The creature watched as the human walked back to his shop. He considered approaching him again, then stalled.
It was too soon. The human was too troubled. The beast could see it in the way the man walked, his shoulders hunched, his head nearly drilling a hole in his chest as he slowly moved along. As the man neared one brownstone, he hesitated and looked up toward the building.
One of the undead was within, the creature knew. He had sensed the vampires earlier. A female and a male, but now only the female remained behind.
They were friends to the human. He wondered how that was possible, and if it was, whether he, too, could become a friend.
Once the human cured him, that was. Maybe then he could begin his life anew.
Maybe then, he thought, and bounded off in search of a meal.
Ricardo didn’t see Sara the next day as he did on most days. Of course, she could have detoured and taken a different path on her walk to and from the subway station. Or she might have had to pull another double shift. There was one easy way to find out.
Call her, the voice in his head urged for the hundredth time that day.
He picked up the phone and dialed, but it went immediately to voice mail. If she was at work in the hospital, her cell phone would probably be off, he reasoned, thinking of the hospital restrictions on such use.
Of course, if she’s avoiding you, the cell phone would be off, anyway.
Throughout the day, as he dealt with an assortment of clients, Sara lingered on his mind, as did her mother. Last night’s healing had taken a lot out of him. Thankfully, none of today’s customers had required those skills.
But something else remained stuck in his mind—how much stronger and more balanced his center had been when Sara had been by his side. He imagined how it might be between them if he could ever let her truly experience how it felt for him when he was with her. As it was, being with her was more pleasurable and rewarding than anything he had ever encountered, even though he had to rein in his emotions and desire.
It was one of the reasons he’d held off his release as long as he had last night, which maybe was a good thing. It had allowed him to pleasure Sara quite well. But he wished that for once he could just let it wash over him, as she had given in to her pleasure. Let himself explore a full and free release.
Sadly, he knew that could never happen. Not as long as he was living a lie, hiding from her what he truly was.
That troubling thought haunted him for the better part of the day. It chased him as he waited in vain for Sara to pass by the shop, and after, it weighed heavily on his mind as Samantha and her group of friends met in his shop to discuss last night’s events.
The two couples paired off as they sat, Samantha with her detective and Ryder with Diana. Again Ricardo got that weird signature from Diana’s life force, but he had little time to consider it as, after the group confirmed the creature was likely a chupacabra, Diana removed a quartet of tranquilizing guns from a bag she’d brought.
“This is for you and Samantha,” she said, handing one to Peter.
Picking up the next, she handed it to Ricardo, but as she did so, asked, “Will Sara be joining you?”
“I’m not sure.”
“You can’t go out alone, but this may come in handy for protection.”
She handed Ryder the third gun and tucked the fourth into her waistband. As she did so, her jacket shifted to reveal the holster and gun she already wore, which prompted Ricardo to comment, “So I guess this mission is capture and not kill.”
“Without a partner, your mission is to sit and wait,” Diana said. Then she looked at Peter. “I think it’s best that you and Samantha keep to the ground tonight. Ryder and I will split up—”
“You can’t risk that, Diana.” Peter leaned forward in his seat. “If you run into it—”
“Diana can handle it,” Ryder said, and placed his hand on her shoulder. Again Ricardo detected the similarity of their two auras. The blending of them almost as one. If she was human, her signature would be different. And if she was human, and Ryder was any kind of man, he wouldn’t let her go after this thing on her own. Ricardo wondered why Ryder was willing to do so.
As for himself, Ricardo didn’t intend to just sit around and wait. With his years of training as a marine, he knew how to take care of himself. “I can handle it, as well. I’ll stick to the ground. If we find it—”
“Use the cell phones and transmit a location,” Peter finished for him.
“And if you get close enough, tranquilize it,” Diana added.
With that, they all exited the shop.
Samantha and Peter immediately went one way and Ricardo headed in the opposite direction—one that would take him past Sara’s building. He hurried off, but before he got too far, he turned and looked back.
Diana and Ryder stood in front of the shop. Ryder held Diana’s cheek in his hand, and even from this distance, the anguish on his face was clear. Diana smiled and stood on tiptoe to kiss the much taller vampire. They shared a tight embrace before Ryder stepped back and, with a final caress of her face, leaped upward to land on the second-floor fire escape of the next building.
Diana turned and disappeared from sight in a burst of speed that screamed Vampire!
Ricardo could only shake his head. That explained the strange life force he’d picked up from her.
He walked toward Sara’s home, but as he rounded the corner, he noticed her coming down the steps of the building. She paused as she saw him, but then tilted her chin, pulled back her shoulders and walked in his direction.
“I didn’t think you were coming,” he said.
“I had to take care of Mami.” She shoved her hands deep in her pockets and buried her head up to the tip of her nose in the thick collar of her down jacket.
A chill settled into him, but not from the persistent cold of the early spring night. “I’m sorry she’s—”
“Better. Much, much better. She actually asked for and ate one of her favorite meals tonight.”
Joy flared to life within him before reality returned. He reached out, took Sara’s chin between his thumb and forefinger and applied gentle pressure to urge her face up to meet his gaze. “I pray that it’s not temporary.”
She yanked away from his touch. “It’s not. It’s—”
The thud and accompanying screech intruded from a few feet away. The smell came next, pungent and now clearly with the acrid sting of sulfur.
Ricardo pulled the tranquilizer gun from the pocket of his jacket.
“Packing a weapon now?” Sara asked as she assumed a defensive posture by his side.
He held the gun out to her, muzzle down, grip free for her to grasp. “Know how to use this?”
Sara grabbed the weapon and pulled back the slide to ready it for firing.
“I’ll take that as a yes.” He whipped out his cell phone and sent a text message to someone—she assumed Samantha or her friends. Then he turned his attention to her once again.
“Be my wingman.” He stepped toward the mouth of the alley.
Sara followed, tranquilizer gun ready, but close to her side to keep it out of the creature’s line of sight. If it was sentient, it would know what she held. She didn’t want to do anything that would set it off.
Incandescent light shone from the windows of the adjacent buildings, shedding just enough illumination for them to see into the alley. As before, the creature waited for them abo
ut ten feet in. It must have been in a calmer mood, for it was hunched over slightly, staring at them with its odd, glassy red eyes.
It emitted a small cackle, followed by a word she recognized from the night before. Human.
It had grown angry last night when she had acknowledged that they were human, which could only mean one thing. “Are you human?” she asked.
To their surprise, the creature seemed to clap, and hopped from foot to foot in an apparent sign of satisfaction. It reminded her of the way a small child reacted to a gift.
“Ricardo?” she said, for up until now he had been nearly immobile as he considered the creature.
Shaking his head, he said to her, “No puede ser.” It can’t be.
He didn’t believe it, and she couldn’t argue with him. The beast at the end of the alley demonstrated no human traits. Then it quieted, raised its snout with all those deadly, sharp teeth and nodded, as if to end their doubts.
“What do you want?” Ricardo asked.
The creature shook its massive head and snout. Its teeth clacked together noisily as it spoke. “H-h-help-p meee.”
Sara tried to separate the inhuman noises from the other sounds beneath. Try as she might, however, she couldn’t discern the words. Shooting a quick glance at Ricardo, she realized he hadn’t, either.
“Slower, please,” he said. “Say it slower.”
An angry blast of noise was accompanied by an agitated shake of the creature’s head. The words, if you could call them that, were louder when they came. Louder, but not any different than before.
“H-h-help-p meee.”
At their failure to comprehend, the beast grew increasingly agitated. When Ricardo raised his hands again, trying to calm it, the beast would have none of it. It rocked back and rose to its full height, then came at them.
Sara raised the gun and fired, hitting the beast when it was still feet away. The dart buried itself in the beast’s meaty chest, but the tranq did nothing to slow it down.
It barreled toward Ricardo, who quickly shifted into a defensive posture, landing a solid punch to the monster’s midsection. She came to his assistance, swinging into a roundhouse kick, but the beast blocked her, snagged her leg and with a quick snap of its powerful forearm, sent her flying against the side of the building.
The blow drove the air from her lungs and she fell to the ground.
Ricardo saw Sara go down, and moved in her direction, but the beast grabbed hold of his hands in its large taloned paws. With that touch, the monster immediately connected with him.
The dark and turbulent storm Ricardo had feared on the first day he had sensed the creature engulfed him. His brain filled with images from the beast. Angry and bitter emotions. Selfishness and greed. The storm broke over him and, like a whirlwind, sucked at the center of him, trying to draw out his power.
The creature wasn’t just a bloodsucker, it was a soul sucker, as well. One of the dark ones. As their psyches and forces mingled, Ricardo finally understood what the creature had been saying. Help me.
The creature thought it could make itself human again by using Ricardo’s power.
He yanked hard, trying to dislodge its hold on him, because he didn’t know how much longer he had. If the creature kept on pulling on his life force…
The beast suddenly released him, and through his hazy vision, Ricardo saw Sara brandishing a metal garbage can lid like a shield. What was she thinking, trying to protect herself with something so flimsy?
He tried to go to her, but, weakened by his encounter with the beast, he collapsed to the cold ground.
When he looked up, he saw shadows deeper in the alley. Were there more creatures? He feared so, until the shadowy forms came into the light and Samantha, Diana and Ryder appeared. Just in time, the trio encircled the creature, keeping it from reaching Sara. Ricardo pushed himself to his knees and took deep breaths to try and recover some strength.
As he watched, Samantha and Ryder morphed into their vampire states. Ricardo cursed beneath his breath as Sara’s stunned look made it clear that she had seen the shocking transformation.
Apparently the beast shared her fear, because it immediately retreated. With a speed almost as fast as those of his vampire friends, the chupacabra raced for the roof. Ryder and Samantha quickly followed.
Diana ran to his side, offering support, and as she did so, Peter finally arrived on the scene, clearly winded from his run to the address Ricardo had text-messaged earlier. Peter knelt beside Sara, intending to help her, but she angrily brushed aside his assistance.
Disheveled, her face bruised from her battle with the chupacabra, she approached Ricardo as he knelt on the sidewalk. Tufts of feathers escaped the slashes in her down jacket, stark white against its charcoal-gray color.
He looked up at her.
She placed her hands on her hips and glared at him. “What the hell is going on?”
Chapter 19
I t took both Diana and Peter to get Ricardo to his feet and to help him walk back the short distance to his shop.
Sara followed silently, but her anger vibrated against his battered psyche, adding even more discomfort to that left behind by the creature.
Once they were in the shop, Peter and Diana excused themselves on the pretense of making some coffee for all of them.
Ricardo slumped against the back of the couch, but Sara refused to sit. She stood before him, her hands shoved into her jacket pockets, her facial expression taut.
“What are you?” she blurted. “What are your friends?” The undue emphasis on the last word left little doubt as to her feelings about Samantha and Ryder.
“What do you think they are?”
She dragged one hand through her hair, wincing as she did so. He remembered her smashing into the wall. Was she hurt?
“Let me look—”
“Don’t touch me. Come to think of it, don’t touch my mami again, either, until you’re ready to tell me.”
“I’m a healer.” He sat up, braced his forearms on his thighs and nervously clasped his hands together. “I’m not a santero. I lied because people seemed more accepting of that than the fact that I was born with this gift.”
“The gift of healing. Just by touching?” She arched one eyebrow in a dubious expression.
“It’s not that simple, but yes. Once I gather the power I need—”
“And how do you do that?” Her gaze was fixed on his face, searching for any sign of deception.
With his hands, he motioned to the air around him. “It’s here. All around us. There’s a universal force—”
“And you just tap into it?”
With a deep sigh, he nodded, sensing that she wasn’t really buying into the whole thing. Yet she didn’t run away. She remained there, shifting nervously on her feet as if considering whether to stay or go. Finally she asked, “Is that what I felt the other night?”
He nodded, but didn’t get a chance to say anything else, since Ryder and Samantha walked into the shop at that moment.
With their entry, Sara moved quickly away from them.
Seeing her reaction, Samantha tried to explain. “We won’t hurt you.”
“You’re vampires, right?” Sara said. “Bitey, toothy, bloodsucking creatures, just like that chupacabra running around out there.” The agitation in her voice grew with each word.
“We don’t bite humans,” Ryder said, and held out his hand to Diana as she
came down the stairs, followed by Peter.
Sara watched as Diana and Peter went and stood beside the two vampires. She motioned to them. “So you two are—”
“Human,” Diana confirmed.
Ricardo had some hesitation about that statement, but kept it to himself. Sara had more than enough to deal with right now. “They’re all good guys, Sara,” he said.
“Do you think you’re a good guy, Ricardo? You lied to me and my mom. You lie to everyone who walks through that door. You have…vampires for friends.”
Something drove him at that second to force the issue. “And a crazy-ass chupacabra that used to be human, who seems to think that I can cure it.”
“Is that what it wants?” Samantha asked as she walked across the room to sit beside him. She reached out and laid a hand on his forehead. It was cold against his sweaty skin. “You need to rest, mon ami.”
“It nearly drained me. Just with its touch,” he admitted, and shot an anxious glance at Sara.
“Drained you? As in, like, a psychic kind of vampire?” she said.
He nodded and tried to explain. “I only have so much power. My own and whatever I can gather from the forces around me, or from someone or something else.”
“You can take power from people?” she asked, thinking back to the other night and the weakness she had felt.
“I can, but I usually don’t because…that’s the dark side of the gift—taking life from others. So there’s a limit to what I can do….”
Sara almost winced at the look on his face. Wordlessly, he pleaded for understanding. Not just about his gift, but about what he had been saying all along and she hadn’t wanted to listen to—that whatever he could do for her mother had limits. Limits he had possibly reached.
As much as she wanted to comfort him and make sure he was okay after his encounter with the chupacabra, it was just too much for her to take in at that moment.
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