“What do you want?” Ed demanded, a wild force of fury even in his hunched position, though the pain was so awful for Sam, he could hardly focus on him.
Black’s voice came dimly but still audible as he said, “You’re going to turn me and my daughter into one of you.”
Chapter 11
MAYBE, IF Ed hadn’t fed from Sam the night before, the sudden blood loss from the bullet wound wouldn’t so immediately have him seeing stars. He’d eaten, had almost twenty-four hours to recover, but it wasn’t enough, not when he was going from one life-threatening event to another.
He should have guessed the Blacks would want immortality more than money. Right now, he did too.
Sam had to stay conscious. No matter what happened, he couldn’t let himself pass out.
Or he might not wake up.
“You’re insane,” Ed growled across the space separating them, his face changed now so that his eyes glowed bright and fierce, and his fangs glinted in the blue light.
Lara didn’t look concerned.
And neither did Black.
“I’m not denying that,” he said with a grin, the gun still aimed barely an inch from Sam’s temple, “but be that as it may, you’re going to obey my request or Sam is going to die. Tick tock.” He fingered the trigger.
“There isn’t time!” Ed lamented, finally tearing the bolt free but nearly collapsing afterward, the UV light clearly slowing his ability to heal.
Sam kept his left hand on his own bleeding wound but was quick to press the right to his chest before sliding it down to join the other.
“I’ve never sired anyone. I could kill your daughter by accident.”
“Then you better be especially careful, because if I worry for her safety for even a second….” Black tapped the side of Sam’s head with the gun.
Sam swayed. He needed to lie down. The room was spinning, and it hurt so badly, but he kept up on his knees. The only anchor he found was Ed, who looked twice as far away.
Sam had to get Black on his level. They could still do this.
“Turn her. Now.”
“Don’t….” Sam croaked, clutching Black’s pant leg and pulling on his trench coat weakly.
Black kicked him away, and Sam sprawled out on the floor, but Black never left enough space between him and the gun for Ed to try intervening. That meant that as he leaned over Sam, his trench coat swayed beside him.
“Don’t do it, Eddie,” Sam said, clutching and pulling at Black but eventually crumpling. “Don’t listen to him… please.”
“He’ll listen,” Black said, “unless he wants to watch you die and slowly burn himself.”
No. They had him. They just needed to call Daniel!
“I….” Ed was going to cave. It was clear in his voice, even though his face remained fierce, that Black was right; Ed could be better manipulated by using Sam than any plot to frame him. “I’ll try. But please… at least help Sam stop the bleeding.”
“Eddie, no….” Sam pressed both hands more tightly to his stomach, but the rush of pain made his vision erupt with fireworks. They didn’t need to give in. There was no coming back from that if they did. They had no guarantees Black would bow out once it was over, and if he and Lara were vampires too, they’d never be able to bring them to justice.
“I’ll help once you’ve finished with Lara. Not before,” Black said.
No. Ed couldn’t give these bastards immortality! Not them.
But dimly from where Sam lay on his back, he could see Ed stagger to his feet. Lara removed her jacket, showing that she had three additional bolts readied on her arm, and tilted her head to let her hair fall to the side.
“St-stop….” Sam tried one last time, seeing the hazy figure of Ed lean closer to her neck….
“Wow, am I glad you said, ‘get rid of the car’ and not the guns.”
Sam snapped his attention toward Mim at the entrance, recognizing her voice more than able to see her, but he was certain that the taller blob beside her was Gerry, and they both had arms raised, aiming what must have been Brock and Celia’s guns.
MIM AND Gerry were there, aiming the Cramers’ guns at the Blacks—Mim at Lara and Gerry at her father.
“Sam!” Gerry cried, taking in the scene.
Because Sam wasn’t simply down, he was shot, and already weak as he bled out onto the floor.
Ed made to lunge at Lara, but Black yelled a warning, “Stop!”
In the instant that Ed hesitated, afraid of Black’s finger on the trigger with the muzzle so close to Sam’s head, Lara aimed her bolts at Mim. It was the worst kind of standoff, with Ed weakened and utterly unable to offer aid.
“Where did you come from?” Lara spat. “Hiding somewhere we couldn’t see?”
“Just arrived,” Mim said. “Might have speeded a little to get here.”
“You didn’t dump the Cramers’ car?” Sam sputtered.
“We did. Then we borrowed Ed’s. Now—” Mim stalked forward without a single tremor in her arm. “—I think we’ve got you outnumbered. So, drop the weapons.”
“You’d have to get off some pretty lucky shots,” Black said, remaining too close to Sam for Ed to make any move against him, “and Gerry doesn’t look that steady. You drop the weapons, and we’ll continue where we left off.”
“Lara.” Gerry kept his aim on Black, but his eyes went to her. “Please. You think you need to do this because he’s your dad, but you don’t. It’s not worth all this. Didn’t what we shared mean anything to you?”
Ed couldn’t see Lara’s expression, but he doubted it held more than pity.
“You’re sweet,” she said, maybe even sincere about that much, “but you’re not worth more than living forever.”
“Your w-wife….” Sam gasped from the floor, speaking over Gerry’s heartbroken silence. He looked so pale to Ed now, even in the blue light, eyes heavy-lidded, the hands on his stomach barely able to stem the bleeding. “Do you think… she’d want this?”
“You just know everything, don’t you?” Black gave a derisive chuckle. “My wife died because the human body is weak, and if she’d had a way out of that, she would have taken it, and she’d want me to take it too. I spent twenty years looking for a way my daughter and I could escape the same fate. Imagine my surprise when I discovered vampires were an option.
“I’m sure others attempted to hunt them over the millennia, just like in the movies, and I’m sure most of those idiots ended up dead, because they were hunting monsters. We’re hunting opportunity.”
“Then why not force the hand of the first vampire you defeated?” Ed asked, thinking of all those he’d tried to contact but couldn’t reach.
“We were going to, and then we found out there were more of you. Why take one fortune while we still had the advantage of daylight, when we could have twenty.”
“Lara.” Gerry kept ignoring Black. “Please.”
“Enough talking!” Black barked. “Turn her. Now.”
“You won’t shoot,” Mim said with more confidence than Ed felt. “Sam’s your only bargaining chip.”
“You sure? Because I guarantee you, if you give me no other choice, I am going to end this by making you all suffer.” Sam’s head lolled, and Black pressed the muzzle to his forehead to lift it back up. “Starting with him. Or maybe someone else. Shoot Gerry so they know we’re serious.”
Lara startled at the order. Ed saw it in the tension that gripped her shoulders, but still, she shifted her aim to Gerry, and hopeless fool that he was, he lowered his gun.
“I love you,” he said.
To his credit, her arm sagged as if she almost would have dropped it.
“That’s a shame,” she said.
And fired.
Ed flinched. He never flinched, but he also never stood idly by. He didn’t dare move to anyone’s defense, though, not when Black held Sam hostage, and not when he feared that one burst of speed was all he had left.
Mim wasn’t as toothless. A toss of
her gun and a mad dash forward and she caught Lara by the wrist in time to shift her aim from Gerry’s chest to his shoulder. Gerry grunted at the impact of the bolt and staggered back.
Watching the ensuing struggle between equally diminutive but powerful women, Ed cast a wary glance at Black, who stood at the ready but kept his aim on Sam.
Every inch one of the women gave up, they soon reclaimed, back and forth, and back and forth again, but in the end, one had to prove stronger.
Mim wrapped her hand around Lara’s wrist to wrench her arm up and point the remaining two bolts at Lara’s head. “Now,” she said loudly, tugging her counterpart against her, “I’m going to count to three, because I’m guessing you care more about your daughter than killing Sam. Although you did just tell her to shoot her boyfriend.”
She spared a peek at Gerry. Despite his grimace, the wound looked superficial.
“One.” She carried through on her threat. “Two—”
“Stop!” Black bellowed, making an unthinking lurch forward.
Which was all the opening Ed needed.
Summoning what strength he had left, he bolted forward and everything around him slowed. He saw the moment when Black realized the folly of his mistake, trying to whip the gun back on Sam, but Ed was faster and seized Black’s arm to move it safely away just as it went off, the bullet missing Sam to strike the floor.
The most satisfying rush of blood hit Ed’s tongue when he sank his fangs into Black’s throat.
“Don’t!” Sam cried. “You can’t… kill him, Eddie. We got him… we got what we need. Call Daniel.”
Black was a useless doll in Ed’s arms, held securely with no chance at escape. Ed wanted to drain him. He wanted it to hurt. He wanted Black to suffer like he’d tried to make them suffer. And the blood felt so good, countering the pain of the wound in his thigh and the UV lights still burning above him.
Looking back at the others, Ed saw that Mim had snapped the remaining bolts and thrown Lara to the ground, while Gerry shuffled over, holding his shoulder, and Lara stared on in dread at Ed drinking from her father.
“Please,” Sam said again, so pale, so weak, but still thinking of the plan. “Call Daniel. Then… you can… stay with me. Please….”
Ed tore his fangs from Black’s throat, making sure to break the skin to hide the punctures. He threw Black down, kicking the fallen gun out of reach, and rummaged quickly through Black’s pockets. A small device with only a single switch proved all it took to disarm the trap they’d sprung, and the overhead lights returned to blessed yellow.
Feeling instant relief, furthered by the fresh blood coursing through him, Ed dropped beside Sam. “Get your gun on Black now,” he ordered Gerry, who instantly if clumsily obeyed, “and call the detective.” He tossed his phone at Mim, figuring she’d be more likely to catch it, and she did. Then he gathered Sam close to assess the damage.
Sam’s shirt and hands were covered in blood, and so much had soaked into the floor.
The smell of it made Ed dizzy.
“Y-you don’t… l-look too crispy,” Sam stammered. His skin felt clammy and cold. “Y-you’re gonna… s-save me, right?”
“Of course.” Ed started to lift him.
“Y-you’ll… change me…? You’ll save me?”
“Sam….”
“You have to. It’s the only… w-way. Please….”
After everything they’d been through, Ed had never seen Sam look so scared.
“Don’t let me die.”
“I won’t,” Ed said, stroking Sam’s face as he held him closer. “No matter what. I promise.”
Sam gave a crooked, weak smile, and then his eyes closed.
THE LAST thing Sam remembered was his eyes closing.
He figured he’d wake up and everything would feel better. There’d be no pain. He’d feel whole and strong as a vampire, and he and Ed could be together always.
But when he finally opened his eyes again, everything hurt.
It was too bright. He thought maybe because the sun was glaring at him now that he was changed, but when he looked around and his surroundings began to take shape, he wasn’t outside. He wasn’t in the warehouse. He wasn’t back at Ed’s.
He was in a hospital room.
“Mr. Sam!”
Only then did Sam notice the others with him. The twins, Marie and Daniel, Mim, Gerry with his shoulder bandaged, and—there—Ed, standing apart from the others in the corner.
The twins tried to rush Sam’s bed, but Marie held them back.
“Remember what we said,” she cautioned. “The nurse only allowed you two in here if you promised to be gentle with Sam. Just say hi. No pouncing.”
This was clearly a foreign concept to them, but they listened, walking up more slowly to Sam’s bedside.
“We’re glad you’re awake, Mr. Sam,” Dawn said.
“Does it hurt lots?” Joey asked.
Sam was still coming to full consciousness, and he could tell from the IV attached to him that it probably hurt a lot more than he was feeling, so he said, “It does… but I’m pretty tough. I’ll be okay. Right?” He looked at the others, Ed last, who was still holding back, like he thought Sam would be angry with him.
He was surprised, truly amazed that he’d survived without the supernatural help he expected, but it was hard to be angry.
“You’re going to be fine. The nurse could tell you were going to wake up soon,” Daniel said, “so she let the kids come in, but we’ll get them out of your hair. We just wanted to be here after you woke up from surgery.”
Surgery? No wonder everything hurt.
“You’re a hero, Sam. You and Ed went way above and beyond as civilians to bring Cheroneau in—I mean Black. I can’t believe we almost lost you over that psycho.”
“You got everything you needed?” Sam asked.
“Oh yeah. You started the recording on that wire I gave you at the perfect time. We got Black’s whole confession. Though it cut out after he shot you. The last thing he said seemed really weird. Something about… Ed making him and his daughter ‘like him.’ Do you have any idea what he was talking about?”
Even shot and in so much pain, Sam had been sure to press against the wire to turn it off before any actual talk of vampires could be recorded. “No idea. He was definitely off his rocker.”
“No denying that,” Daniel said. “When I got to the warehouse with backup, Ed had already left with you for the hospital. Black tried to spin things against you and your friends, but Ed had left the recording for me. And besides, once we patted Black down, we found a knife in his trench coat that was clearly the murder weapon used on Brock Cramer, and maybe his wife.
“He tried denying it was his, but he basically fell apart from there. Once he realized we had his confession on tape, he owned up to the rest. His daughter too. You did our job for us.” Daniel gently squeezed Sam’s shoulder. “Ever think of changing careers?”
Sam would have laughed if he wasn’t so sore. “I’m happy where I am, thanks.”
It was daylight, he saw through a slit in the curtains. Sam had no idea how long he’d been asleep recovering from surgery, but definitely all through the night.
“We’ll give you some breathing room and let you have time with your friends,” Marie said, coming forward to kiss Sam’s forehead, very motherly and appreciated, before she ushered the kids outside. “We’re glad you’re okay, Sam.”
“Goodbye, Mr. Sam!” the kids chorused.
Daniel followed with an added, “I’ll have to get your official statement eventually, but don’t worry about anything. The Blacks can’t hurt you anymore.”
To think, only a few weeks ago, Sam had been worried about the Cramers.
Mim and Gerry still wore the same clothes from last night and didn’t look like they’d gotten any sleep.
“The bodies were already there, and the wire was a really smart plan,” Mim recounted, coming in close so she could perch on the side of the bed, while Gerry did th
e same on the other, “but how did you plant the knife on Black? You were dying!”
Sam thought back to just after he’d been shot, when he got close enough to slip the knife into Black’s pocket with some classic misdirection. “Magic,” he said with a twirl of his fingers.
Mim and Gerry chuckled.
“Shouldn’t you be laid up too?” Sam asked, nodding at Gerry’s shoulder.
“I’m not straining anything sitting here watching over you.” Gerry shrugged, and then hissed at the unconscious action. “Anyway… I’ve been working on my laptop to get all those funds transferred back to Ed. No hiccups. The cops won’t be able to trace a thing. I’ve mostly been resting, though, I swear. Plus, they gave me some really good painkillers.”
Sam’s entire middle ached, along with a few various bruises around his body and a general throbbing in his head. Glancing at Ed, still so removed and distant, sitting in the corner, didn’t make any of it feel better. “I might need an increase myself,” he said, holding eye contact.
“We’ll tell the nurse.” Mim took the hint, contrary to Gerry’s pout at being dismissed. “She’ll want to check you over but said we could have a few minutes once you woke up. Why don’t you two talk?” She cast Ed a gauging—and possibly threatening—look. “We’ll get her.”
“You’re both okay, though?” Sam asked as they rose from the bed.
“We’re not the ones who had surgery,” Gerry reminded him.
“I’m sorry you got caught up in this, but I’m glad you showed up when you did and didn’t listen to me.”
“Please.” Mim lightly tapped his shoulder. “You can always count on us to ignore you when you’re trying to order us around.”
Sam huffed a faint laugh, but his eyes went to Gerry and his weary, although brave, expression. “I am really sorry about Lara.”
“I’d hoped she might change her mind, ya know? But I’m glad, with her in jail now, that I don’t have any doubts about where we stood. I still got you guys. And I’ll always be grateful for that.” Gerry turned to look at Ed as he said it, but the answering smile Ed offered held far too much sorrow and guilt.
Their Dark Reflections Page 21