by J. P. Rice
“Really?”
“Just kidding.” She smiled and finished her Pabst Blue Ribbon. “You gotta relax there, bud. You seem like you’re wound tighter than an about to explode hot dog.”
“What? What does that even mean?” I settled down and explained, “I have to be serious because everyone looks to me to solve all these supernatural cases. It’s a lot of pressure.”
Glenda smirked and tossed the empty can in my garbage can. “That’s why I’m here to help you out. Let’s go to the bank now.”
“Go to the bank. What are you talking about?” Did she really expect to get paid up front?
She rolled her eyes, indicating I was being an idiot. She spoke slowly, mocking me, “Well, let’s see. I mean let’s go to the bank. So you can give me the money for the job.”
I stared into her dark eyes. “You’ll get paid at the completion of the job. Nice try.”
Glenda stood up and her chair flew backward. She shook her head. “No way, sucker. What if I get killed during the job? I always get paid up front, so I can go on a bender and live it up in case I die. It’s a little ritual of mine that seems to be working.”
Her nagging reminded me of Dante when he wanted something. But she gave Felix and me the best chance of coming home from Japan. Alive, of course. My bones being sent home for burial wouldn’t count.
I said, “See if you can keep your burping to a minimum at the bank. And if you’re good, I’ll make sure they give you a lollipop. Beer flavor if they have it.”
Glenda Gold smirked and shook her head. “Ass.”
And with that offhand comment, it looked like I had a new member of the squad.
We were ready for Japan and Shuten dōji now.
Chapter 17
I sipped my ginger ale in the back of the limo on the way to pick up Glenda. Soon, we would be on our way to Japan. Leaning back into the soft leather, I took the plastic cylinder of Dramamine out of my pocket.
I’d never flown on a plane before, but I’d read that this stuff helped with motion sickness. As I popped the lid off, we hit a pothole causing me to spill a few pills onto the seat. I brushed them onto the floor and tossed two pills into my mouth. Reaching out, I grabbed my drink from the cupholder.
Tilting the glass back against my bottom lip, I chased the pills down. Felix sat across from me wearing his giant headphones. I could hear the music faintly as he bobbed his head around. He took a hit from his vape pen and exhaled a monster cloud of cinnamony smoke.
Somehow, I was getting used to his vape machine. At least the smell of it. I still wasn’t convinced that it was safer than cigarettes, but it smelled a hell of a lot better than them. Felix was turning into a good friend. After a rocky start when I’d thought he was trying to pick up my girlfriend, we’d put all that stuff aside. We made for a pretty solid dynamic duo.
I wasn’t sure what to expect from Glenda on the trip. Other than some extremely colorful banter, of course. And maybe her drinking half the sake in Japan. We were picking her up at the tail end of her bender. I could only wonder what condition she would be in. Luckily, she could sleep the entire flight so that wouldn’t be a problem.
I was worried more about her going through withdrawal if we couldn’t find any sauce in the remote areas of Japan. I’d only heard of sake and Sapporo, so I wasn’t exactly an expert on Japanese booze.
The Dramamine was causing a little drowsiness, so I closed my eyelids. My phone buzzed in my pocket and I pulled it out. Phone call from Satoku. My ex-girlfriend. I tucked the phone back into my pants. Now wasn’t the time for that call. I waited for the phone to buzz again for a voice message, but it never did.
The driver pulled off onto the side of the road. His voice came over the intercom, “Gentlemen. We seem to be having a slight problem with the engine. Not to worry. Help is already in the area.”
Felix removed his headphones and asked, “What’s going on? Why we stopped?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “Engine issues.”
Felix asked, “Are we still going to be able to make the flight?”
“I think so.” I knew Jonathan ran a pretty tight operation, so I trusted the driver’s assessment. “It’s a private jet, anyway. They can’t leave without us, right?”
“They still run on a schedule. You can’t just change that time because you’re late. I hope this doesn’t take long.” He put his headphones back on and leaned back.
Less than a minute later, a Cadillac Escalade pulled up and parked behind us. Two vampires in business suits emerged, shielding the sun from their eyes, even though they were wearing sunglasses, and walked toward the limo. That was quick.
Felix gave me a thumbs up and closed his eyes. I did the same and tried to relax. Hopefully, this would only take a few minutes. Just when I was ready to fall asleep, the back door opened.
My eyes shot open. An arm in a suit jacket entered the vehicle, lunging at me. Four long fingers tipped with claws wrapped around my ankle. As I called on my magic to come to the surface, the powerful hand pulled me toward the open door. Another arm reached over the first man and grabbed my other ankle. Both men worked together and dragged me out of the vehicle.
Before I could break away, the two men lifted me up and mashed my face into the side of the vehicle. The men acted quickly. Using police grade handcuffs, they secured my arms behind my back. One of the men spit out a quick Latin phrase that I didn’t recognize. I assumed he was casting a protection ward on the cuffs for extra security.
“We have you now. Murderer,” the vampire whispered close to my ear.
What the fuck? Had they found out about Reg? I tried to play it off and spoke without emotion. “What are you talking about? I’m no murderer.”
The man kept his voice low, but it wasn’t quite at a whisper anymore, “You got away with killing two of our kind already. We will not let you get away with a third. Even if he was still a new recruit.”
Fuck. It was the vampires from the Purple House. Time to call on the big guns. “Jonathan is going to kick your asses when he finds out about this.”
“Jonathan is on vacation, stupid,” he said, raising his voice.
I went to talk again, but the men stuffed a rag in my mouth. It smelled and tasted like cleaning polish. I could feel them tying it in a firm knot against the back of my head. Bound and gagged, they pushed me toward the back of the vehicle.
I tried to resist when I saw the open trunk, but the two men had substantial power and worked well as a team. One of them scooped me up by my legs and the other held my upper body. Without care, they tossed me into the trunk and slammed it closed.
In complete darkness, I breathed in the thick, pungent air through my nose. The cleaning rag in my mouth made it even more uncomfortable, sending bloody panic into my veins and through my body. The vehicle started to move, and I wondered what the hell was going on. Had they kidnapped Felix too? Or were they just after me?
I knew one thing. I was in some deep trouble. Jonathan, the leader of the Purple Clan of Vampires, was one of the most powerful vampires in Pittsburgh. The vampires had eight different clans separated by colors. All the leaders like Jonathan were members of a joint council to keep the peace in Pittsburgh. They enforced strict rules on their own houses to keep out of the crosshairs of the police.
We drove for what seemed like an hour and sweat emerged from every pore, leaving a nervous film over my body. How had they found out I’d killed Reg? What kind of punishment did they have in mind?
My mind had shifted from filling the Blood Goblet on a great adventure to immediate survival. Pure and simple. I wasn’t getting out of the cuffs. Someone had set a complex spell on them and without being able to see the handcuffs, they weren’t coming off.
My biggest problem was the fading oxygen. Each breath felt heavier than the last. How many more breaths were left? Barely any air was coming in and a ton was going out. The Dramamine and delirium of being in the trunk caused my eyelids to get heavy. Panic tried to fight agai
nst it, lifting my eyelids. It screamed at me that if I closed my eyes, they might never open again.
The limo finally came to a stop and the trunk popped open a crack. I moved my head toward the opening and sucked the fresh air in through my nose. It was still heavily peppered with a cleaning polish taste, but I wasn’t going to die.
Two vampires pulled me out of the trunk. I should have known. My two nemeses from the Purple House of vampires. Roydell and Timson. They didn’t like me, and the feeling was more than mutual.
They poked me in the back, guiding me toward the entrance of the Purple House. Two vampires I didn’t recognize raced out the front door and ran up to me. Roydell and Timson stepped aside. The two new men lifted me up, laid me out horizontally and carried me under their arms like a rolled-up carpet. The men carried me into a room I’d never been in before. Dim candlelight was the only source of illumination.
They sat me in a chair and guided my arms behind the back of the chair. They secured my ankles to the legs of the wooden chair and mercifully removed the gag. If my mouth wasn’t so dry I’d try to spit out the funky taste in my mouth, but just breathing through my mouth was a real treat right now.
“Where is he?” asked a vampire with a long scar running across his cheek.
“Where is who?” I returned in an angered tone. “And who the hell are you?”
“My name, which should be your last concern right now, is Del Rubio. The man you claimed to be friends with is whom I speak of.” He stood in front of me and opened his suit jacket. The vampire brushed his thumb against the horse engraved into the pearl grip of his Colt Revolver. It looked like the fancy Detective Special with the nice engraving. He looked down at the gun, then up at me, and said, “Don’t be coy. You know who we are talking about. Reginald Danforth.”
I rolled my eyes. “I’m not being coy. Every time someone goes missing, are you guys going to blame me?”
Del Rubio closed his suit jacket angrily and yelled, “We blame you for good reason, boy. We held a séance last night and we spoke to Reginald. He had some very interesting things to tell us.”
That explained my kidnapping better. “Why would you need a séance to talk to him?”
“Because he isn’t in this world anymore,” he said, pacing in front of me. “He’s straddling the line between life and death. He wants to come back to life, but he can’t tell us where he is buried. Why don’t you tell us?”
This was getting worse by the second. I remained as calm as I could. “What in the hell are you talking about?”
“Reginald told us that you buried a wooden stake into his heart and buried him in the remote woods. However, he doesn’t know the exact location.” Del Rubio leaned his ugly mug closer to my face. “Just tell us where he is so we can revive our mutual friend. We’ll let you go, no questions asked.”
This put me in a really difficult spot. Fu—uck. If I admitted to it, the vamps would kill me. That no questions asked was bullshit.
If I didn’t, Reg would remain buried underground. Could I trust the vampires to tell the truth? Was this all a big trick to kill me because these guys had it in for me? I was so fucking confused right now.
“Tell us where he is, or you will suffer,” threatened the vampire.
I shook my head. “I wish I could tell you. That is, if you are telling the truth.”
Del Rubio’s dark eyes narrowed, his pasty forehead wrinkled, and his nose flared in anger. He raised his voice, “We have no reason to lie. Neither does your friend. We will have another séance tonight. And you shall be the guest of honor. You can see with your own eyes that your friend is suffering. Timson.” He turned around and his vampire associate was nodding in agreeance. “Let’s leave this man to think about his transgressions.”
Del Rubio and Timson blew out the candles, put out the torches and exited. In complete darkness, I wrestled with a difficult choice. My best friend or me?
Chapter 18
A firm slap across the face woke me up. I sat up and stretched my back out as best I could under the circumstances of being bound to a chair. Immediately, I noticed they had changed my bonds. Chains had been wrapped around my ankles and my hands were still bound behind the back of the chair. I moved my wrists around and it felt like a coarse rope had been exchanged for the handcuffs.
The man standing in front of me said, “No sleeping. You need to atone for your sins.” It was the same man who had initially interrogated me. Del Rubio.
A tall, slender vampire lit a few candles and placed them in certain areas on the round table in front of me. Then he took long sticks of incense and placed them in several holders. He lit the incense sticks and a smell of cherry pipe tobacco filled the room.
A sudden burst of soft classical music came through the speakers built into the walls. Light. Soft. Soothing. Oh shit. He was setting up a séance or some type of modern necromancy where they contacted the dead. I wasn’t familiar with those crafts. I had so much to learn.
They were going to summon Reg right in front of me.
I was surprised they would do it like this. These types of things normally only worked if there wasn’t any negative energy in the room. I’d be damned if I was going to be a positive influence on this procedure.
I asked, “What’s your name? I need to make a list for Jonathan. I can’t wait until he hears about this. You’re in for a real shit storm if you’re taking part in this.”
The younger man who didn’t look older than a teenager laughed. I laughed along with him until it bordered on maniacal. With a crazed look on my face, I stared blankly at the kid and said, “I wouldn’t want to give up my name either if I were you. I haven’t seen it, but I’ve heard Jonathan is vicious. Several stories have it that he can crush a man’s skull with a single punch. See, your problem is that your skull still isn’t fully developed. He’d pop your head open like a coconut.”
The young vampire’s pale face went flush. He swallowed, licked his crusty lips and said, “And what would you say if you found out he told us to do this?”
“I would say you’re a fucking liar. I’m valuable to Jonathan. Much more valuable than an incense lighter.”
“I’m the best medium in the Purple House. I’m rather confident in my value. Just tell us where Reginald is, and we will let you go.” He dumped some white powder on the other side of the table and pulled out a hand blown, multi-colored glass straw. The nameless vampire took out his license and used it to push the powder around. He put the glass straw up his nostril, pinched the other one shut and snorted a long line. He raised his face, wide eyed, and screamed, “Whoooo.”
“What ya snorting there?” I wanted to know.
“It is the essence of my connection with the other worlds and liminality. In substance, it is ground ivory unicorn horn. Care to bang a line with me, mere mortal? That is a mortal who could die at any moment and be gone forever. To avoid that type of cruel fate, I suggest you tell us where Reginald is and we let bygones be bygones.” He rubbed his nose with his thumb and forefinger.
Yeah right. The vamps would let me go. Sure. Straight to a waiting noose. And did this joker really believe that powder was unicorn horn?
There weren’t any windows in the room, so I had no clue what time it was. Thunder cracked and rumbled, echoing around the open room, but that still didn’t give me any indication as to the time. If I was going to make a break for it, I wanted to do it during the day when the vampires’ powers weren’t as sharp.
The young medium left the room and returned a few minutes later. He sported a lazy smile and glossy red eyes as he pushed in Reg’s wheelchair with a few things on it. He parked the chair at the table and picked up the clothes on the seat. He laid out the apparel on the wheelchair as if Reg was sitting in it.
Using his index and middle finger, he picked up a small cylindrical glass bottle that appeared to be full of blood and set it in the middle of the table.
He left and returned again with something in his hands and dumped it on
the table. I squinted and gazed through the candlelight at two small objects, one black, one silver. He set down the circular silver item and I recognized it as a Sterno heating device. He popped off the small cap and smelled the pink gel inside.
Seemingly satisfied, he recapped it and set up the tiny cauldron. The black cast iron pot was hanging from a golden tripod. He positioned it so that it hung right above the Sterno lighter.
A heavy downpour smacked into the side of the mansion creating an even more ominous setting. The vampire walked over to the door, stopped, and said, “See you at midnight.”
My head slumped down from exhaustion and I fell asleep again. Another slap across my face caused me to rise from my slumber. How long had I been out for?
Opening my eyes, I saw seven vampires around the table. Del Rubio, Roydell and Timson were the only attendees I knew by name, but I’d seen a few others around the house before and I’d gotten acquainted with the medium earlier.
Speaking of the young vampire, he put a full glass of water on the table, near the center. He surrounded the glass of water with candles. Timson strutted around like he was King of the World. The vampire with a lean, narrow face, strong jaw and aquiline nose was wearing black pants and a dress shirt with a thin brown leather tie, knotted with a silver and turquoise clasp. His purple top hat bordered on ridiculous, hiding his short jet-black hair.
The medium lit the Sterno device under the cauldron, refreshed the incense sticks and lit a few torches ensconced in the walls. The other vampires started taking their seats at the table. Roydell sat across from me, shaking his head slowly while maintaining eye contact in an attempt to intimidate me.
Roydell had pale skin, bright lips, big puffy cheeks and reddish-brown eyes. He sported a wicked combover with his thinning black hair. The vampire was dressed to impress in purple suit pants and a matching dress shirt. Over top, he was wearing an Egyptian blue long jacket and matching bow tie. I would love to kick his ass in his nice Sunday clothes.