Dark Corner

by Brandon Massey

  How could she disobey the words of a man who might be, quite literally, on his deathbed? Abandon David? Desert her hometown?

  She couldn't do it, not ever.

  She began to stride across the walkway, to the street. She glimpsed quick movement in the corner of her eye-a large shape. Then she heard the low, threatening growl.

  She stopped, her heart clutching.

  A red Doberman trotted along the curb. There was another dog, a bullmastiff, posted on the opposite curb. The canine on her side of the street rested on its haunches and watched her. The other hound faced David.

  These were not the same animals that they had seen outside the cave. How many of these supernatural attack dogs were out there?

  Her own words, spoken in Franklin's hospital room, came to her.

  11 ... a person can be turned, I guess you could call it, by being bitten by one of those mutts that serves the vampires ... "

  She reached her hand into the purse to get the revolver. The Doberman grumbled, its eyes narrowing.

  She slid her hand out of the purse. The dog quieted.

  "What do you want?" she said, in a whisper. "What the hell are you here for?"

  Inside David's house, King barked furiously, pawing at the window, the curtains swaying.

  Like a rapidly moving shadow, a blot of blackness flashed along the middle of the road. And stopped.

  It was Kyle Coiraut. The vampire.

  Chapter 13

  f David had harbored any remaining doubts about the existence of vampires, they were squashed when Kyle Coiraut appeared in the street with the speed of a cold wind.

  The vampire wore fewer garments than he had been wearing when David had seen him earlier in the day. He was clad in a long-sleeved black shirt, black pants, black boots. The sunglasses, gloves, jacket, and hat were gone.

  A drooling hound stood guard behind Kyle. David saw a Doberman on the other side of the road, blocking Nia's path.

  Kyle looked at Nia. Seeming to dismiss her, he faced David.

  David noticed that Kyle held a book. It was the Bible, which David had lost when running out of the woods.

  Shit, David thought. What does this guy want from me?

  Behind David, King snapped relentlessly. David wished the dog were at his side, though King might not be able to protect him against the two monster hounds and the vampire. Standing on the crutches, with no weapon whatsoever, he was defenseless and vulnerable.

  A large black bird swooped out of the night sky and landed on the Pathfinder's roof. David thought nothing of the bird, but Kyle glared at the creature, then turned to David.

  "You must explain how you came to possess this," Kyle said. He tapped the cover of the Bible.

  "Why do you need to know?" David said.

  The dogs growled. The Doberman moved to flank Kyle.

  "Do not waste my time with needless debating!" Kyle shouted. "Do you know the man who took my father away from me? Are you his ancestor? Speak, human, or I will tear the words out of your throat!"

  David's hands were clammy on the handles of the crutches. In the corner of his eye, he glimpsed the front door of the house. There was no way he could make it inside before the vampire or the dogs caught him.

  Answering the creature's questions was an almost equally dangerous course. The puzzle pieces were shifting into place. Someone in David's family-he'd have to contemplate the family tree to discover who-had been responsible for imprisoning Diallo, the head vampire, in the cave, just as the drawings in the Bible depicted. Kyle blamed David's ancestor-and, by extension, him for doing so.

  David could not tell him the truth, and telling a lie would not help, either.

  "You will reveal the truth" Kyle began to march forward, and his dogs kept pace with him. "Or else, my hounds will rend you to pieces."

  David retreated. Hands shaky on the crutches. Praying that he did not stumble.

  King was in a frenzy of barking.

  Atop the Pathfinder, the bird squawked, ruffled its dark wings. It was not a crow, as David had first thought. It was a raven. Ravens were bigger than crows.

  Hadn't he seen one just like this a few days ago, when he'd visited his father's cabin?

  Kyle glared at the raven. "You will not stop me. Not anymore ""

  David stopped in his clumsy retreat, confused.

  The raven and the vampire were locked in a staring match.

  What is going on? David thought.

  "You will not stop me!" Kyle said. He waved his hand.

  The hounds launched forward.

  Jesus, I can't get away from them. They'll pull me down before I get anywhere near the door.

  He turned to flee. One of the crutches slipped out of his grasp and clattered against the ground. Robbed of his balance, he fell and slammed against the grass.

  Through his haze of pain, he saw a dark mass wheeling in the sky. Birds?

  The dogs, maybe only a dozen feet away from David, squealed. Their ears flattened against their heads.

  The winged creatures screeched.

  No, not birds. Bats.

  The bats swarmed to the ground in a black funnel, leathery wings battering the air.

  David covered his head, but they did not attack him. The bats attached themselves to the dogs, and enveloped Kyle, too. The vampire shielded his head with his arms and shouted curses.

  Wailing, the dogs fled. Kyle zigzagged blindly across the yard, trying to shake off the horde of bats, flailing his hands in an attempt to knock them away. He finally broke away from them and vanished down the street in a black blur.

  As suddenly as it had arrived, the swarm spiraled into the sky, and out of sight.

  Breathing hard, David looked at the raven perched atop his truck.

  It watched him for several heartbeats. Then it flew away into the night.

  Nia ran across the street and helped David stand.

  "Oh, my God," she said. "Are you okay?"

  "I'm all right, a little shaken up," he said. "But I think my mind is blown."

  King was still barking, though less vehemently.

  "Can you please let him out?" he said. "He's going nuts in there."

  Nia opened the door. King bounded outside and leapt onto David so enthusiastically that David almost fell down.

  "Easy, boy." He stroked the dog's head. "I'm okay."

  "We have to talk about what happened," Nia said. "That was unbelievable."

  "Yeah, and it gives us a bunch more questions, too"

  David reached down to rub King's neck, but the dog wandered away from David's side and roved across the grass, sniffing.

  "Don't run off, King," David said.

  The dog poked his snout into the grass and retrieved an object. Holding it between his teeth, he brought it to David.

  It was the Bible.

  In the house, David and Nia locked every door. They shut and locked every window, too.

  If a vampire or a canine minion was going to get them, it would have to break in, David thought.

  He was rattled by the vampire's thwarted assault, but he was determined to hold up. They had too much work ahead of them for him to lose his nerve.

  They kept Franklin's gun on the dinette table. King sat near the kitchen doorway, his dark eyes unusually vigilant.

  After Nia brewed a pot of strong coffee, they sat at the table and pieced together their ideas about the vampires in Mason's Corner.

  "I think William Hunter is the man who's in these draw ings," David said. He had revisited the lineage of Hunter men traced on the inside cover of the Bible, then begun to page through the illustrations. "William lived through the early and mid-eighteen hundreds, around the time that Diallo apparently attacked a plantation that William lived on." He put his finger on the drawing that showed William and some other men battling a horde of savages-vampires, presumably-on the plantation.

  "Yes" Nia cupped her coffee mug, as if for warmth.

  David flipped to another page. "But William and a few o
f these guys somehow escaped, met up with some Indians, and tracked the vampires to the cave, where they were probably asleep during the day. The vampires' monster dogs guarded the cave. The guys had to kill those suckers before they could get inside."

  "And I bet it wasn't easy," Nia said. "That might explain why the number of good guys drops from seven to four. Three of them either didn't survive fighting the mutts, or ran away, I guess"

  "I think you're right. Then, inside the cave, our heroes attacked the vampires with guns, arrows, and fire," David said. "It doesn't look like they stopped the big guy, Diallo. He still came after them"

  "Until someone probably set off some dynamite and brought down the walls," Nia said. "Sealed up that joker in there"

  "And that was the end of it," David said. "But my ancestor, William, was never the same after that. He became this fearless freedom fighter. I remember hearing the stories about him roaming throughout the South, helping slaves escape to the North. Then, like Franklin told us, he had a hand in the insurrection at Edward Mason's plantation."

  "Yep," Nia said. "Right alongside with my relative, and the ancestors of a good number of people who live in town today."

  David closed the Bible. He sipped the coffee, his stomach fluttering with excitement. Everything was beginning to fall into place.

  "Now," he said. "Vampires are supposed to be immortal. Diallo scribbled a message on the wall about rising again to slay his enemies, then he dug himself a grave, and went to sleep. In the movies, vampires can sleep for a long time for years, really."

  "So Diallo slept until his son, Kyle, came to town and dug him up," Nia said. She suddenly put down her mug. "Damn. I know why people have been disappearing."

  "Why?" he said. He sensed that he knew the reason, too.

  "Diallo has been asleep for, what, a hundred and fifty plus years?" Nia said. "He needs to be revitalized, to have his strength restored. He's been drinking the blood of the people who have dropped out of sight."

  "You've got to be right. Kyle is hunting people-food for Diallo. Kyle and those demon dogs"

  "I'm afraid to think about how many people he's taken" Nia lowered her head. "I really doubt they're alive."

  "Unfortunately, you're probably right. But I'm willing to bet that Kyle took the victims to the Mason place. Diallo has to be there"

  "Where else?" She laughed bitterly. "But as bad as things have been, we haven't seen the worst of this yet. When Diallo is healthy and starts walking around, all hell is going to break loose. I can feel it. Those drawings are like a warning of what we've got ahead of us"

  "True" David tapped his lip. "But there's an x-factor in the mix."

  "The big black bird we saw outside," she said. "The bats."

  "Someone is protecting us. Kyle shouted at the raven, `You can't stop me.' Then the bats attacked him and the dogs. Someone wants to keep us alive. But who, and why? I've got no idea."

  "Whoever it is, they can't really be a bird," Nia said. "You think?"

  "Nia, at this point, nothing would surprise me. Shoot, I wouldn't be surprised if King opened his mouth and started singing like James Brown"

  The dog turned in their direction, ears perked.

  "I'm grateful to whomever helped us," David said, "but I'm afraid to trust that they'll bail us out again. We don't know this person's agenda. For all we know, they might only be keeping us from harm until Diallo finds us"

  "He's going to be so pissed when he finds out who you are," Nia said. "The ancestor of the man who penned him up in the cave. That scares me, David."

  David reached across the table and grasped her hands in his.

  "It scares me, too," he said. "But we've got to stay strong, figure out how we can win this thing once and for all. My ancestor's legacy has fallen to me, Nia. But, God knows, I have no idea what to do. I'm flying by the seat of my pants"

  "Let's call Chief Jackson, for starters," she said. She went to the wall phone and punched in the number that was scrawled on the phone's console. "Hello, this is Nia James. May I speak to Chief Jackson, please? He's not available? Can you page him? It's urgent"

  Nia shook her head sadly. She hung up.

  "He's not around," she said, "and he can't be reached"

  "Then we'll try him first thing tomorrow morning."

  "What do we do tonight?" she asked.

  "Stay inside, then go on-line and research vampires, I guess. And most important of all: stay alive."

  Diallo was in the basement, watching television, when Kyle returned.

  His father sat upright in bed, pillows plumped behind his back, viewing a history documentary. As part of Kyle's plan to aid Diallo's adjustment to modern life, he had provided an extensive library of films, books, and audio tapes for his fa ther to study. By candlelight, Diallo would watch videos, read, and listen to cassettes from dusk until sunrise, breaking only to feed. Diallo pursued his studies with the same single-minded focus with which he fed on live prey.

  He learned rapidly, too. In little more than a week, he displayed a knowledge of contemporary society, politics, and culture that astonished Kyle. His father had frequently engaged him in challenging, thought-provoking conversations.

  This will be one of the more challenging discussions, Kyle thought, as he went to the bed.

  Diallo lifted the remote control and muted the television volume. "What happened, my son?"

  In a low, halting voice, Kyle explained the debacle that had occurred when he encountered the young man, David Hunter.

  "Lisha is protecting this man," Diallo said. "Do not be ashamed. There was nothing you could have done. Her power is too great."

  "But why would she care about a human? She attacked me to protect a man!"

  Diallo folded his hands behind his head. Kyle had expected his father to be enraged, but he appeared amusedpleased, even.

  "This incident proves our suspicious are true, my son. David Hunter is a direct descendent of the man who imprisoned me. Lisha is wise. She understands how the hand of Destiny loves to repeat its moves. She knows that to fulfill her wishes, she should work with Destiny, not against it."

  "I don't understand"

  "Your mother wants to destroy me," Diallo said in a flat voice. "My existence is a threat to her. She worries, as she always has, that my acts of vengeance will call attention to our kind and risk shattering the safe shell of anonymity in which she lives. She cares only about self-preservation."

  "But why keep this man safe? What makes him so valuable?"

  "Do you still not understand? It is the man's lineage that makes him so crucial to the success of her mission to rid the earth of me. Lisha believes that he will respond to the call of duty, to attempt to destroy me-as his forefather attempted. Ordinary men can be stirred to great courage when their family's legacy is at stake. I know, for I was once such a man myself."

  Kyle absorbed his father's words, reluctantly admitting that he was right. It was painful to think that Mother could be so selfish in preserving her own safety. She had said that she loved both him and Diallo, but how could you love someone and then participate in bringing about their demise? It was mad.

  "Lisha is a masterful strategist," Diallo said. "But she is not omnipotent. My strength is building, and I will attain more power than she realizes. Enough to defeat her attempts to intervene with my destiny." Diallo's eyes burned. The candle flames in the chamber danced, as if blown by a wind.

  Kyle clenched his hands into fists.

  "Tell me what to do, Father," he said.

  In response, Diallo raised his hand.

  Across the basement, the storm doors flew open with a crash.

  Outdoors, the dogs had gathered around the doorway. A young woman stood in their midst-the same human Kyle had let escape the other night. But she was no longer an ordinary woman. She wore a ragged hospital gown stained with mud and blood. Stringy hair was matted against her face, and dried blood stained her chin. Her eyes were full of hunger, inhuman need.

  "She is
one of the valduwe," Diallo said softly. "The first one we've created. I summoned her to us ""

  Her bare feet frosted with dirt, the woman floated down the stone steps and into the cellar. She approached Kyle.

  Kyle had seen a valduwe only once, decades ago, and he marveled at his father's creation.

  "I'm hungry," the female said in a raspy voice. She watched Kyle expectantly.

  Kyle looked at his father, confused.

  "She will obey you, as she obeys me," Diallo said. "Take her and the dogs. Invade the town and multiply our numbers. It is time to build our army."

  David and Nia spent the rest of the evening in the office, surfing the Internet for information about vampires: specifically, how to kill them.

  The house was silent. The only noises were the hum of the air conditioner, and the occasional snuffling of the wind at the windows. David had relaxed a little, but he kept the gun at his side.

  As they researched, he questioned the value of their findings. Every resource they found explained how vampires were destroyed in fiction. They found nothing that described how a bonafide bloodsucker could be defeated. And why would they? No one really believed the monsters were real.

  "There's nothing new here," he finally told Nia, after they'd spent over two hours at the computer. She sat beside him near the desk, a notepad and pen in her lap.

  "Protect yourself with a crucifix, garlic, and holy water," Nia said, running down her list. "Drive a wooden stake into their hearts, chop off their heads, burn their bodies to ashes. Drag them into the sunlight-"

  "Sunlight doesn't kill them," David said. "Kyle's been walking around during the day, though he covers his skin."

  "Right," she said. "He sure as hell didn't burst into flames, the way the vampires in the movies do "" She closed her notebook. "You're right, there's nothing new. We might as well watch reruns of Buffy. It would be more fun"

  "I doubt religious symbols will hurt them, either." David picked up the old Bible. "Kyle was carrying this, remember? According to folklore, holding something like a Bible should've scorched his hands"

  "Oh, I forgot about that. You're right."

  "So we're back to square one. Guns. Fire, too, I think. Fire would have to hurt them"