Blooded: Dead Things

by A. D. Key

  Blayne smiled the smile of a little boy about to tattle on his sister for an act that was committed by himself. “It worked. Whose plan?”

  Kronos cocked his head. “Why do you ask questions that you already have an answer to?” The Vampire stepped onto the dirt ground with such pride and sagacity that made Blayne feel ashamed for a split second. Ashamed that he could actually forget something of this importance. He dismissed the elder Vampire’s question as being rhetorical and answered his own, “Father. It was Father’s plan.”

  Kronos, dressed in wet, black pants and shirt, nodded towards the uphill path and they took off through the ridged and narrow land tunnels. “I really hate holding back my true speed to avoid losing newborns,” the elder Vampire said.

  An ice truck with its rear doors open backed up to the cave’s entrance. Blayne and Kronos hurried inside the truck, avoiding the bright light of death—the sun. The doors shut, and the two sat quietly while it pulled into the garage attached at the back of a house.

  “What happened to—”

  “God’s star,” Kronos said bitterly. “They threw her out into that bastard’s hindrance. But she delivered the message.” Blayne shook his head. The Old Lady Vampire had died. Death by the sun. He couldn’t imagine a worse way for his kind to die. But as for the Shadows, there are plenty of ways to make them suffer. He had met the infamous Lana once. But he couldn’t really recall the circumstances. That was before he became a Vampire.

  “I’VE NEVER BEEN LIKE THIS. Not even when I had my first fight. I love my mother,” Lana said shaking.

  What fight was she talking about? And with whom?

  “Someone killed my dad several years ago. He left my mom alone, but now I realize I may have taken him not killing her for granted. He may not want my only parent dead, but other things might. Things like that man Lee now lying dead on the road. It doesn’t even have to be that. Crazy people could take her life away. If not that, then there is sickness.”

  Who killed her dad? And why?

  “I’m rambling. Sorry,” she unnecessarily apologized, standing tautly on the deck that extends to the back of her house.

  Sick. What she probably feels in the pit of her stomach looking at my hand on the doorknob. Stomach acid touched the back of my throat. I forced the burning liquid matter back down. Why was I uneasy?

  Pushing the door open, the cool air from inside gently stroked my apprehensive face. I do well at predicting outcomes. But not now. Today’s encounters have shown new intimidations and unpredictable events. Before, when I was only hunting Vampires, I had known what would happen as soon as Leon and I showed up for the elimination. Not only would we win, but we would live.

  I stood before the threshold. It offered no promises. I sensed nothing. Making me hate this day even more.

  “Mom?” Lana’s shaking voice passed by interrupting the silence in the sunlit room. The tiny girl brushed past me.

  Leon scanned the wide area while I hurriedly followed after the impetuous girl. A gentle humming from an aquarium against the right wall was first to grab Leon’s attention. The window above it casted a rectangle light onto a light blue oval rug that matched a blue leather couch against the back wall that would normally be the first object to be noticed if Leon were not on edge.

  And normally Leon would be interested in the handmade bookshelf next to the long seat. He believes that what a person reads says a lot about them; the fact there are even books in this household tells him that someone here has to be somewhat intelligent.

  But it only makes him remember T.S. Eliot and the reason his book is sitting on a night stand back at the motel. Devin.

  I know this because I know my cousin. I can tell when he’s going to fart and that ice cream is bad for him even if he says otherwise.

  Aware of an upcoming opening on the left, Leon swiftly turned into an empty kitchen. The fresh scent of the recently mopped floor, it probably wasn’t even dry yet, struck us in the brief moment. The lemon smell pulled us back to childhood; Leon voluntarily sweeping and mopping the numerous footprints and dirt tracked in by him and the other kids running in and out of Uncle Joe’s house. My intelligent cousin had sympathized with the widower. The kindhearted man was raising more kids than he had originally planned and he did it with a song in his heart and a dance in his eyes.

  I passed into a room that displayed a small dining table placed on black and white linoleum. I placed my finger on the trigger of the pistol. A pair of arms emerged from an opening on the right—in front of Lana…

  “Mom, I have to talk to you.”

  The woman with her arms around Lana expressed great emotion. But it was not threatening.

  I nodded, signaling Leon to the dining area. “It’s okay,” Leon assured Kimberly lingering in the middle of the entrance, holding the front door open.

  “Who are you?” Mrs. Queen addressed the strangers in her house while she hugged her daughter. For a moment I was jealous. But the moment quickly passed.

  There is an uncanny resemblance between the two women. Both petite frames are equal in height and have the same dark and lustrous tresses. Lana’s apple green irises—a trait apparently passed down from her father—is the only distinguishable feature separating the two women. “They saved me,” Lana explained, pulling away from her mother’s embrace.

  Mrs. Queen cupped her hands around her youngster’s oval face. “From?”

  Leon and I heard the sound of feet shuffling around in the next room. We immediately tensed up. The boy we had seen not long before Lana’s arrival leaned against the wooden frame behind the worried mother. He had a giant birthmark on his neck. Lana looked from her mom to Birthmark Guy, uncertain how to tell them about a new found existence. I guess she decided to start with the truth. “I was attacked.”

  Birthmark Guy straightened. “By one of those sick persons?”

  “You know?” Leon asked, eyebrows raised in surprise.

  “Yeah. We are supposed to stay inside,” said the woman of the house.

  “Until quarantine is over,” added Birthmark Guy. “Anyone wishing to leave the city has about thirty minutes.”

  “WHAT!” Leon and I roared, eyes wide.

  “Those S.O.B’s are caging us in with the really screwed up version of I-wanna-be-a-real-boy,” I said cynically. “Take care.” I waved. “I’m going home to zombie free Tennessee.”

  Leon tagged behind me through the living room. But his intentions were different than mine; he was going to try to change my mind. What about the bar-girl? The reason we are here in the first place. And that last vision of his? A teenage blonde girl dies, triggering some catastrophic event. If Leon left the state now he will be dooming all of us. We would be dooming them all. But I didn’t care or understand any of it really.

  Kimberly, unsure of what her role should be in this situation, followed after us. “What should I do?” she whispered.

  “Don’t know. Not a babysitter,” I wisecracked. I stopped suddenly. There were footsteps on the deck… I raised my pistol…the door opened…

  “That’s her!” the seer exclaimed. “From last time!”

  Last time what? His vision?

  “Lana, why are there mental patients in your home?” the girl in the doorway disgustingly eyed me. Hand on her hip, nose crinkled, eyes narrowed. I lowered my pistol.

  “This is Leon and his cousin Lucas. He saved me, and he has visions,” Lana pointed to Leon, speaking hastily, aware of the pressing time. “And this is Cole,” she said to us.

  Birthmark Guy, Cole, laughed with disbelief. And Mrs. Queen tried to pull her daughter behind her in a shielding manner. “Mom, stop,” Lana resisted. “You saw Loki?” she asked Leon.

  “If that is Loki, then yes.”

  “He’s lying,” said the girl with blonde ringlets shaped around her heart-shaped face. “He’s probably one of the sick.”

  I rolled my eyes in annoyance. There wasn’t time for this crap.

  “I witnessed it. And that blood
is the result.” Lana nodded at the blood spots in the dark matted hair around Leon’s ears and the light red smears on his neck.

  “They’re both alive,” I said, defiantly not seeing the point in staying. “I’m leavin’.” With a quickness I was out the ingress and out on the deck.

  “Wait!” Leon chased after me, catching the screen door before it slammed in his face. I turned right, hurrying across the long black deck. “We have to stay,” he said.

  “No, we don’t.” I took the steps two by two.

  At the bottom, Leon grabbed me by the shoulders. “That girl is in trouble.”

  “Thirty minutes, Leon!” I turned away from him and stared out across the field to nothing in particular. “I’m twenty-four. Our lives are not normal. And they’re crappy. But I’m not ready to give up my life.”

  My cousin, the seer, breathed in a sharp breath. “You and I…are going to die anyway.”

  “We’re going to die? Care to elaborate?” I most certainly pressed the issue.

  “I cannot take it anymore. How is it possible to be surrounded by an uncluttered atmosphere that expands in every direction and still find it difficult to breathe?” Leon walked off.

  “I’m not big on words, but I’m sure elaborate doesn’t mean to walk cryptically away!” I followed after him.

  Leon sat his shotgun on the car and then put his forehead in his hands massaging it. I leaned back against the warm Chevrolet Biscayne. “Does it hurt?”

  Leon shook his head. The visions were taking a toll on him. The most he receives, prior to a few hours ago, is one a week.

  “It was different this time.” I recalled the last time he received a vision. “You looked—well, it’s the only reason I’m letting you get away with this.” I rolled up my white sleeve and showed him a jaundice looking bruise the size of a tennis ball.

  Leon was about to apologize for something he really had no control over.

  But they came out.

  Where Rush Cemetery begins on the opposite side of the road, an acre of scattered trees in front of it ends meeting Lana’s expansive land. Two slow functioning zombies entered the massive area.

  “There is no way we can get the shot from here,” I stated.

  Leon became fearful. “How many other times will I have to get closer than I desire?” He gulped. “I believe the no-show-blonde-bar-girl was in my last vision. And Lana’s friend, Loki, is going to die. And if she dies then somehow the other blonde, bar-girl, also dies.” He was talking so fast I could barely keep up.

  He sucked in another gulp of air. “And that’s bad because then everything dies. I suggest that we get Loki and Lana and leave. We don’t necessarily need Lana, but I don’t think she will let her friend leave with a couple of strangers. Even if we did save her.”

  “I think Lana is a tracker,” I suddenly admitted.

  “Shadow,” Lana said, correcting me. We had been oblivious to the others gathered on the roofless deck. “That’s the term. I am a Shadow and Cole is, too.” Lana divulged. Without warning her eyes became four—a set of two in each eyeball. Was I seeing things? Stress from the insanity of it all? The other boy’s eyes changed. They were fixed on the two sickly trespassers at the end of the property heading this way. I blinked. Their eyes were normal.

  “I’m going with you,” Lana volunteered.

  A wheezing sound, like mice being choked, erupted from Mrs. Queen—not wanting to part from her daughter. “Mom,” Lana said sternly. The woman pressed her lips back together.

  “I will leave as well,” Cole announced, his arms crossed. Eyes fixed on us. Clearly not taking no for answer. “There are guns at Loki’s,” he offered.

  No one had asked the gray-eyed girl her plans, and Lana waited for her decision. “Loki?”

  “Who can resist being a damsel in distress when there is not one but two gorgeous rescuers?” the girl beamed, running her hand down the black railing.

  Knowing Loki and her…different approaches to situations, Lana’s attention was fixed on us, waiting for our reactions. She became stunned when my body language revealed I was flattered. Why? Wouldn’t someone who looks like that hear similar phrases? I’m guessing is what she was thinking. A tiny smile cut through her thought process. I clearly didn’t mind Loki’s words, however, Leon’s round face resembled that of someone having avoided the urination process for quite some time.

  Loki hooked her arm around Leon’s. “Not gonna open the door?”

  “Forgive him,” I said and opened the door to the backseat. “He doesn’t like females.” The eyes of Leon rolled irritatingly inside their sockets, and Kimberly, without being invited, got in on the other side.

  “Lana needs a moment,” Cole said, looking up at the two above them; Lana and her mom stood with their foreheads pressed together.

  “I understand,” Leon said. “If I had a mother I wouldn’t want to leave her behind either. But I respect her decision.” Then he whispered in my ear while Cole climbed in and I went around the front of the car, “Lana’s mentality is closer to my own. That fact alone is worthy of my respect, unlike her coquettish friend who sits grinning at me through the car window like a child fascinated with their first puppy. This isn’t a game.”

  “Chill, Virgin Mary.”

  “Fine. I’m taking this to her.” Leon handed the shotgun up to Lana and she blinked in confusion. “I know you can cause massive damage, but who wants to get that close?” Leon made a point. She took another glance at the zombies and decided to take the weapon. “Thanks.”

  Leon gave her the ammo from his back pocket and jogged back to the idling car. “Be back quickly,” he called over his shoulder.

  The sunlight burned down upon us, heating the grassy prairie. I glanced at my watch. I wasn’t sure when the thirty minutes had started. And the twenty something minutes remaining didn’t bring me assurance. Are we going to make it out?

  We sped forward with Loki guiding the way.

  9: All Connected

  LEON HAD SAT IN THE SAME SPOT of the car he had practically been in for most of the day. He sat there and ignored everything Loki had to say. Almost everything. The first part of the conversation—the only part he heard—was about her dad living out of state and that she could leave with them because her mother was on a business trip.

  I’m guessing that was when Leon’s side mirror reflected a look on Cole’s face that said Loki was lying because he gave me a sideways glance.

  Leon had decided he had done enough deciphering for one day. I could tell he had zoned out. He stared blankly out the window as the car tires rotated speedily on the worn path through the field behind Lana’s. Before we went down the steep incline, from the top of the hill there were only three things to be seen. A big dull white house located near the bottom; Loki’s for she pointed at it. A tree every other acre, and miles of the same tall grass that seemed lifeless until the wind forced them to sway in the same commanded direction, then they returned to slumping over like they meant nothing to the world.

  Leon blinked back to reality as I walked outside carrying a shotgun and small boxes of rifle and shotgun ammunition. “Forget you stayed outside while we gathered more weaponry?”

  “I know I’m supposed to be watching for signs of trouble. But why? Are plants going to attack us with their oxygen? And what if I do see something? What am I going to do? Slingshot those ugly pink flowers that surround the entire front of the place? Nothing. That is what I feel like doing. Otherwise I would have objected to your ludicrous idea of playing watch dog.”

  “Okay. What crawled up your butt?”

  “Nothing… I’m smart, genius smart, yet in less than forty-eight hours I received not one, but three clips of the future, and I can only guess that putting duct tape over that talkative girl’s mouth would unfortunately be a bad idea. Nothing. That is what I know. Some help I am.”

  His disheartened eyes burned a hole in the two white pillars.

  “In my vision a zombie had consumed Loki in th
is very spot. I don’t know how or why her death ends the no-show bar-girl’s life. Or why the bar-girl covered in blood is highly important. But what makes me truly mad is the fact that I do not have all the puzzle pieces. I’m missing the critical one. Where is she?”

  “Bar-girl?”

  “Yeah. The girl I’ve seen twice now. This isn’t about Loki. Not really. We are chess pieces—” he hates chess. Since the death of his father he has yet to lose at the game that he no longer finds challenging or entertaining— “Protect your king. It’s that simple. And Loki is maybe a knight at best.” Leon smiled for the first time since little Devin’s death. I really hated that man Tyler for what he did.

  “You should wash that off,” Cole said, exiting outside carrying a rifle. The old house is more expensive than the other houses in Nebraska, but the exterior has been neglected for some time. Its white paint faded and several spots have begun to chip. The two-by-fours on the porch’s floor could also use another coat or two of color.

  “Huh? Wash what off?” Leon asked.

  “Your blood,” Cole said. “I know it attracts Vampires and sharks. Neither of which I can see right now, but I don’t think I—”

  “Want to know if it attracts them,” Leon interrupted, finishing his sentence. He reached out and caught a wet rag tossed by Loki. “Still wearing shorts and a tank top? I don’t know about her, but I feel more comfortable with less exposed skin,” he whispered.

  Loki slung a rifle over her shoulder. Kimberly nearly on her heels. “The reason she had gone inside was to use the bathroom. But I suspect it was to secretly fall to pieces. She has nothing now.”

  The five of us hopped in the car and I U-turned us, leaving pillars of death.

  “What’s a vampire?” Kimberly asked from the backseat.

  LANA

  WHEN one of the cousins called her a tracker earlier she put two and two together; they must know about Vampires and Leon’s visions must have something to with vamps. She had never met Vampire Hunters before…before all this.