Vampires Don't Cry: The Collection

by Ian Hall

“Not really.” My attention was drawn to the rearview mirror. “Uh-oh. Car coming. Make-out time.” I quickly dialed Frank’s phone as I leant over to Mary-Christine, and we went through the motions of kissing. I had one eye on Mary-Christine’s expression, and one on the car; red sedan. It slowed as it passed us, the driver taking a real good look at us, then continued up the hill towards the barn.

  “Frank?” I watched the cloud of dust kicked up by the car.

  “Yeah?”

  “Car on its way up to you; red sedan. We reckon two inside.”

  “Roger.”

  Now the wait seemed worse. Even more frustrated; I wanted to pace up and down, and forced to sit in the car drove me a bit antsy.

  “You should take your meds,” Mary-Christine said, her hand on my arm.

  “I didn’t take them this morning, I’m not going to do them now. If we have to go in after Mandy, I want as much vampire as I can channel.”

  She looked at me with a mixture of concern and resentment. “Your choice.”

  “I know.”

  My phone rang; Reynolds.

  “The red car stopped at the barn.”

  “Mandy?”

  “Nothing yet.”

  We had confirmed at least five vampires inside, and Mandy still nowhere to be seen. I decided that six o’clock would be the cutoff point. That gave us forty minutes before I got involved.

  Phone again; Reynolds.

  “They took two people out of the trunk of the red car.”

  “Vampires?”

  “Too far away to tell, but they were tied up.”

  “Probably just brought lunch,” I said with a heavy sarcastic tone.

  “Probably. I’m going to change position.”

  “Be careful.”

  It took me only a handful of minutes at a flat-out vampire run. Alan’s voice got louder as I got closer, a beacon drawing me in.

  The black Buick sat parked around the side; no occupants. A gust of cool air brought his smell right to me. Just like he’d said he would be - Alan waited.

  Suddenly, I felt in no rush to get there. Even the barn itself, with its weathered boards and peeling red paint looked foreboding. In my mind I walked in some cheesy horror flick; an imaginary audience screaming, “Don’t go in there!” But, just like every teenage slasher film ever made, the stupid girl - me in this case - stumbled forward toward certain doom.

  Alan must’ve been watching me from a damn good hiding spot. I could hear him coaxing me, “C’mon…don’t keep me waiting…” but could not see him anywhere.

  When I got to the gaping barn door, I stood in the frame and peered around. Slaughtering hooks dangled at the end of long chains from the rafters. Along one wall hung an assortment of rusted knives, saws and some medieval-looking hatchet. Death clung in the air between the old, splintered walls. It was immediately evident why Alan would pick this place for our showdown.

  I wasn’t going to give him the satisfaction of watching me die with fear in my eyes.

  “Alan!” I called, my voice echoing back at me. “I’m here! Now where are you?”

  The laughter seemed to emanate from all around; at first I thought he might only still be in my head. Then his voice drifted down from a loft high above.

  “I’m here, Mandy Cross,” he said. “I’ve always been right here.”

  “Then come down here and face me like a vampire!”

  More laughter; two distinct caws this time. His hairless friend sat up there with him.

  “I’ve always loved your spirit, Mandy Cross.”

  I heard a muffled thud on the loose hay scattered across the barn floor. I heard the shuffling and cracking of straw. Saw impressions of footprints deepening the soft bedding. Then I felt his warm breath at my ear.

  “That’s why I chose you.”

  I spun. But, he had gone.

  “You didn’t call me out here to play hide-n-go-seek! Stop fucking around and let’s get this over with, you asshole!”

  My challenge bought another round of laughter.

  “Mandy Cross, you’ve always been so impatient.”

  I followed the voice to a window opposite me but could only catch a glimpse of the air rippling as Alan sped past. Damn, he was fast. Faster than me for sure. My only chance seemed to draw him out by playing his game.

  I took one exaggeratedly large step over the threshold and into the barn.

  “Is this what you want? I’m s’pose to waltz right into your trap, Alan? Fine! Bring it on! I’m standing right fucking here!”

  The hay rustled only a foot in front of me. Then, like shimmering into being, Alan McCartney appeared before my eyes. Another sound at my back announced that his friend had come down from the loft as well; I didn’t bother to turn around.

  “Finally,” I said insolently. “I was beginning to think I was going to have to chase you in before I got to kill you...again.”

  Alan looked over my shoulder to his cohort, “Didn’t I tell you she had gumption?”

  The only reply sounded like a cross between a grunt and a snicker.

  “That’s why I’ve always liked you, Mandy Cross.”

  “You have a funny way of showing people you like them; killing their families, turning them into the undead. Killing their loved ones.”

  He came up close to me then, smiling. “That was my gift to you. Your reward for being ruthless and selfish and dangerous…”

  “I was none of those things before you got a hold of me!”

  “Sure you were!” he said it as a compliment.

  Alan chuckled, vanishing again, this time only for a split second. He reappeared, leaning up against the back wall with a rake cradled in his hands.

  “This reminds me of the night we met,” he told me, “You remember, too, don’t you, Mandy Cross?”

  “How could I forget?” I said with pride. “That was the first time I killed you.”

  “That’s right! I killed your cat and then you killed me.” Alan spoke as if recalling a moonlight walk by the sea. “You were just a human girl, but when you found me you didn’t run off screaming. No - not you, Mandy Cross. You came at me with a rake very much like this one; plunged it right into the side of my head. Even when I came crawling out from behind the hydrangea bushes…there was no fear in you. Only rage - rage for killing your precious pet.”

  He talked so affectionately, I felt a swell of that old familiar urge creep up in me. Quickly, I exchanged lust for despise. I found myself screaming at him.

  “And that’s why you marked me? That’s why you stole my life away from me?”

  Alan looked at me like it should have been so obvious. “Yes - of course! And look what you’ve become, how powerful you are, Mandy Cross. Hell…I didn’t kill you, I gave birth to you! If it wasn’t for me, you would’ve never known your own potential.”

  I stood stunned.

  “Holy crap. That stuff you were feeding to Sheldon Newell and the Mize brothers about bringing me back into the fold - all along I’d thought it was just bullshit to get me close enough to nab. But, you really want me - don’t you, you little shit?”

  “You’d have been nothing without me.”

  “Am I s’pose to thank you now?”

  In the wink of an eye, Alan stood beside me again.

  “You’re supposed to be loyal,” he paid me a hurt look, “but, while I’m off recovering from your little nibble at my neck, you shack up with that Helsing retard,” then he chuckled. “At least you got to give him a goodbye kiss.”

  I saw the look of pride in his eyes, then the penny dropped. “You made me do that, didn’t you?”

  “Just one best friend helping out another,” he scoffed. “Heaven knows Lyman Bracks couldn’t get laid in a fucking morgue.”

  Alan looked way too pleased with himself. Such a master of manipulation. I suddenly realized that the link I’d had with him had never been broken, only stretched like some industrial-grade elastic.

  “You’ve been in my mind this whole tim
e? All those horrible things I’ve done…that was you…”

  “Give yourself some credit; before I recovered my strength, all I could do was plant the seed. Your own innate viciousness watered it and let it grow.” He tipped his head in a congratulatory fashion, “Great work with that cop, by the way.”

  “You made me turn Spike?”

  “Again - I merely allowed you the epiphany, the realization that you could turn a human into a vampire without them ever knowing.” Alan stepped up close, too close. “How’d it feel to have that much power over another person? Seemed to me you kind of got off on it.”

  “The control was an illusion,” I countered. “I couldn’t keep Spike in line any more than you were able to keep hold of me.”

  Alan’s responding grin looked macabrely malicious. “Oh, really? Then what are you doing here?”

  I smiled back. “Heard you were in town, so I just stopped by to kill you.”

  “I’m flattered.”

  “Don’t be.”

  “C’mon, Mandy Cross, I’m offering you a chance at survival.”

  “Survival?”

  “This war has just begun - vampires against Helsings, vampires against vampires; it’s going to get much bloodier than you can even imagine. And if you want to live - and I know you do, Mandy Cross,” Alan pounded the wooden end of the rake on the hay beside him. “This is where you belong - at my side.”

  I smiled broadly at that one. “Oh. You mean like the Mize brothers? And all the other vampires that keep ending up dead after signing on with you? Yeah, they really picked the right team.” I looked him dead in the eye. “Even your own mother knows you’re shit, Alan; last I knew she was trying to kill you, too.”

  He shrugged. “Angela will be dealt with in due time. And any vampire caught on the losing side will be shown no mercy. You might want to keep that in mind.”

  “I don’t need your mercy, Alan.”

  “And I don’t need your loyalty, Mandy.”

  Alan’s eyes drifted over my shoulder. I turned to find a red sedan coming up the road.

  “Your reluctant obedience will do just as well.”

  It pulled to a stop alongside the Buick. I heard the trunk pop and immediately smelled human blood. They were brought around to the inside of the barn and dropped at my feet. I knew them immediately: Mr. and Mrs. McDonald; Chris’s parents.

  “I want you with me, Mandy Cross,” Alan said. “Question is - how far are you willing to go to defy me?”

  I squatted down over Mrs. McDonald. Her face looked bruised and bloodied, clothing torn and skin shredded from a fierce struggle. Mr. McDonald appeared the same. No bite marks; not yet. I took no pleasure in what I did next; but, knowing Alan’s plan for them, did not hesitate.

  Mrs. McDonald first; I latched her head between my hands steadily and yanked. Then did the same for her husband.

  “So much for your pawns, Alan,” I said. “Checkmate.”

  His smarmy smile spread ear-to-ear. “Good girl! Let’s see how quick you are to sacrifice the pieces you really care about.”

  Alan shuffled past me to the newcomers with the red sedan. “Did you find him?”

  “Yeah. Not too far down the road; he’s got some chick with him. Both Helsings, I smelled the vinegar coming from the car. It’ll be no problem.”

  “You know what to do.”

  The pair turned on their heels, off to the red sedan.

  “No!” I yelled, breaking off at full speed to get to Lyman and Mary-Christine before they could.

  Not two yards up the road, a set of arms closed in on me like a bear trap. I kicked and struggled to set myself free, but his hold proved far too strong.

  Alan threw me to the ground, pinning me with his body.

  “There’s an old saying among vampires, Mandy Cross: that which kills us makes us stronger,” he clamped his vice-grip hands around my wrist to prove his point. “Twice killed in so short a time; you may have made me the strongest vampire in the whole fucking world.”

  The pain felt unbelievable; I could feel my bones splintering under his hold.

  “Don’t hurt him!” I begged. “Let Lyman go; I’ll stay with you.”

  “Sorry, baby. You might have come to your senses too late.”

  Mandy’s in Trouble

  Reynolds. “Red sedan coming back your way. Two occupants.”

  “Got you.”

  I turned to Mary-Christine. “Get out quick!” I’ve never seen her move so fast. “The rocks, over there!”

  We just got behind a small ridge when the car came over the hill. I could see them through a fissure in the stone. They drove right down the hill, a huge cloud of dust behind them. As they neared our cars, it veered away, then swept at my poor SUV, smashing into the side where I had sat moments earlier. Both cars crumpled, and I saw airbags blossom in the red sedan’s shattered windshield.

  I got to my feet and out of my hiding place in a split second, pistol in my right hand, coagulator in the left. One shot took out the passenger window, and the two occupants were so shocked to see me, they didn’t even move an inch. One dart in each chest, and their eyes glazed over. They had seatbelts on, and airbags in their faces, plus, I’m not sure the doors would have opened anyway.

  “Not such a good plan, boys,” I sneered. “Where’s Mandy?”

  My phone rang. Reynolds. I threw it to Mary-Christine on the other side of the sedan, pistol leveled at the occupants. As she spoke to Reynolds, I leaned inside.

  “Where’s Mandy?”

  The driver turned slowly. “You’ll never find her.” His voice slurred almost to a standstill.

  “Oh, I think I’ll decide.”

  Our SUV lay damaged beyond use, and only Reynolds had the keys for his. “Stay here, Mary-Christine, I’ll be back soon.”

  She opened her mouth to object, then slowly nodded. “Yes, boss.”

  “Put another dart in both. Then hide back behind the rocks ‘til we get back.” I took the phone from her hand, kissed her, then smiling insanely, I took off up the hill. “Where are you, Frank?”

  “Up the hill, circle round to the left, I’m behind the chain of boulders.”

  “What’s happening at the barn?”

  “Pretty quiet. Alan’s sitting on Mandy. The Indian’s there, and two more inside.”

  “He’s sitting on her?”

  “Yeah, probably waiting on his boys bringing you in.”

  “That’s not going to happen. The vampires they sent were pretty stupid.”

  “Par for the course.”

  I reached the ridge and headed round to Frank’s position. As I crept forward, he handed me a pair of binoculars.

  There lay the barn, large as life. Mandy, lying on her back in the dusty shadow, Alan McCartney sitting on her, holding her hands down. Even at this distance, he had that shit-eating grin all over his face.

  They were arguing animatedly.

  “Can you get him, Frank?”

  “Absolutely.”

  “Get ready.” I picked up my phone and dialed Mandy.

  Looking through the binoculars, it was like watching a silent movie. Alan looked perplexed, then rummaged in her jeans pocket for the phone. I could see his quizzical look at the display. Then he put it to his ear.

  “Lyman?”

  “The very same, old friend. How’s it hanging?”

  I could see him look around, then he stood up quickly. “I take it you met my friends down the hill?” He now scanned the landscape, searching for our position. The confidence had totally drained from his demeanor.

  “They were no match for me, Alan McCartney, and neither are you.” I held the phone to my chest and whispered “now.” The retort from the rifle sounded louder than I’d envisaged, a quarter-second delay, then Alan got knocked from his feet like he’d been hit by an invisible truck. Throwing his arms wide, he staggered back ten feet, then fell to the ground. Bald Eagle vanished, then reappeared by Alan’s side, followed seconds later by the other two vampires
, looking around frantically, trying to locate our position. Reynolds fired again and the blonde man’s head simply exploded.

  Then, like watching lights go out. They all disappeared; Bald eagle and Alan first. Then Mandy. Then the last standing vampire, just milliseconds before Frank fired again.

  “GTFO!” Frank shouted, quickly scurrying backwards from the ridge.

  I followed suit. “What about Mandy?”

  “She’ll probably be waiting by the car already.”

  I saw his reasoning, and ran down the hill. Considering he carried that huge gun, Reynolds kept up. As we neared the cars, Mandy and Mary-Christine came out from between the wreckage.

  “We gotta go! I shouted, and they both made to get in the back of Frank’s car. “Where’s the two vamps?”

  “Already in the trunk.”

  Frank did a great U-turn wheel spin, and we were back on the highway in minutes. Somehow I knew that I’d never see my beloved maroon SUV again.

  Mary-Christine broke the silence. “Two vampires coagulated, and a rescue. I’d call that a good day.”

  “It gets better, Mary-Christine,” I said. “Frank took one of their heads clean off.”

  We all laughed, even Mandy as she added, “And we killed Alan McCartney, again.”

  Once we got back to Gregor, the four of us gathered around Lyman’s living room to talk about the day’s events. Lyman lay propped up on one edge of his sofa, Mary-Christine laid herself out flat, resting her head in his lap. I sat in an easy chair directly across from them and couldn’t help but notice the apology on Lyman’s face at the other girl’s familiarity. It seemed me and him were gonna have to have a private discussion later on.

  Reynolds copped a squat on the arm of the couch, far end from Lyman, with one leg straddled over either side. His arms were crisscrossed over his barrel chest, eyebrows knitted close together. Oh man; I knew that look. And I had a pretty good idea I was about to get a “severe talking to” - as my dad would have called it.

  “What the blazes were you thinking?” he started out.

  Yep. Just like dad would have.

  “You can’t go running off on these personal missions, putting yourself in jeopardy and risking the necks of everybody on your team.”