J.R. Rains Vampire for Hire World_Dead Ahead

by Eve Paludan

  “Mom, how could you threaten me like that, with yanking my college money?”

  “It’s my only parental tool left in the box. I admit, it’s low and dirty of me, but apparently, it’s necessary.”

  “Mom! Don’t do this.”

  “No, Tammy. Don’t you do this again. I mean it. Do not skip school.”

  Tammy dissolved into tears. “I don’t like it when we fight. I can read your mind, and you’re thinking mean things about me.”

  “Of course, I am! I’m angry with you. No more wimpy punishments like taking away your phone. And stay out of my mind, young lady! My thoughts are private.”

  Tammy ran into her bedroom, threw her face into the pillow and dissolved into wrenching sobs.

  Sam followed and closed Tammy’s bedroom door quietly, then stood in the hall with the door between them.

  “Would you please just ground me?” Tammy called out.

  “No can do. And I have to work tonight, so please, don’t mind-suck your brother dry while I’m gone.”

  Between sobs, Tammy said, “I don’t do that to Anthony.”

  “Why not?”

  “Because right now, even though his mind has been taken over by video games, he’s the only ally I have left in this house.”

  Chapter 9

  Just after Sam left the house, Tammy dried her tears, washed her face at the cluttered sink in the hall bathroom and knocked on Anthony’s closed bedroom door.

  When he didn’t answer, she said, “Knock-knock.”

  “Who’s there?” he said, annoyed, but falling for it.

  “Bella.”

  “Bella who?”

  “Bella Swan.”

  “I wish it was Bella Swan. Go away, twisted sister.”

  “Come on, Anthony. Let me in.”

  His muffled voice came through the door. “I’m playing a video game. What do you want?”

  “I need your help.”

  “Yeah, whatever. I’ll take out the garbage in the morning.”

  “It’s not that.”

  “I heard your fight with Mom. So, don’t cry to me about crap that you brought on yourself by playing Nancy Drew on school time. You could have waited until after school to go to Echo Park. You could have asked Mom to handle it. You could have done things in so many different ways, but you do whatever you want, just like Mom said. And as far as being a mind vampire, my tiny little mind is blown, and I’m so glad you have no interest in my pathetic brain leavings.”

  “You shouldn’t have been listening. That was a private conversation.”

  “Really? You’re going there? Pot, meet kettle.”

  Tammy squealed. “Are you freaking happy now that my first semester at college might be at stake?”

  “It’s not, unless you skip school again. Mom was pretty generous by warning you and not just taking it off the table. She’s a great mother, and you don’t even appreciate how nice she is to you, even when you treat her like crap!”

  Tammy blew her nose into another tissue and threw it in the overflowing hall bathroom wastebasket. “Anthony, I’m not here to vent about Mom and have you soothe my butt-hurt feelings. I need your supernatural help. And your strength. I’m serious. Open up.” She banged on the door again.

  The game noises stopped, and Anthony opened his door. As usual, he was wearing basketball shorts and no shirt.

  He pointed at her black jeans with the knees ripped out, black turtleneck and black leather bomber jacket. “You’re dressed like Buffy the Vampire Slayer.”

  “That’s the look I was going for. By the way, we’re going out,” she said.

  “What do you mean, ‘we’? What do you need me for? Are you going to get me in trouble?”

  “Probably. We’re going to rescue Emily from the vampires, and I need you to ride shotgun and provide security.”

  “Wow! Mom just said not to go back to Fang’s Place in Echo Park.”

  “We’re not going there. She’s being held hostage at our high school. Well, it’s just my high school now, since you go to alchemy school now.”

  “How do you know she’s a prisoner there?”

  She held up a red knitted scarf. “I got Emily’s favorite winter scarf from her BFF, Renee, who had previously borrowed it but not worn it. I used it to send out my mind-reading feelers in the area of Emily’s neighborhood. And I found her! Vampires have her, and they’re going to turn her tonight in a creepy blood ceremony that’s straight out of a B-horror movie.”

  Anthony’s jaw dropped open for a moment. “I’ll get dressed,” he said and shut the door between them.

  “Hurry up. And wear dark clothing. We’re going to be sneaking around,” she said through the door.

  “Vampires can see in the dark, Tam. They can hear your heartbeat from across the street. They can enslave you with a look if you’re stupid enough to stare into their eyes. They can—”

  “I’m already scared. Don’t make it worse.”

  In less than a minute, he opened the door. He was dressed all in black like she was and smelled of too much Axe.

  “Nice threads. I’ve never seen those before. And do you actually smell good for a change?” She grinned.

  “Don’t get weird just because I look and smell good,” he replied. “It’s just what I had that was clean. These are my date clothes that I was saving for the right occasion with the right girl, if you must know.”

  “No one’s ever going to date you, as is. If you want a date, get rid of that thing you’re growing on your chin.”

  “Don’t hurt my goatee’s feelings.”

  “Is that what you call that fuzzy spider under your bottom lip and extending past your chin?”

  “Shut up about my man whiskers. They’re my pride and joy.”

  “You look like a wannabe baby Oak Ridge Boy.”

  “Don’t mess with my goat. And hey, if you’re going to get me in trouble on this adventure, then I want to drive,” Anthony said.

  “I’m driving, only because I need your hands free to fight in case anything goes down. Plus, I know where they are with Emily at any given moment. Anyway, you aren’t supposed to drive after eleven since you only have a permit.”

  “I can’t wait until I’m eighteen,” he said.

  “I can’t either, so we can both blow this pop stand. But you’re always going to be behind me, little brother. Copying me. Wanting what I have! Clawing your way up to the standards I’ve set.”

  Anthony growled like a dog and then said, “You think you’re the shit because you’re seventeen and you can read people’s minds.”

  “I am the shit and don’t ever forget it. I was the shit when you were in diapers. Hell, I was the shit when I was in diapers.”

  They both laughed like crazy, and Anthony was no longer annoyed with her.

  “So, Tam, exactly where on campus are they holding her?”

  “Right now, they’re getting her ready in the girls’ locker room.”

  “I want to see what it looks like in there.”

  “Dorkasaurus, it’s the same thing as the boys’ locker room, except we have a vending machine for feminine hygiene supplies and the guys’ locker room has urinals and air freshener cakes in them. And, of course, the boys’ and girls’ locker rooms have different smells.”

  He made his eyes go mock-dreamy. “Girls smell so pretty. Except for sisters who have bad cases of brain B.O.”

  “Focus, Anthony! And for once, focus above your neck. We’re going there to save a girl from getting turned into a vampire, so press the pause button on your fantasy life and make yourself useful to this mission.”

  He focused on her face. “Sorry. Who are these guys anyway? The kidnappers, I mean.”

  Tammy closed her eyes for a minute. “Teenage vampires and wanna-be vampires.”

  “You have teenage vampires going to your school?” Anthony was floored.

  “I do now.” She opened her eyes. “We have to stop this vampire kidnapping cult stuff before it turns into an e
pidemic of ultimate doom.”

  “You know you’re talking trash about what Mom is.”

  “Mom didn’t choose this undead life that she has ahead of her for eternity. As Emily is not choosing this for herself either. It’s being forced on her. She’s not one of the wannabe vampires. She’s a prisoner.”

  “I see what you mean,” he agreed.

  “I love Mom, you know that—”

  “I love her more, and it shouldn’t be that way,” he said. “You’re both girls and have the chance to connect in a way that I don’t have. And yet, Mom feels more at ease with me because I don’t give her a tenth of the grief that you do.”

  “She loves you more than me, you mean, but that’s okay. I’m used to it. I was just going to say that you don’t see Mom going around turning other people into vampires. And she sure as hell isn’t making vampirism into some creepy religion with bizarre rituals.”

  “Yuck. If there’s one thing Southern California doesn’t need any more of, it’s creepy cults.”

  “Exactly. And Mom could be the ultimate poster girl for, ‘Please drink blood responsibly.’”

  Anthony put some things in a dark backpack and zipped it up. “Okay, let’s go rescue her. I don’t mind telling you, I’m kinda nervous.”

  “About fighting vampires?”

  “That’s lower on my list of things to worry about. What if, when we get there, Emily’s dead? Or worse?”

  “Worse?”

  “Tam, what if she’s undead?”

  Tammy’s face paled, and she looked more scared than he had ever seen her look. “We wing it, Ant. We wing it.”

  Chapter 10

  On the way there, Tammy said, “So, obviously, you heard my whole embarrassing ‘mind vampire’ conversation with Mom. Do you think I’m disgusting for being a mental leech and getting a power trip from it?”

  “No, but the three of us—me, you, and Mom—are a million times freakier than The Addams Family, The Munsters and The Vampire Lestat put together.”

  She laughed. “You’re such a pop culture geek, Anthony. But are we ugly-freaky, or beautiful-freaky?”

  “If we live through this, I’ll let you know which.”

  “Deal.”

  Tammy pulled her car around the back of the gym and parked in the shadows next to the girls’ exterior locker room door.

  “Always a wingman, never a bridesmaid,” Anthony mused as they quietly got out of the car and each shut their car door with a small click instead of a bang.

  “Don’t be nervous. We can do this. We go in there, briefly try to blend in with the creepy cult festivities, find Emily, and get her the hell out of there.”

  “Even if she isn’t a vampire yet, what if they have already moonstruck her and she doesn’t want to come with us?”

  “Bro, do you mean Stockholm syndrome?”

  “Yeah, I think so. I forgot what it was called but that sounds right.”

  “Not enough time has passed for Stockholm syndrome to happen.”

  “What about the vampire collusion, though?” Anthony asked.

  “I think you mean vampire compulsion. And you’re right. That can happen in a few seconds.”

  “But even if she doesn’t want to be rescued, we rescue her, right?” he asked.

  “Right, Anthony. She might be under a vampire compulsion to want to be part of their creepy cult, but maybe Mom can de-program her after we save her, if she’s too brainwashed to think or act rationally.”

  “Oh, sure, Tam. I can see how well that ploy worked on you.”

  “Ha-ha. Very funny. Not! I do kind of wish Mom was here. It seems like any way this turns out, if Emily is a vampire, or even if she isn’t, we’re equally screwed.”

  “Mom’s busy with her own case. Besides, she had her chance when I told her that Emily was missing, and she literally did nothing about it. She left it up to fate or up to us.”

  “To be fair, Mom has a full plate with her investigation and the girl did run away from her foster home. It’s not like someone nabbed her from her bed while she was sleeping.” Anthony always stuck up for their mom.

  “I agree that there are degrees of kidnapping, but the end result is still the same. Heinous. I Face-timed with Renee, and Emily didn’t even know that what she was running to would probably be a lot worse than what she was running from. The grass is always greener on the other side, as they say.”

  “Who says that?” Anthony asked.

  “They do.”

  “Who is this mysterious they I keep hearing about?” Anthony said.

  “Shut up and just follow my lead. And remember, you’re here as my bodyguard. Don’t let a vampire bite me or kill me or Mom will absolutely kill you.”

  “You don’t have to tell me that. But, as usual, I have to do all the heavy lifting any time I get involved in one of your Ice Capades.”

  “Dorkasaurus? The word is ‘escapades.’ And you know I would end up undead without you.”

  “Thanks for acknowledging that I’m critical to this mission.”

  “Oh, you finally used a big word or two there, Anthony.”

  “I know some big words. I just don’t show off like you do, Little Miss Mind Vampire.”

  “Oh, good burn!” she acknowledged.

  “Shh,” Anthony said. “I see something moving and—”

  As they approached the exterior locker room door, a figure leaped out of the shadows at them with the flash of a knife and, lightning-fast, Anthony cold-cocked him on the jaw. The would-be assailant dropped in place before Tammy even had a chance to gasp.

  Tammy’s eyes widened, and she looked at Anthony with glowing admiration. “You’re fast with da fists.”

  “The fastest.”

  “And so modest about it, too.”

  “Bitch, please.” Anthony bent down to feel the guy’s neck for a pulse. “Just as I thought. He’s human and he’s alive, just knocked out.”

  “I’m glad you didn’t kill him with that punch.”

  “I know better than that. I held back. And that punch would not have knocked out a vampire. A vampire would have come up from the pavement sputtering with rage, spitting and hissing. And then, if that happened, I would have delivered my full-strength punch and told you to run for it.”

  “Scary thought.”

  “All of those boxing lessons with Jacky come in handy sometimes.” Anthony took something out of his backpack and bent over the guy.

  When he came up, Tammy saw that Anthony had zip-tied his feet together.

  “Kinky.”

  “It is not. I’m just making sure he doesn’t come after us and sound the alarm.” Anthony kicked the knife across the access road into the dirt.

  “You brought zip-ties on this mission?”

  “Yes,” Anthony said slowly.

  “Why do you even have zip-ties in your room?”

  “I was watching a YouTube video about how to get out of zip-ties and I wanted to try it. It works. I can zip-tie you later and show you how to escape.”

  “I’m not doing that with you, bro. You’re such a perv.”

  “Takes one to know one,” Anthony replied.

  “That ought to slow him down, though,” Tammy said. “You going to zip-tie his hands, too?”

  “No, he’s a human being, Tammy. I want him to be able to at least fight off the vampires if they see he’s down for the count and they swoop on him for an easy meal. He should at least get in one punch before he becomes the palest guy on the football team in the history of the school.”

  Tammy shuddered. “Vampire jocks. I didn’t think of that.”

  “You should have.” With a swagger, Anthony stepped in front of Tammy. “I’ll take point. Stay behind me and no matter what happens, don’t scream. It’ll make you seem too much like prey.”

  Tammy whimpered a bit, but she let Anthony go first through the door into the girls’ locker room, which was completely dark.

  “I can’t see,” Tammy whispered.

  “
I can see pretty well. Just hang on to me in a way that doesn’t get in the way of my arms.”

  She held onto the back of Anthony’s sweatshirt as he clicked on a narrow-beamed keychain flashlight and shined it around the locker room, which was spattered with blood and a lot of it.

  “Blech,” he said. “How that could ever be someone’s dinner, I’ll never know.”

  Tammy followed his flashlight beam and put her hand over her mouth, so she wouldn’t scream at how much blood was sprayed everywhere.

  Anthony whispered, “Where are they all now, Miss Mind Reader?”

  “In the gym,” she whispered back. “Working themselves into a frenzy. A blood frenzy.”

  “Sickos,” Anthony said.

  “Hurry, Anthony. She’s scared. Emily’s scared. They might be cutting her or something.”

  “Cutting her? Which way do I go?”

  “Straight ahead through the restroom.”

  “Anyone in there?”

  Tammy used her powers to reach into the restroom. “It’s empty.”

  Step by step, they tiptoed through the dark, empty blood-splattered restroom until they made it to the door marked Gym. Eerily, a sink was dripping and that was all they could hear until Anthony pushed the door open. The overhead lights were dimmed in the gym and as soon as they walked through the door, there was a shrill scream.

  Tammy was shocked to see a struggling Emily tied to the back frame of a rolling bleacher with jump ropes. A small group of teens, some of them apparently already vampires—judging from their pale skin and drooling mouths—gathered around her. At the moment a knife rose in someone’s hand and glinted on its descent her heart, Anthony broke away from Tammy.