Vampires Don't Cry: The Collection

by Ian Hall

  Her smile seemed false, but she did acknowledge my presence, and nodded. “When?”

  “No time like the present.” I turned to Valérie. “Do we still have transport?”

  “Still parked where we left it.” She got the keys from her bag, and handed them to me. “Don’t be too long. We’ve got a briefing at eight.”

  I glanced at the clock on the wall. Just over three hours.

  I pulled Mandy out of her seat, and preceded her out of the building. I waited until we’d got inside the car before I even spoke. “So what’s up?”

  She smiled. Cold, almost unfriendly. “Nothing much.”

  “Oh, there’s something, all right. Something you’re not telling me.”

  She turned away and looked out the window as I drove.

  The house looked the same. The mail had been collected and lay in a large cardboard box on the kitchen table. I didn’t have the resolve to go through it.

  “It’s just so freaking normal looking.”

  I turned, and Mandy stood in the kitchen doorway, silhouetted against the glass of the foyer. Her shoulders were shaking, and it took a few moments to see that she stood crying. I crossed to her, and tried to brush her tears away. “What’s wrong?”

  She shook her head, her mouth determined, jaws clenched. “Hold me, Lyman. Just hold me.”

  Finch pulled me away from Lyman’s bed. “You can’t help him right now, you know.”

  As I walked behind her, back to the sitting room, I felt tears build. “Will I ever be able to help him?”

  “It’s a fine line we run, us vampires. Humans and vampires will never mix.” She trotted out the equivalent of vampire corporate dogma. “No matter what you think you have, he’ll never forget you’re a killer. A bloodsucker.”

  Well, of course, that made me worse. I made my excuses and headed for the door. At first I walked around the dark parking lot, but feeling my needs rise, I took off, heading south. I needed sex, I needed to feed, and I needed both bad.

  I trolled the streets, but under the sodium lamps, nothing presented itself. No matter who I cornered, they weren’t exactly what I wanted, and it didn’t feel right.

  I ended up back at Unicorps, and got a blood pack from a nervous Brennan.

  Back in the comfy ‘conference’ room, Finch and Valérie had Howard on speaker, and chatted about strategies and take-downs. I listened for a while, then dozed off, comfortable in my big armchair, my lust sated in part by the very nice cold blood. It felt like eating a cold salad, back when I existed as a human; it kinda filled a hole, but the longing for a juicy steak hadn’t left me. When I woke, they were still at it, although the hands on the clock had moved over three hours.

  With their enthusiasm blocking me from any cogent thought, I went outside again. The birds were in full song, chirping wildly, chattering about the new dawn. Even their fervor made me a little sad.

  It seemed that I didn’t fit in anywhere anymore. Sex with Lyman, instead of bringing us together, had only created a barrier that I found hard to break. We weren’t the same. I thought of us as a lion having a relationship with an antelope, and wondering if it’d work out.

  But I also didn’t fit in with the ninja twins, planning so wildly inside the Unicorps building. I didn’t have the cold perspective they seemed to have. Regardless what Finch thought of me, I wasn’t a cold-blooded assassin.

  I sighed as the sun popped its head above the houses in the east.

  I felt tired of the killing. Tired of the constant struggle to stay alive. I longed for the early days in San Diego; those seemingly carefree weeks of the Red Roses investigation. Okay we’d topped the heads of a couple of vamps there, too, but it hadn’t been near the scale of this thing in Phoenix.

  I thought of the figures I’d heard Finch and Valérie discuss. Hundreds dead, more if they could coordinate their attacks properly.

  I sat on one of walls of the raised flower beds. If I smoked, I would have lit one right then.

  I even considered resigning. Not that I actually had a contract or anything, but just the thought of doing absolutely nothing for a day. Week. Year.

  A vacation.

  I shook my head. Who did I think I kidded? Vampires don’t have holidays. I shook my head again. Heck, I existed on the Unicorps payroll, but I didn’t even have a bank account. My face probably existed on some FBI Most Wanted list somewhere. I had Reynolds’s false driver’s license, but certainly didn’t have credentials to travel outside the U.S.

  Well, apart from Mexico. And that early attempt at seclusion now seemed sordid. My times back over the border hadn’t inspired me lately.

  After a while, one thought coalesced; this would be my last mission.

  This would be the last time Mandy Elizabeth Cross would take to the streets, killing in such a scale.

  I wanted, needed, and probably deserved a break.

  A break from absolutely everything associated with my present life.

  I first thought of the ‘Red Roses’ job as a bit of a holiday, but of course, it had soon escalated to this mass murder of my own kind.

  With new resolve, I headed back inside. Yup, they were still at it.

  But now they had maps, times, schedules.

  With this now firmly in my head as the ‘last’ mission, I decided that I needed a schedule, too.

  I walked back along the corridor and checked on Lyman. He lay out for the count, snoring in his weird, sniffling way.

  “We’ll be in the same teams as before, Mandy.” Valérie’s dry tone brought me out of my reverie as I reentered the sitting room. “You’ll be with me, Finch with Lyman.”

  “How exactly do we do this?” I asked. My only thought seemed to be getting through this week.

  I suddenly dawned on the reason for my mind-numbing funk; I felt tired of my life being ruled by ‘missions.’ I began a mantra; a schedule to the end of the mission.

  Tuesday, kill some vampires, avoid being killed. Wednesday, probably kill some more, avoid death again. Thursday recover from killing vampires. Friday, have a day off, and then get the fuck out of Dodge. Big time.

  “At the voting locations, we’ll work in two close-knit teams.” Valérie seemed oblivious to my reticence. “We will have Helsings approach the polling stations as voting stooges. We will be hovering around the Helsings, and will ‘dart and snatch’ the PMU vamps as they try their wispy ways with the prospective voters.” She even did the signs with her fingers as she said ‘dart and snatch’, all so very organized, so very corporate. “From the schedule they gave us at Alucard/PMU, there’s only going to be one vampire at each location. We’ll have a Helsing ambulance stationed close by. The Helsings inside the ambulances will help us finish off the PMU vamps.”

  “How much time do we have at each location?”

  “Ah, that’s the difficult part. If we’re going to be anywhere near effective, we have to take a vampire out every fifteen minutes. Then move on to the next location.”

  “Bloody hell.”

  “Yeah.”

  Finch took over the lecture. Their effortless, seamless ‘team’ thing would have impressed anyone else, just not me. “We have to be on the watch for any cartel muscle. We’ll have Helsing backup around us at all times, but those cartel bad boys might be the wild card in the ointment.”

  I kind of perked up a bit when Lyman staggered into the room. My, he looked pale. He asked all the pertinent questions, but it all sounded too much of a ‘replay’ for me.

  “Hey, Mandy, want to take a trip to the house? Maybe get some clean clothes for the gig?” Lyman sounded pretty enthusiastic, and I allowed him to pull me off my comfy chair.

  We drove to his house with him all chirpy and asking me what was wrong and stuff.

  All I could think of was me leaving him on Friday. Leaving him for good.

  I don’t even know when the tears started. All of a sudden I stood in the doorway, blubbering incoherently. Lyma-bean brushed the water from my face. Man, he stood way too clo
se for what I wanted.

  “What’s wrong?” he asked, his eyes far too puppy-like.

  I wanted to roar at him; “I’m leaving your life on Friday coming, so fuck me now, while you still can!” but of course, I didn’t.

  All I seemed to be able to manage was; “Hold me, Lyman. Just hold me.”

  And of course, he did just that.

  Looking back, I knew I couldn’t hold Mandy next to me, her shaking like that, before rumblings would begin in my trousers.

  And they did.

  She cried a fair bit though, and it seemed to take her a while to realize that I’d gotten past the ‘just-hold-me’ stage. Way past.

  Slowly, almost too slowly, her head lifted from being snuggled into my neck. She looked up at me, and I don’t think I’ve seen a face so full of despair in my life.

  “You’re crying, too,” she said. A glimmer of a smile shadowed across her face.

  “Of course I am. You’re infectious.”

  Her body racked once more, and her lips quivered as she wept.

  I’d never before wanted to kiss someone so badly in my life, and she stood in my arms, I just had to. I leant down, and kissed her tears away, the salty taste strange on my tongue.

  Before I knew, she kissed me back and we were making out in the doorway, just kissing, still holding, but our trouser parts were starting their own bump and grind dance below.

  “We don’t have time for this,” she mumbled between breaths.

  “I don’t care.”

  Her lips seemed on fire, and before long, I came to the realization that Mandy wasn’t crying anymore. That felt good.

  “What about Valérie?” she moaned, her bottom lip still held by my teeth.

  “I don’t want to fuck Valérie.” I grinned back, diving back down on her waiting mouth.

  “But the briefing?”

  I flipped my head back, and made a point of focusing on her eyes. “Mandy, will you shut up and kiss me?”

  For the first time that evening, a smile lit up her face.

  I changed my grip, and flipped her into my arms, walking towards the stairs. “I’m going to make love to you, Mandy Elizabeth Cross, and you, my dear are going to like it. Is that clear?”

  “Crystal,” she grinned, her arms snaking round my neck.

  Well, we didn’t rush into it.

  I took my time just undressing her, watching her body emerge from her cotton cocoon, encouraging her from ever part of her clothing, worshiping every piece of her unveiling skin. No lights were needed; we had an Arizona sunset playing the best yellows and golds on us as we swam together.

  Finally naked, I kissed and suckled on those gorgeous nipples as my fingers slipped between her legs, teasing her, caressing her, never quite touching, never quite bold enough. She replied by gripping me with fingertips so tender, I thought I’d burst. I lay back and just let her touch me. It felt wonderful. When I ran my hand back to her sex, I found hers already there, her fingers already buried. I intertwined fingers with hers, and I joined them inside.

  It seemed we’d dallied for hours, but still the light came through the window, shining on Mandy’s glistening body, making it special, somehow ethereal.

  When I entered her, it seemed as if for the first time. My fingers, still coated in her juices, I rubbed all over her body, my senses drowning in the sensual vampire musk.

  I looked her in the eye, and punctuated each word with a thrust of my dick. “I love you, Mandy Cross.”

  “I know,” she replied simply, drawing my mouth down to hers.

  It felt ‘right’ for the first time in my life. My thoughts of all others were pushed from my mind. No more guilt about poor Mary-Christine, and the psychological trauma of her having been my first. No more culpability in Elena’s death. Yes I’d killed her, but it had to happen one day, and she’d been about to divulge our greatest strategy secret.

  I lay in this girl’s arms and we actually loved each other, in the bed, on the floor, against the wall. To delve into romance jargon, we played tunes on each other’s bodies, and it sounded like a symphony.

  We made love into the darkness, and fell asleep in each other’s arms, my stiff penis still inside her, her legs tangled in mine.

  A distant phone ringing brought me back to life.

  Mandy squirmed beside me, and I embraced her again, my hand cupping her ass, pulling her against me.

  ‘Time?” I shot upright suddenly.

  Mandy jumped away from me. “Crap.”

  I jumped from the bed and ran towards the sound of my phone. Trouser pocket, thrown against the wall.

  Valérie.

  “Hello?”

  “Hi, you’re late for the meeting.” Her voice sounded unemotional.

  “Yeah, give me half an hour.”

  I took the quickest shower on record, and got into some clean clothes as Mandy showered, too. As I dressed, I did sneak a few looks at her, washing herself, hands running over the skin I’d worshipped just minutes ago. She looked simply gorgeous.

  In my head I couldn’t help thinking; ‘I’m fucking her’, and it felt good inside.

  Once back at Unicorps, we were led to an already crowded conference room. Big table, all chairs filled, and people standing around the outside of the room. Heads all turned in our direction of course, but I didn’t give a crap. I walked in with the best-looking girl following me, and I’d just fucked her, and I felt on top of the world.

  We both were given folders. My name printed on a sticker on the front of mine, all very corporate.

  As Valérie spoke, I grounded quickly. Looking inside the folder, I saw my team, my support team; Hideo. I quickly looked around the room, and found him looking back at me, grinning. I gave him a thumbs-up and pointed to the folder, then at my chest; my best interpretation of ‘glad you’re in my team’ kind of thing.

  Gloves were off, and the mission well and truly begun.

  I’d like to say that I have no idea why I went with Lyman to his house, but I’d be lying.

  I knew exactly why I went. When I stood in the doorway to the kitchen, the only reason I started crying was because I knew that I planned to leave him on Friday. Five days, and Lyma-bean would be history. I had no idea that it would make me cry.

  He held me much longer that I expected him to. I’d almost given up on him when I felt him eventually rising to the occasion. Man, that bulge felt damn good to rub myself against.

  When he carried me up to his big bed, I thought it felt kinda good to be treated special for once. And I don’t know where he learned all his kissy, fingery techniques from, but it worked on me, I can tell you. When he eventually put his dick inside me, it felt damn, damn good.

  But that sadness remained in me all the way through the wonderful explosion of emotions. I accepted that this would be my last and final round with the guy that’d become my very best friend ever; way better than Cami could have ever hoped to be. The last time I’d grip his dick. The last time I’d take it in my mouth. The last time we’d feel that rush together like pornography professionals who’d practiced together for years. The last time I’d lie beside him in a wonderful afterglow. The last time he’d gently snore beside me.

  When the phone rang, I wasn’t asleep, just resting, enjoying the long moment. Lyman rushed to the shower, and of course, I had to clean him from my body; we’d be dealing with vampires for the next forty-eight hours, and they had keen noses.

  Valérie and Finch looked real pissed off when we got to the briefing though. I smiled inside, knowing the reason for our tardiness, and basked in the emotion all over again.

  I hardly heard a thing, knowing I’d catch up with it all later.

  The order of execution. The weapons. The tactics, yeah, yeah, yeah.

  The first voting location opened at six, so we had to be in position at four to observe the ‘enemy ingress.’ I cringed inwardly, then grinned. Five days and I would be gone from this for good.

  As they bandied tactics around, I thought of
Chris, lying in a sick bed in Chicago. Maybe I’d take him with me. Take him to some deserted island somewhere and nurse him back to health on my own. Just anywhere that I didn’t have to deal with killing every day.

  Five days. Well, four almost, now.

  The two takedown teams split up and Lyman was gone. Probably for the good; I’d been dwelling on the last fuck for far too long. Even though it had been utterly dreamy. Even without the vampire exchange of blood at climax, he seriously took top place in my lover list.

  Valérie came into the room, looking like she was going to the mall. Sensible shoes, tight jeans, pink hoodie, and baseball cap.

  She handed me a scarf. “We’ll be like ninjas again, but daylight colors. That way if we lose hold of each other, or for any other reason, we appear on surveillance cameras, we won’t be recognized. If for any reason you do become visible, you head for the next location, where an ambulance will be waiting. This is the importance of the multiple Helsing ambulances on Election Day. Each team will have one vehicle dealing with and disposing of the bodies, one collecting the actual target of the moment, and one parked in advance.”

  Somehow I’d missed the addition of a third ambulance in each team. I hid my confusion, and determined to pay more attention.

  She gave me a Căluşari roll. “Wear this below your hoodie. If anything happens to me, you’ll have to take over and do as much as you can by yourself.”

  I nodded, wondering how the nine ambulance Helsing guys in the room thought I’d stay invisible without her holding on to me, but held my tongue. The staying invisible without touching thing would remain the secret of the sister ninjas.

  We checked our weapons, hopefully for the last time. The dart guns would be used at very close quarters, probably even touching the victim. Our biggest problem would be not hitting each other, considering we couldn’t see neither friend nor foe.

  I got introduced to the three guys who’d partner us for our first strike; Judy Miller.

  I shook hands with Dave, Chuck, and Terry.