Vampire's Dilemma

by Jacqueline Lichtenberg

  I could get more details from the news on TV.

  “But you could not pester them the way you pester me.”

  You’ve got a point, but if you wear a tall hat maybe no one will notice.

  “Brownie…” Keiko frowned, looking into the rear view mirror as if she might see me there. Her light brown eyes were slightly narrowed in irritation. “Do not talk nonsense, please.”

  Did Laslo have any suggestions for how we go about finding Wright in this big city, assuming he still is in this big city?

  “We have found smaller things than a human in this city. I am certain we are capable of finding Wright.”

  So you say. But let’s assume Wright is still around. Even if we narrow down the area to just downtown, that’s still a lot of territory.

  “Nevertheless.”

  Keiko, it’s one thing to find a collar button and match it up to one of the shirts in your dresser and quite another to go looking for a collar button on a dance floor during New Year’s Eve with the lights low and people kicking it around as they dance.

  “So desuke.” She pulled the key from the ignition. “Perhaps Laslo will have provided leads. If not…” She did that tiny shrug.

  How can you be so certain?

  “Certainty is not required. It is resolve that is important. We will find them because we must.”

  You and Stubborn must be twin sisters.

  Keiko pulled the parking brake and exited the car, locking it. Then she fidgeted with the charm necklace, probably making sure it was secure.

  “You should be glad to get out.”

  Going to the Mission to pick up weapons and information about a vampire ghost is not what I would call “going out.”

  “Which reminds me; if we are introduced to any strangers while we are here, please do not sing.”

  What?! What are you talking about?

  “When I talked with that man who wanted to hire me to find that lacquer box, you…”

  He didn’t want any liquor box, he just wanted…

  “Lacquer box, not liquor box. And you threatened to sing Mary’s Little Lamb so I could not hear him.”

  Threatened to sing. But did I? No, I did not.

  “I am just saying, Brownie. Do not.”

  Well, if that doesn’t take the cake… That fellow was a cad. Likely a tango artist and nothing coming out of his mouth was anything that a lady should have had to listen to.

  “Brownie, I am perfectly capable of…” Keiko paused as a tired looking woman walked past, carrying two shopping bags.

  Maybe we should let this go for now.

  “Mmm,” Keiko agreed.

  By the way, if I behave myself and don’t sing in your ear, can we go to a jazz club afterward?

  Keiko looked carefully about. The Mission was closed and the steps leading up to the door were empty. “No,” she said. “We have work to do. And the last time, you screamed in my head and then pouted because you couldn’t dance.”

  I didn’t scream. I was just enthusiastic about the music. And I don’t pout.

  “And I was mistaken for a prostitute because I had no escort.”

  Oh. Yeah.

  I forgot. Sorry about that. So, afterward, we’ll just go home and watch television like all of the other married couples.

  Keiko said nothing and rang the night bell.

  Are you blushing?

  “Please be quiet.”

  You are, aren’t you?

  The door opened before Keiko could ring the bell.

  Martha Sue Applebaum smiled at us, even at this hour looking just as the widow of a successful talent agent should look.

  “I’m so glad you’re here.”

  * * * *

  “I feel ridiculous.”

  Keiko had traded her plain cloth coat for the larger, padded leather one that Martha Sue had insisted on. It was much too large, though it must have been like a sports jacket on Laslo. If I had been tempted to laugh, Keiko’s expression put a quick stop to it. Or maybe it was the thought of all those potential weapons stuffed into the many hidden pockets of the coat.

  Laslo had not been able to add much to the history of the coin. No one at the Berlin office had known about it or where Wright might have acquired it. The family to whom it originally belonged said it had been sold long ago and they knew little about it, probably less than what had been already found by Keiko and me.

  Nor could Laslo add much to what beliefs might make the vampire ghost vulnerable. The problem was that not much was known about Iron Age people. Some bodies preserved in bogs had given some rough ideas about what kinds of clothing people might have worn then. Laslo had also said that Christians had started wearing coins with the cross on them as necklaces at the end of the Roman occupation, but that only meant that the vampire ghost, when living, had probably been able to wear the coin with her face on it without much comment. Who gave her the coin originally and what it represented to her were lost in about a thousand years of history. On that count, we were pretty much on our own.

  What Laslo could do was more in the practical line.

  He had asked Martha Sue to pull this heavy jacket from a closet in his office. There were lots of objects in the pockets, but the ones he most wanted us to know about were a heavy, solid silver cross and a volcanic rock with some angular writing he said were runes. There was also a set of silver knuckle dusters with werewolf claws set into them, which I was happy to see, and which I had to show Keiko how to use.

  Handling the claws gave me a chill, remembering what similar claws had done to me last summer. I looked at them hanging loosely on Keiko’s small hand and wondered if they were the same claws. It was Laslo’s weapon, after all, and he had been the one to dispose of what was left of the werewolf.

  The remaining item was a thin, double-edged silver knife that Martha Sue said was called an athame.

  Keiko took all of these items without comment, but stripped off the jacket and placed them in the pockets of her own wool coat. After moment she also removed the cross, saying the likelihood of the vampire ghost being a Christian was too small.

  Both Martha Sue and I were smart enough to keep quiet.

  Laslo’s final bit of help came in the form of a guy named Long. Long, Martha Sue told us, had worked for the same people as Wright. Long was not his real name and he was on the lam from his ex-bosses. But Long was valuable because he was a Finder. He was a Supernatural with the ability to find other Supernaturals or objects with Supernatural properties. He could help us find Wright and his coin necklace. And Long was in her office right now.

  Which led us to the reason Martha Sue said we were here. Talking with the homeless clients coming into the Mission, she had learned that several of them had died unexpectedly recently. More than was normal for this time of year, all nearby and all at night. With this information and what Keiko, Laslo, and I had told her, she had decided to call Long immediately.

  The vampire ghost and her personal Renfield were killing as quickly and as many as possible. It seemed safe to guess that they were in a little bit of a hurry. Now, it looked like, so were we.

  * * * *

  I stayed invisible, relying on Keiko to speak to Long for me, but I had little to ask. Neither Keiko or I had the talent to track a Supernatural trail through Skid Row, so we did our best to give the Finder the room he seemed to need.

  Long was almost like a Beagle a friend of mine had back in my living years. He zig-zagged the sidewalk, pausing every so often with his eyes closed, then he would cross the street and do the same thing. I wondered what he was seeing—or sensing—or maybe, smelling—but didn’t want to interrupt him. Finally, over by Third and Omar he seemed to pick up something and it was all Keiko could do to keep up with him as he ran forward into the dark.

  We went into a narrow alley, past large bundles of trash that I suddenly realized were people, lining the walls and wedged into doorways and the spaces between buildings. It was to one of these places that Long led us—to a man w
ith a grey beard who was covered in newspapers and seemed to be sleeping peacefully. Except that sleeping people breathe.

  We looked at him as Long crept up to him and I knew that Keiko was fingering the objects in her coat pockets.

  I was very uneasy, knowing I would have to reappear as I had died, with empty hands. But after what had happened in the garage, Keiko had insisted that she go first against the vampire ghost. Not being a Supernatural, she thought she might have a slightly better chance.

  Not being a Supernatural had not worked very well for the businessman in the Pershing Garage, but I had arrived after he’d been attacked and he had not had a weapon.

  If I got removed from the fight early on, I couldn’t help her, so I had been forced to agree that she should take the lead.

  Long touched his fingers to the man’s cheek. “She killed him,” he whispered to us, then he closed his eyes again. “Not long ago.” He turned his head towards the street at the far end of the alley. “This way.”

  We found them on the next block.

  Once more I found myself shocked into immobility.

  The vampire ghost could have been a living person. She was tall and beautiful, with dark blonde hair in braids wound around her head. Her dress was long and blue, with embroidery in red upon it. It hung from her shoulders by two medallions that were maybe bronze or perhaps gold and over another dress with long, wide sleeves and she had long earrings.

  To me, she looked like a woman in one of those adventure books about knights and ladies I read as a boy. For a moment, all I could do was look. Then I heard Keiko whispering my name fiercely and I came to and made myself visible.

  The vampire ghost was kneeling on the ground and had her arms around a man in a long, dirty overcoat. His head was thrown back to expose his bearded neck and even as I was materializing, she was bending over him and pressing her lips to his skin. Next to her, Wright was practically jumping up and down like Rumpelstiltskin after the princess found him out.

  “You!” He said, pointing at Long. “I know you! You’re a Supernatural!” He turned to the vampire ghost. “He’s a Supernatural! When you’re done with him, take that one next!”

  In answer, Long bent down to pick up what was left of a broken pint liquor bottle. He looked once at the vampire ghost and her victim, then snarled, “I’m not runnin’ from you!” He turned and threw the bottle at Wright, who ducked in reflex.

  I disappeared and reappeared behind Wright. When I hit him with a closed fist behind his right ear, he went down quick and hard; I heard his chin crack as it hit the pavement. When I looked towards the vampire ghost it was to see Keiko was already bearing down on her with the knuckleduster I had shown her how to use.

  The vampire ghost frowned, narrowed her eyes at Keiko and rose to make a grab for her.

  Keiko had the shorter reach, but she used her lack of height to her advantage, crouching and then stepping in to swipe at the vampire ghost with the claw-studded duster.

  It had an effect. The vampire ghost cried out a word I didn’t understand. Her robe or dress was torn where Keiko had scored her hit and Keiko was using the pain’s distraction to come in for another punch. This one took the vampire ghost in the stomach and she bent over.

  Keiko went for another hit. But as she stepped backward to put her whole body into the punch, she stepped on the vampire-ghost’s victim and lost her footing. Even worse, her hands flailed out as she tried to keep her balance, and the too-big knuckleduster flew off into the dark.

  There was a cry from Long, who had been dancing around them, looking for an opportunity to help.

  Keiko put her hands into her pockets and came out with the athame and the rune rock. She plunged the athame into the breast of the vampire ghost, and hit her on the forehead with the rune rock. Then we all looked on in shock as the artifacts had the exact opposite effect of what we’d hoped for.

  The vampire ghost was pulling all of the weapons’ energy into herself. She was glowing with it. And through them, she was pulling in Keiko’s energy, too. The little Japanese’s expression went from shock to pain and she screamed.

  Long’s eyes went wide and he began running about the alley, looking for a possible weapon. He found nothing usable and came back to stand beside Wright and watch as the vampire ghost sucked up whatever power she found in the rune rock and the athame. While he watched, he unconsciously kicked at Wright and cursed.

  I had kept my eye on the knuckleduster when it slipped off of Keiko’s hand to be flung into the night. I materialized where I thought it had landed and was happy to see I’d gauged it right. I picked up, but I could not wear it and re-materialize with it.

  Long yelled my name. He had seen what I was doing. Now he moved closer to the vampire and held out his hands. I threw him the knuckleduster. He caught it, even though the claws must have cut his hands, and he held it up in triumph.

  I materialized next to him and in a moment, had donned the weapon and positioned myself. I reached out with everything I had and hit the vampire with a right cross.

  It was a beautiful punch. Maybe the best I had ever thrown sober. And her head didn’t move an inch. Not an inch.

  She looked at me in surprise and then she laughed. It was loud and warm and gentle as a spring rain. It made me want to kill her.

  But the odds had gone really long on that. We were out of weapons. Even if I could lift Wright and fling him at her, the way things were going, he would probably bounce off of her. There was nothing left I could do except watch her kill Keiko and then move on to me and Long.

  Keiko. She was still struggling, trying to release her grip on the athame, drop the rune rock. She couldn’t. Her life was leaving her in inches, but as soon as the energy in the artifacts was gone, hers would follow in a rush.

  I ransacked my brain, trying to think of something, anything, I could do to save her.

  When I had found out that my brother had left me to her in his will, I had felt betrayed and helpless. Keiko could have called the Exorcism squad on me and there wasn’t anything I could do to stop her. But she didn’t. She treated me like a person, even though we didn’t always get along. I thought she was aloof, rigid, and irritating. She thought I was impulsive and careless. We were both stubborn.

  Now here I was, nearly as helpless as I had been in the Pershing Garage. My hands were clenched and I was so angry I almost didn’t notice what was happening.

  The glow that was coming off of the vampire ghost was spreading. It was making a person-sized ripple in the air next to her. I could see vague shapes within it. They were just blotches of color at first, but when they appeared, the vampire’s face took on a softness it hadn’t had before. And suddenly, I could put all the pieces together. The legend about the Supernatural love. Why Wright, an Arthurian scholar, was helping her. What the coin had been for and why she had killed all those people.

  And I knew how to keep Keiko alive.

  I walked towards her, my hands open in front of me. She watched me as I came towards her, stealing glances into the rippling air beside her, impatient, wanting. She needed more energy. She knew it. I knew it. And we both knew where she could get it.

  As I came within arm’s reach, she reached down to pull the athame from her breast and casually tossed it away. Then she took hold of the arm holding the rune rock and used it to fling Keiko at Long. They both fell to the ground with Keiko across Long’s knees. Her eyes were open but her lids fluttered as if she was struggling to keep them that way. She was pale, but she was alive.

  By then the vampire ghost had me. If I had had any blood, it would have gone cold at the sight of her smile. She seized my hair with both hands, then planted her lips on mine.

  She pulled me to her and one hand left my hair to grab my jaw. For a moment, everything came to a sudden halt. I could see nothing but the vampire’s open eyes, feel nothing but the press of her mouth. Then things started moving again, but in fits and starts, as if in time to a pulse I no longer had.

  A
gain I felt my strength draining away, but this time I fought to keep my head.

  Then the pressure was gone.

  I blinked and tried to focus on the vampire’s face, but I could only see her profile. She was looking away from me into a picture in the air. No, not a picture because there were people moving in it. It was like a doorway. The doorway, I realized. The one the vampire had been trying to open. The one she had been killing people to open.

  I felt something working at the hand on my jaw. Keiko. She was muttering something.

  “Thumbs, baka.”

  The pressure at my jaw fell away. I put my hand up and yanked at the vampire’s thumb in my hair. Her grasp loosened. I slid to the ground and half crawled away, aided by Keiko.

  Not too far away, the vampire had forgotten about us. She was looking into the world she wanted to live in.

  The gateway showed some sort of forest scene or garden place. A bunch of women dressed like the vampire and a group of men dressed like knights were milling about on a really nice carpet. Practically everybody had a goblet in their hands—an Arthurian cocktail party. There was a chair with a very tall back set up on the carpet and there was a really good looking man sitting in it. He had blonde hair and a modest gold crown on his head.

  When the vampire caught sight of him, she could hardly keep her balance. This had to be the Supernatural that the legend said she had fallen for.

  Keiko was glaring at her and muttering in Japanese. I put up my hand, which was so transparent I was afraid she might not see it. But she did, and she quieted. As far as I was concerned, if the vampire went elsewhere without noticing Keiko again, it would be a very good thing.

  The vampire didn’t hear us or maybe she couldn’t have cared less. She walked into the gateway. The king stood to meet her.

  I squinted—was it Arthur or someone else? When he nodded at the vampire, did I see slightly pointed ears through his hair?

  The vampire took a long moment to compose herself, then walked like a queen towards the king. A few feet in front of him, surrounded by the ladies and the knights, she knelt, her head down. After a minute, she started to rise, but at a sharp rebuke from him, she sank down again and stayed where she was.