by Ian Hall
I couldn’t believe Jackson had just called me an airhead. I guess he didn’t know I was the only cheerleader on the squad that could do a perfect split during a super high jump. Stupid dork.
“You don’t need to worry about that,” I said, “it’s my decision and I want to go with Alan.”
I did a really snotty pivot and started to walk away, hoping Alan was still close by and would come out of hiding once he knew I wasn’t mad at him anymore. Again, stupid freakazoid Jackson clamped his hand around me.
He got up into my face again, but this time looked super intense and talked to me like a person out on a ledge. “Mandy, you can’t trust what you’re feeling right now. Never trust anything you’re thinking or feeling when Alan McCartney is anywhere near you.”
“What are you talking about?”
“You’re beholden to him, Mandy. He’s the vampire that changed you - that creates a very tight bond that young vampires have a hard time breaking.” He held my face between his hands. “But, I did it. Amos Blanche himself changed me and I fought that bond until it finally broke; you can do it, too.”
“Jackson…you’re freaking nuts. Of course I have a bond with Alan - he’s practically my boyfriend. Soon as I find him - he’s missing again thanks to you - I’m sure we’ll get it all worked out and we’ll be together.”
“Then what? You go back home and let Hannah beat the shit out of you some more?”
“Alan won’t make me go back there.”
“Bullshit. Alan doesn’t give a fuck about you; you’re just another recruit as far as he’s concerned. He’ll sit back and let Hannah do her worst. It’s all a big game to him.”
“You’re wrong!”
“Oh yeah? When’s the last time you got all hot and bothered over Cami?”
Jackson’s question hit me like a speeding freaking train. I felt so embarrassed. I had no idea he’d been watching me that long.
“It was just ‘cause I was so hungry…and she smelled so good.”
“No. It’s because you’re beholden to Alan and he’s a sick little dweeb who would have gotten off big time on watching you go down on another chick and then stain the walls with her blood. It’d be the ultimate vampire snuff porn for that guy.”
“That’s stupid. I didn’t even know Alan was around, how could he have made me do anything?”
“It’s the bond,” Jackson told me, real serious-like, “and Alan knows how to work it. You don’t have to come back home with me, Mandy, but stay the fuck away from him.”
Jackson started to walk away. He didn’t get far.
Dave parked the car in the driveway, and we got a moment alone together, Mary-Christine and her mother taking bags into the house. I decided I had to clarify a few points.
“So consider me at the door, Dave, hammering on it,” I said. “When do I start, what do I do?”
Dave nodded. “First we’ve got to bring you up to scratch with all we know, then tell you why we’re here in Gregor.”
“And when can we do that?” I asked. I felt energized, up for the whole thing.
“I can start now, it won’t take long.”
“Fair enough.”
“First, throw away most of the crap you thought you knew about vampires. Like everything Hollywood gave us, it’s not accurate and some is downright misleading. They can’t fly. They can move pretty fast, though. We usually hit them with a blood coagulant or a sleeper first, then tackle them. Either of those will slow them down a lot.”
“They don’t die when sunshine hits them, but they do get sensitive to light after a while. Because they go around at night, everyone has the idea they sleep during the day. Not true. Vampires, because of their higher metabolism, hardly need sleep at all. They’re killed by beheading, wooden stake through the heart, or by complete incineration. Or a combination of all three. We’ve done all three many times - just to make sure. Avery Peterson’s remains, for instance. After we collected it in the tub at the bottom of the table, we incinerated it. Just to make sure.”
“They kill for blood. For a vampire to ‘turn’ someone, they have to be real careful. They have to take a third to a half of the blood in the victim’s body, no more and no less. Then they have to give some back, that’s the real part of ‘turning’ someone, when the victims want the blood as much as the vampire. That gives them the immortality thing.”
“What happens if a vampire stops short? What happens to those who lose less than a third of their blood?” I asked.
“Feeders. Every vampire has at least one or two somewhere, just to feed from. The feeder usually gets screwed, too. Sex runs with vampirism, so they get a double high. If a vampire is real careful, he can have a feeder, and she might not even know it. Vampires are just literally leeches on humanity.”
“So how come they don’t rule us? Why has there never been a vampire army? Vampire wars?”
“That is a superb question, Lyman. I like you.” Dave smiled into the rear-view mirror. “The one thing that stops that from happening is…vampires, because of their helplessness for the bloodlust, can’t stand too much of their own company. Once a vampire community or group gets too big, they end up feeding on themselves; they can’t help it. Their own blood is so much thicker than ours, contains so many natural highs for them, that they can’t resist. Even here in recent times, so many vampire communities have literally eaten themselves to death in hours.”
“So why don’t we hear about them in the papers? On TV?”
“But, Lyman, my boy, we do. What about the cults who suddenly decide to commit mass suicide?”
“All of them?”
“Not all we hear about were vampires. But many were. They didn’t drink ‘Kool Aid’ then die, they drank each other to death.”
I sat for a while.
“Helsings?”
“Yes, Lyman?”
“Why are we called ‘Helsings’?”
“Now that would be a direct homage to Bram Stoker!”
We both laughed.
It turns out my first assignment turned out to be so easy; watch ‘the seven’ at school. Take notes on their whereabouts, their contacts, anything interesting. Having ‘watching cheerleaders’ as your assignment could have been worse, I can tell you. I went to school, did the work, went through the motions. On Tuesday evening, I got a huge surprise.
Mom and dad caught me as I got in from making out with Mary-Christine. They made a big fuss about not having much money at my birthday, but they blindfolded me and sat me on the couch for five minutes while dad went outside.
Then, just a minute later, mom pulled me to my feet and dragged me reluctantly to the door, then pulled me outside.
She dragged off the blindfold, and dad stood next to his new car, with a stupid smile on his face. Smaller than his old one, still sitting to one side, and not dad’s color scheme at all; a bright metallic blue.
Then the penny dropped; it had been a long day.
“Mine?” I tentatively tested the water.
Mom nodded.
I jumped so high, I hit my fingertips on the porch ceiling. “Mine!”
I ran to the car and hugged dad, then, back up to the porch and hugged both mom and dad together.
My eyes took in this piece of engineering; a Volkswagen Jetta. Not new, but pretty close, and very shiny.
“It’s not your usual fun-ride, but we went for safety, not for speed,” dad said as I got inside.
“I don’t care!” I shouted as I sat in the driver’s seat. Dad dangled the keys at the window.
“I got a bonus at work,” dad said. I looked up. They were both looking over the window ledge, smiling like Cheshire cats. “And a promotion; Dave Muscat’s got me working in R&D.”
I looked at him, and a strange emotion passed over me. For the first time in my life, it was me, Lyman, that was in the ‘know’, not dad.
“Yup, kiddo. Maybe your friendship with Mary-Christine did the trick.”
“Do you care?”
“
Hell no. Just don’t fall out,” dad grinned.
“Or get her pregnant,” mom added, albeit grinning.
“Can I drive it?”
Dad stepped away from the car, and the coast was clear.
I waved. “See ya!”
I carefully drove it around to Mary-Christine’s.
Dave gave it the once-over. “Nice car,” he said. “And it solves a problem for us over the next few weeks.”
“It does?”
“Sure. Since you’re now joining the fold, so to speak, we have one thing to bring you up to date on.”
“What’s that?”
“Well, it’s not exactly a ‘that’ it’s more like a ‘them.’”
The Muscat family had the same silly cheesy grins that I had just driven away from.
“Well, a Helsing has to have two qualities. He has to have the balls to take a vampire down, and we never know that ‘til the actual moment. He also has to have the skills.”
“I’m going to Helsing School?” I joined the grin.
“Kinda,” Dave said. “You and Mary-Christine are going to join my gym and my gun club, and you’re going to learn Karate.”
I didn’t have a muscle in my body. I also didn’t have a clue about guns.
Crap.
But it did bring the Buffy thing back into my mind, and that wasn’t a bad image to have.
For the second time that night, Alan came out of nowhere and surprised me. Vampires are awesome at sneaking up - even on other vampires. Jackson hadn’t seen him coming, either.
Moving super-fast, Alan snatched me away. “What the hell are you playing at, dickwad?”
Jackson did this quick-step maneuver, and next thing I knew, he stood between me and Alan. Confession: although I was officially on Alan’s side and wanted to go with him - it felt totally cool to have two guys fighting over me.
“Haven’t you fucked her up enough?” Jackson said to Alan, snarling like a pit bull with rabies.
“Why don’t you butt out? What happens between me and my girlfriend is none of your business!”
I tingled all over at that point. Alan had just called me his effin’ girlfriend! OMG! I tried my best to get around my bodyguard (to go kiss my boyfriend) but Jackson was way faster than me. Just like one of those martial arts guys from the Matrix, he totally blocked my move.
“C’mon!” I whined (I really, really wanted that kiss).
Alan grinned all triumphant. “See? She wants to come with me, dude. Sorry if your feelings are hurt; school’s about to start - maybe you can get your own girlfriend then.”
Girlfriend! He totally said it again!
Then Jackson got all huffy and lawyerly like. “Sorry to break it to you, ‘dude’” (the way he said “dude” was totally condescending), “but Mandy’s part of the Cole family now, which makes her my new sister…”
Kinda burst my bubble to hear that Jackson thought of me as his sister. For a minute there I thought he might be totally into me. Y’know…two vampires battling for my affections would be a bit of a confidence boost. But, I guess sister felt nice too.
“Family loyalty overrides your little infatuation,” Jackson said, like the closing argument of a trial (I watched a lot of Law & Order), “and that means she’s heading home with me. Now get the fuck out of my way, douchebag.”
Alan looked really mad then. I guess there was really something to that vampire family-bond thing. For a second I thought he was going to do his usual turn-and-run. But, he didn’t…
It all happened so fast, it’s mostly a blur.
Alan lunged at Jackson. He looked all vampire at that moment; fangs and hissing. I was scared s-h-i-t-less. Not Jackson, though. They were two titans in an all-out clash.
Vampires don’t fight like regular people - with the throwing punches and whatnot. It’s way more violent than that. Those two tore up the freaking street.
Human eyes wouldn’t have been able to catch the commotion. Even my super-duper vision had a hard time tracking them. So, I’ll describe it this way: It would be like you’re standing there, looking at your car, it’s all bright n’ shiny, no scratches. Then you blink. By the time your eyes open again the car is totally caved in on itself, all the windows are busted, and the alarm is WHAAAAA’ing big time.
The entire freaking street was that car.
Some of the pavement got kicked up and Broker Street started to look like a gravel quarry. Limbs were breaking off of trees. One house lost an awning over the porch; another house’s chimney went tumbling down like a brick avalanche. A fire hydrant burst into a zillion pieces and a huge, foamy volcano erupted from the pipes.
By the time it had finished, humans were out of their houses, looking freaked and terrified and pissed all at the same time. And I felt just as freaked, terrified, and pissed as any of them. While they were all inspecting the damage to their property, I scoured the block for signs of the crazy-ass boys who caused all of it.
Seriously, they were nowhere on Broker Street. By the time I turned the corner, I was panicking. I mean - what? Did they like, spontaneously combust or something?
No. It was much worse.
I found them at the edge of this field, no lights. They were just two figures looking like black ink stains over the ground. One moved very slowly; the other not at all. Jackson pushed himself up. Alan stayed down. His body was contorted in a weird arrangement; he looked like a jigsaw puzzle that’d been put together wrong.
“You fucking killed him!” I screamed and lunged at Jackson.
I must have hit him pretty hard ‘cause he tumbled back a few steps; or maybe he was just worn out from the hand-to-hand combat. Either way, he did nothing to retaliate. Just kind of gave me that cold, superior stare I’d come to know so well.
“That’s nothing,” he told me, “a few broken bones isn’t going to keep him down for very long.”
Before he ever got the sentence out, I’d already dropped to my knees and cradled Alan’s limp head in my lap. It looked like his neck had broke. And he wasn’t breathing. Was that supposed to be the vampire equivalent to “a few broken bones”?
“Let’s get out of here, Mandy….”
I barely heard what Jackson said.
Next thing I knew he pulled me to my feet, growling as he spoke, “C’mon. This is done. We’re going…we gotta bolt before the humans find us.”
I threw feeble little punches wherever I could land one, and made my body ironing board-stiff to make it harder for him to drag me away. Not that it did me any good.
“I’m not going anywhere with you!”
Humans were coming around the corner. I could smell them before they were within ear- or eyeshot. There was at least one dog with them; and I knew the thing had sniffed us out. It was whining and trotting up fast.
With me still in hand, Jackson took off in all-out sprint. Within minutes, we were clear across town, standing in the center of an industrial park.
I was going off by this time. “How could you just leave Alan there?”
Jackson had to grab my wrists to keep me from swatting him.
“Would you stop fucking worrying about that prick for ten seconds? I should’ve staked him while I had the fucking chance! He’ll be up and moving again before the humans can dial 9-1-1. We have much bigger fucking problems right now, Mandy!”
His hold on me felt as good as iron handcuffs; I struggled, but couldn’t get free.
“Like what?”
“Like the fact that Alan McCartney and his gang now know with one-hundred percent certainty that the Coles are not their ally; the whole family’s jugular is exposed here, Mandy. If the Blanche vampires decide to turn on us - which they will - then our little household can’t survive. In case you haven’t noticed…that now includes you!”
Jackson unclenched the grip he had on my wrists. I practically fell on my butt.
“That’s where you’re wrong. I’m not part of your pathetic little vampire family!”
He took a step at me.
“You ungrateful little bitch…”
I thought he might hurt me for real then. But for once, I was the faster vampire. My legs beat like hummingbird wings. I got away.
Buffing It All Up
The month of September went past like a spinning top on acid. Mary-Christine was by my side every hour we weren’t in class. We got some very knowing looks, even got talked about; in class, at lunch. I could actually hear the buzz of the gossip. An awesome time.
From the boy who’d never thrown a punch, turns out I had some muscle after all, and I already knew that Mary-Christine was a pocket battleship. The Karate teacher seemed so pleased by our progress in the first month, she even moved us up a class, skipping the first belt. Although I’d never hit anyone, we were not only good at it, but actually enjoyed it.
I looked at myself in the mirror every night, but to my complete dismay, I never seemed to bulk up; no muscle gain.
Guns? On that first night at the range, doing the “gun safety” class, I wasn’t totally happy with the idea, but when we hit the actual range, and got to fire the guns, I have to say that it was the best fun ever. By our fourth week, we were swapping guns across the range, getting used to six-shooters and automatics, Glocks and Walthers, Colts and Keltecs.
In the gym, we hit every circuit the trainer could throw at us: free weights, machines, and weightlifting. I had been a nerd for years, and now all the stuff that I’d considered ‘corny’ I enjoyed the heck out of. Of course, Mary-Christine worked constantly by my side, leotard, sweatshirt, the works, and man did she look good pumping iron.
Every night mom would give me an orange juice with a big spoonful of grey powder mixed up in it. ‘Recover’; an energy supplement; a gift from Dave Muscat. Every morning I would take another. I’m not saying the stuff acted like a drug high, but even after a hectic night at the gym, I still had the energy for school the next day.
Of course, my car was essential to all our after-school classes, and it gave Mary-Christine and I a real private place to do our making out in. Things were heading nicely into October, then Dave told me that they had a plan in place for one of the vampire families in town.