out. Some teen girls are there, and they don’t really belong there… they’re scared and confused.” She shut her eyes for a few moments. “The cops who are gathering quietly outside are super nervous about the bust. More trouble than usual, the female detective is thinking.”
That would be Amber, her surveillance subject. Sam could see her well with her extra-sharp vampire vision.