“I asked if you been getting messages?”
I shook my head. “No. I was just wondering if you knew about any other weird things?”
Basile wrinkled his forehead. “Like what you talking about?” he asked.
Shrugging I said, “I don’t know … anything strange … like maybe vampires?” I added under my breath.
Leaning forward, he grasped my chin and started turning my head around so he could look at it. “Did you fall down and bump your head girl?”
“No!” I said, twisting my face into a scowl.
“Hmm … then you been smoking some of that wacky weed.”
“Uncle Basile … you’re not fooling me. You know something about this kind of stuff. I’ve heard you tell folks around here how to protect themselves from evil spirits and such.”
Basile’s eyes grew suspicious. “Why you asking?”
I quickly related what happened with Uncle Charlie, Club Crimson, and Westland’s.
Basile was shaking his head in dismay. “That no good rascal Charlie. He done gave your pa his word he wouldn’t be back here. Does he know about your gift?’ he asked, narrowing his eyes.
I shook my head. “Just the stuff about the witch blood.”
“Good … and don’t you be telling him. Best not be telling any bloodsuckers either.”
“But what about vampires … and Rush? What do you know about it?”
“Don’t know anything about no Rush, but I know there be vampire creatures. Never actually had a run in with one myself,” he said, his eyes clouding with worry.
“What do you know about them?”
“Not much. Mostly a bunch of mumbo jumbo.”
It was obvious he didn’t want to talk about vampires, but I wasn’t about to give up so easily.
“Like what?” I asked again.
“What you be asking about vampires for anyway? You best just stay clear of them. With Moon Fest so close … I’d think you’d be more worried about that. What costume you going to be wearing?”
“Uncle Basile … this is important. I think what’s happening is linked to what happened to Max.” I thought it best to leave out the part about going to work at Club Crimson. Basile was liable to whack me in the head and tell me I was a pea brain.
Whatever was happening in Cookson Springs wasn’t good. I had to do something.
Basile’s weathered face twisted into a grimace. “You listen to me Starla Lavelle. You best be staying away from vampires. What I’ve heard about them aint good.”
“What do you know about them?” I asked again. “How come no one knows they’re real … why didn’t I know?”
“You didn’t know cause’ I didn’t tell you … and I didn’t tell you, on account of you need to stay away from them. All the gals these days … they be thinking that vampires be all flowers and romance. Just a lot of hogwash. They be killers … that’s what they be.”
“Wouldn’t staying away from them have been easier to do, if I’d known they might be real?”
“Guessing you’re right about that,” he said with a nod. “But you might have just got too curious too.”
“So tell me,” I urged.
Still he hesitated,
“Uncle Basile! How am I supposed to help Max, if I don’t know what I’m dealing with?”
“Even if you do know … aint nothing you can do for that boy. Let the doctors figure it out.”
It was sure looking like Basile was going to be a stubborn old coot, which wasn’t really a surprise. He’d always taken it on himself to look after Dusty and me. To get anything out of him, I was probably going to have to do a bit of manipulating.
“Well I guess I’ll just have to start hanging out with Charlie and find out for myself.”
I had no idea if I was serious or not, but I let Basile think I was.
“Don’t you even think a being such a numbskull! Charlie’s nothing but a trouble making fool.”
“Well if you won’t tell me,” I said with a shrug.
Basile shook his head and grumbled, “You have always been thick in the head.”
“Uncle Basile!” I gasped.
“Well it be the truth. Someone says stay out of the water … you get in. Someone tells you not to eat the holly berries … and you eat the holly berries.”
Okay that stung, but isn’t it always that way when someone reminds you of something you’d prefer to forget. Even thinking about the day I picked those berries and ate them, was enough to make my stomach lurch. Sure, I’d only been seven years old, but that was old enough to mind what you were told. That wasn’t something I’d always done. My tendency to be wayward cost me greatly that day.
Basile downed the last of his RC and threw the empty can across the room, where it landed in a box half full of old soda cans.
“Back home they call them rougarou. The rougarou could be a vampire, or a wolf man … just depends who you talk to. They been around long as anyone recalls. Folks say they are monsters that drink blood, and they hate the sun. If you want to keep yourself safe from the rougarou, best not be looking in their eyes.”
Okay, so I’d already broke one rule it would seem.
“Well most of this sounds like regular old vampire lore,” I told him.
Basile nodded. “There be a reason why old stories … get to be old. That be because they have some truth to them.”
It didn’t seem like Uncle Basile was going to be as much help as I’d hoped. “So how do you keep yourself safe from them?”
Basile laughed. “Well you don’t be visiting with them … that’s for sure.”
“I wouldn’t exactly say I was visiting.” The memory of my meeting with Marcus must have put a blush on my face, because Basile’s eyes turned to razors.
“You best be careful. I hear tell a vampire can seduce a virgin in a church pew.”
After what I’d just experienced, I had no doubt this was true. “You were going to tell me how to protect myself,” I reminded him.
“You don’t invite them in. That’s one thing. They can’t go in your house without being invited.”
That would have been nice to know, before I’d invited Charlie and Luke in. Sure, Luke seemed harmless enough, but you never knew.
“Also … vervain will slow them down … not kill them though. Only ways I knows to kill them is a wooden stake in the heart, and the sun.”
None of this was new. It was the same thing you’d hear from any Dracula movie. “There must be more,” I insisted.
“Sure there be, except I don’t know it.”
“Are there any other weird things out there I should know about?” I asked.
“There be lots of things in this world you don’t know about. Hope you never need to find out.”
I was hoping for a little more detail, but when Basile made up his mind about something, it was near impossible to shake it.
“Well thanks Uncle Basile,” I told him, giving him a quick peck on the cheek. “I think I’m going to go home and get some rest.”
“Smartest thing you said today,” he told me. “And when that no good Charlie shows his dumb ass again, you send him over here to talk to me.”
“I’m sure he’ll be pleased as pie to get reacquainted,” I said, trying not to smile.
After leaving Basile’s place, I sat in my car, taking a few minutes just to close my eyes. Things were happening so fast, my head was spinning. I hadn’t had any time to really absorb the way my entire world had changed, or at least the way that I now saw the world. Closing my eyes didn’t help much. Every time I did, I kept seeing Jaycee eating Johnny.
Maybe it was due to the residue left over from the terror I’d lived through over the last couple of days, or possibly my desperation to help Max, but something inside of me snapped.
People were dying!
Did I really have any choice but to help Charlie?
With every minute that went by, the thought of helping Charlie seemed to make more sense. I didn’t think I cou
ld ever go back to work at Westland’s, and not relive that nightmare. That meant I’d need another job. Working at Club Crimson was hardly my best option, but it would just be until I got Charlie what he needed. After that, I could get a different job.
I’d made up my mind, though I can’t say I wasn’t still a might squeamish about it. Hopefully that would pass.
I turned the key in the ignition. There was still one more place I had to go before I went home.
* * *
After knocking twice¸ I waited until I heard Dora Parker yelling for me to come in. As soon as I stepped through the front door, I came face to face with Judge, the Parkers’ Rottweiler. Judge proceeded to sniff my leg, but I quickly swatted his nose away. “Judge, you know better than that,” I scolded.
Max’s mom stepped out of the kitchen. “Hey Star. It’s been a few days. Heard about what happened this morning. I’m so so sorry you had to live through that.”
Dora couldn’t be near as sorry as I was, especially since I really wanted to get through the day without having to talk about it anymore.
“Yes, it was scary,” I told her.
“Do they have any suspects?” she asked.
I shook my head. No sense in telling her that I already knew who killed Johnny. Then again, maybe in a way I didn’t. Whatever that thing had been, it hadn’t been Jaycee.
Dora Parker was kind of a mousy woman, too small to be petite. She always wore her dishwater blond hair in a ponytail, which didn’t help make her beady eyes seem any bigger. Dora was a sweet woman, though I did think she worried a little too much about the more trivial things in life, like constantly dusting. I could hardly recall a time when she didn’t have a duster in her hand.
“How’s Max doing today?” I asked.
Dora’s sad smile was heartbreaking. Though Max was home from the hospital now, he’d shown no improvement. Rumor had it that Dora Parker went to church everyday to pray for Max.
It would seem God was a little too busy to be listening.
As soon as the thought entered my mind, I kicked it right out. God worked in mysterious ways, at least that’s what Mom had always said. Maybe this was one of those times when we were going to have to trust that God knew what he was doing.
Not that I intended to sit back and see if the Almighty actually did have a plan. Nope. I was a take matters into my own hands kind of person.
“Oh he’ll be glad to see you. I do think there has been some improvement.” Dora told me, as she led the way to Max’s bedroom.
“I’ll be in the kitchen if you need anything. Would you like some iced tea?” she asked.
I shook my head. “No I’m good, but thanks.”
The open blinds allowed enough sun in the room to illuminate a thin cloud of dancing dust particles. Light touched the bottom half of Max’s body, but from the waist up he was submerged in shadow.
Though it was already late afternoon, he was still wearing pajamas. Max would never notice what he was wearing. Just like he didn’t notice how short his hair was now. If it had been his choice, he would never have worn his hair cropped so short.
The wheelchair faced a small TV in the corner of the room. With the volume down low, you could barely hear the music video.
Max’s empty eyes stared straight ahead, no longer absorbing anything from the outside world.
But that also didn’t matter.
Choking back a sob, I painted a smile on my face before taking the chair near Max.
“Hey Max. You feeling any better today?” It was the same question I asked each time I came to visit. Not that I expected an answer, but I asked anyway.
“You’ll be wanting to get better. Moon Fest is coming up soon … you’re really not going to want to miss that.”
There was not even a flicker of recognition in his brown eyes - eyes that had once been so warm and full of laughter.
If anything would stir some response, it would be talking about Moon Fest. The Moon Fest Carnival was held each year in September, on the weekend closest to the full moon. That was in a couple of weeks. Moon Fest was second only to Halloween, at least as far as Max was concerned.
I noticed he was leaning too heavily to one side. If he was in this condition much longer, he might completely lose the use of his muscles. If that happened, recovery would be so much harder on him.
Taking a deep breath, I did my best to fight back tears. There was a time and place to grieve, but that wasn’t when I was with Max. Even if I was feeling a little hopeless, there was no way I could let him sense it. Hope was the one thing he needed.
Visiting Max tore at my heart, especially when I remembered him, as he’d been only a short time ago. He was always laughing, joking, and as silly as a goose.
No matter how hard it was on me, it had to be a lot worse for Max. Getting visitors was the best thing for him. According to the doctors, he needed lots of mental stimulation. They said it was best to continue talking to Max, just like he could hear you, because he actually might be hearing what people said.
There was nothing physically wrong with him, at least nothing they could find. His body functioned fine. He just seemed to be gone from it, or locked inside so deep he couldn’t be reached.
My thoughts drifted back to the day I came home from the hospital after having my tonsils out. I was seven years old, and not exactly crazy about having to spend the entire day in bed.
Max, being the rascal he was, decided to sneak in my bedroom window, bringing with him a cup full of bugs he’d spent all day collecting.
The memory brought a smile to my lips.
Poor Max. He’d thought I would be as ecstatic about the insects as he was. That wasn’t the case, but I’d bit my tongue and pretended to be thrilled to see those creepy little things trying to get out of the Styrofoam cup.
That was Max. If he had a passion for something, there was no way he could understand me not sharing that passion with him.
Things hadn’t changed much since we were kids, especially where Max was concerned.
Leaning closer to him, I asked, “Was it vampires that did this to you?” I kept my voice low, so that Mrs. Parker wouldn’t overhear what I was saying. For sure she’d think I’d lost my mind.
Max’s hand jerked, but that was the only response I got.
I reached over and covered his hand with mine. “I promise you Max. I’m going to find out what happened to you. I won’t stop until I do.”
Chapter Four
It was already dusk when I pulled up to my house. My stomach knotted with apprehension as I stared out at the darkness. Never again was I going to be able to look into the woods at night, and not wonder what kind of nightmare might be hiding just out of sight.
Another first was my fear of being alone. Normally I didn’t mind being alone, but tonight I did.
It was nice to know a vampire couldn’t get into your house, unless they were invited. That helped me feel a little better, though I was sure there were other things lurking in the darkness, like whatever Jaycee had turned into.
Soft yellow light illuminated the old fashioned covered porch. As I climbed the stairs, I noticed something leaning against the front door.
It was a dozen red roses.
Who would be leaving me flowers?
I hadn’t gotten flowers since the night of my senior prom. That hadn’t turned out so well. By the end of the evening, Justice Newton would have taken them back, if he’d thought he would get away with it. All because I wouldn’t put out like he’d been hoping.
Fooled him. Never went out with him again either.
Curious, I pulled out the card attached to the flowers.
Just wanted to say thank you, and apologize for disrupting your life.
Luke
The gesture was sweet, but unexpected.
Luke was cute, and such a gentleman. It was too bad he was also dead. I still wasn’t grasping the reality of vampires.
How could it happen?
How could the dead be
reanimated?
I had so many questions, and no one to ask. When and if Luke came back, I was sure going to find out more about vampires.
Opening the door, I stepped into my dark living room and silently cursed myself for not leaving at least one light on. I spent the next few minutes flipping on everything that still had a working bulb.
After finding a vase for the flowers, I read the card again, and couldn’t help but smile. I had to admit there was a certain thrill in getting flowers from a vampire.
Making my way to the kitchen, I opened my old white refrigerator and pulled out a soda. I really needed something stronger, but soda would have to work, since I was fairly sure that getting hammered right now wasn’t a good idea.
Too much had happened and I was totally burned out. I needed some down time. Going to the living room, I flopped onto the couch and switched on the TV. For the next half hour, I did my best to focus on the news, but my brain retained none of it.
That changed when I saw Sheriff Jud’s face splashed across the TV screen. He was standing outside Westland’s and answering questions about Johnny’s murder and Jaycee’s disappearance. When a reporter asked about the cause of death, old Jud refused to comment further.
As I watched the newscast, I started getting a really bad feeling. I couldn’t tell if it was just a remnant of my experience, or something about what I was seeing. It took a few minutes to pinpoint the feeling.
Something didn’t seem right with the Sheriff. He seemed different somehow. It was almost as if he were not shocked enough over what happened with Jaycee and Johnny. It crossed my mind that old Jud might be more informed as to what was going on at Club Crimson, than what he let on.
I really wished I had someone to talk to about this, other than Uncle Basile.
Pulling my phone out of my pants pocket, I started to dial Daya, but changed my mind when I remembered she’d gone to Oklahoma City for a few days.
Daya Berry was the same age as Max and I. The three of us had been friends since our first day of kindergarten, and practically inseparable since. That had changed over the last few months. Daya was keeping busy with her new boyfriend.
I was happy Daya had finally found someone she liked, but missed the old days. It sure would have been nice to have my two best friends to talk to. With the three of us putting our heads together, we could figure out anything.
Crimson Rush A Vampire Romance (Crimson Book 1) Page 4