by Mary Hughes
“Don’t worry—I’m not here to rat on you.” There’s some sort of instinctive hierarchy among vampires. The older and stronger the vampire, the more respected or feared he or she is, depending on if the vamp is good or bad.
“Wha’…” The male voice came tentatively from the dark of the trees. “Wha’ do you wan’?”
The slurred words was a sign that his fangs were out. Not good.
“Just to talk.” My stun gun hand tightened, but I tried to keep the one on the flashlight, the one he could see, relaxed. I reminded myself that honor and fear of elders is a powerful thing. “Julian is over a thousand years old, you know. Is your master that old?”
“I don’ haff a math’er.”
Like I thought—on his own. But not rogue. Rogues drank past the point of no return. “No one to help you? Not even other baby vamps?”
“I’m no’ a baby.” He spat the word.
“No, of course not. None of my business anyway. Look, I’m investigating the dead body found at the dump. Guy named Caldwell. It looked like he’d been slashed by something—a knife or really sharp claws. You know anything about that?”
There was a silence. Then, “It wathn’t me.”
So he’d reasoned that I suspected him, good news because it meant his brain was still intact. Nobody knows a lot about the vampire-making process but we do know that, while it usually preserves brain function, sometimes that gets up-gefooked. Vampire-as-monster came from insane vampires whose higher brain functions hadn’t survived the conversion, driven mostly by instinct.
I was incredibly relieved that my gut was right and he wasn’t rogue. “Okay. I believe you. Any idea who it was?”
“No.” A pause. “Except it happened during the day.” His lisp was ebbing, so he was relaxing enough that his fangs had receded. “By the time I saw him last night, after those cops left…” A pause. “His blood had gone off.”
“You tasted that?”
“I’m thirsty.”
He said it right in my ear.
Chapter Eleven
That zapped my heart rate into oh-*sheet* territory. I swallowed hard. No matter how many stun guns you have or who your husband is, being alone at night with a thirsty young vamp makes your heart’s turbocharger kick in.
“No problem,” I said, though the bumpity-bump-bump of mine telegraphed big problem. I regripped the stunner while I kept my voice level. “We brought a few bags of blood with us. Want one?” The stuff in the jug was watered down, for a little pick-me-up. But we always brought a couple bags of emergency whole blood in case Julian fought and lost too much to function. I figured this qualified as an emergency.
“You have bluh’?” His fangs were out again. “I’m tho thirdy.”
“It’s at my cabin.” Redirecting him ASAP from my delectable young bod. “A good couple pints. Top grade. I can show you where.” I’d thought about bringing a bag along but I needed to get him to my car. Better to lure him there.
The raspy, dry voice meant he was down more than a quart or two. But the breath billowing against my face was strangely minty for a vampire. Sucking on a breath mint? The idea was oddly reassuring. When he was a human, he must’ve been a nice guy, and that humanity was intact.
Still, a vamp was a predator—and a vamp with a bloodthirst was a motivated predator. I motioned east with the flashlight. “This way.”
My thumb itched on the stunner trigger, my feet screaming run, run! but I walked slowly. Rapid movement triggered a vampire’s predatory instinct to pursue. It’s so ingrained, not even ones as old as Julian are completely free of it.
The bushes rustled beside me. Staying hidden, but at least he wasn’t pouncing. Score one for the baby vamp. Control wasn’t easy but he had it. I was glad I hadn’t zapped him.
I kicked my pace up into a lazy saunter. When I got near the cabin I clicked off my flashlight.
The vampire growled.
“What?”
“Why did you do that?” His lisp was so bad it actually sounded like “Eye ee oo oo ah.”
“I, um, don’t want the guys in the other cabin knowing I’m here.”
His growl revved and my shoulders tightened. Then he rasped a long slurred string that I interpreted as, “Yeah. I don’t trust them either. They smell…wrong.”
I relaxed some. “The blood’s inside. Want to come in?”
“Well…no’ really.” His words were more normal. I relaxed more.
“Okay. I’ll leave it on the porch.”
“Tha’ be goo’.”
I let myself in, set down flashlight and stunner, and got the two bags out of the fridge. I brought them back to the lakeside door but didn’t go out. “I have a favor to ask in return for the blood.” The kid’s vampire-revved ears would catch my words.
“I knew it,” the reply came mournfully through the door. The kid was on the porch, in anticipation of the blood.
Putting walls, flimsy screens but barriers nonetheless, between him and escape should I turn out to be malevolent. He must truly be thirsty, poor thing.
“I knew it was too good to be true.”
“No, it’s okay. Here.” I cracked the door and tossed the bags out onto the porch floor.
Frantic tearing and desperate gulping hit my ears. I dared a peek. He was drinking one bag down, his foot on the other like I’d try to take it back. He wasn’t even done with the first bag before he was reaching for the second.
“No catch, see? But there’ll be more for you—if you help me.” I didn’t mention the fact that “more” was watered down.
Still drinking, he opened one eye on me. He said nothing, but he hadn’t disappeared either.
“If that’ll hold you for now and if you’re interested in more, I’ll meet you at my car.” I carefully shut the door.
“That’s kind of bait-and-switch. What’s to stop me from just taking it?” His voice wasn’t so raspy now. His strength would have improved with blood that could again carry oxygen.
But his tone was merely conversational, not threatening. So I cracked the door and said, “My thousand-year-old hubby would take exception to that. I’m not trying to tax you, dude. I’m in a bind and I could use your help.”
“It’s not ‘help’ if it has a price tag. It’s a purchase.” He ran his fingers along the bag to squeeze out a few more drops.
“What are you, a business major? C’mon, dude, give a lady a hand.”
He paused with the bag in his mouth. “Doing what?”
“A tiny job. A vamp as strong as you, it’ll be no problem. I just need your help breaking into a building.”
“What? No way. I’m law-abiding. I’m not going to do something criminal.”
“Pfft. Give me a break. You’re a vampire.”
“So? I still pay my taxes.” His eyes cut away. “Or I will, once I figure out how, since they filed my death certificate at the county records department.”
“Look, do you want the blood or not?”
He made a disgruntled sound. “Of course I want it. All right, I’ll consider doing your favor. What building do you want crashed?” He looked back at me. “I won’t do a school.”
“Not a school. A jail—”
“Jail break? No effing way.”
I didn’t have to censor him, he really said effing. He had been a nice guy. “Tell you what. If you help me, my hubby will help you. Teach you what you need to know. How to heal the bite marks so you don’t get hunted.”
“That would be helpful.” He thought it over. “Who are we breaking out? A criminal?”
“No, of course not.” I’d deliberately left that part unsaid. Julian wouldn’t make such a good deterrent to the kid yoinking the jug of blood or worse, attacking me, if he knew my hubby was the one locked up. But I couldn’t think of a quick lie. “Who said we were breaking anyone out?”
“Oh, please. Why else break into a jail? To do a records search? Steal their iron bars?”
“I liked you better when you could bare
ly talk. We’re rescuing a lawyer, okay? Not a criminal. We’re breaking out a friend of mine who’s been framed for a crime he didn’t commit.”
He shook his head. “Why risk the record a jailbreak will give him? If he didn’t commit the crime, the legal process will free him soon enough.”
I lost all patience. “Because he’s a vampire and there’s a window facing east. And unless I tell the commissioner who incarcerated him he’s a vampire and a miracle happens and the commissioner believes me, when dawn happens in a few hours he’s going to fry.”
“Two hours and twenty-six minutes.”
“What?”
“It’s three am. Two hours and twenty-six minutes to sunrise, not a few hours.
“Damn it, enough. You’re coming with me.” I grabbed his arm and dragged him through the cabin to the kitchen door.
To my surprise, he came along. Maybe it was the element of surprise, maybe he was so new he was barely stronger than a human, or maybe it was just his nice guyness.
I reluctantly crossed him off my mental list of suspects for Caldwell’s murder. While he might have had the requisite claws and thirst, he didn’t have the psychological profile. I collected the poker on the way out.
He belted himself into my car and we took off.
I glanced at him. Lit by the instrument panel, he was like a young Adam West, or Christian Bale, clean-cut good looks softened by a casual Hawaiian shirt, drawstring canvas shorts, and boat shoes, no socks.
At the hut, I pulled into the clearing and parked to one side, out of the circle of light. In case the unimaginable happened and Olyeo returned or Parker came by just as I was breaking in, I didn’t want them knowing it was me, at least, not right away.
Snatching up my trusty poker, I got out.
The baby vamp unbelted and followed me. His eyes widened when he saw the hut. “That’s not the jail.”
“Keep your voice down. It’s a holding facility. D’you think I’d need help breaking my hubby out if it were an ordinary jail?”
“Wait. You didn’t say it was your husband we were breaking out.”
I facepalmed. It had been a long night and I was so close to freeing Julian. But I’d blown it and the baby vamp was balking. Without the threat of Julian he might even eat me.
Fudge it. I shook the poker at him. “If you don’t help me I’m going to bean you into next week.”
He grabbed the poker. His narrowed eyes glowed cutting red. Maybe a fledgling, but he had a vampire’s strength.
I swallowed hard. Now he’d swoop in and bite and drink his fill…
“Stop waving this thing around. Don’t you know it’s dangerous?”
Or he might scold me. I grinned. “Not waving. Let go?”
He did. “You want me to break open the door?”
“Try to. If not, the cinder block seems old. Crumbly.”
“Okay.” He took one step for the red door and froze, head cocked.
“What?”
“Don’t you hear that? It’s a car.”
“Daggum it, not now. Come on.” I grabbed his hand and hauled him to the back side of the hut.
I seamed my spine to the wall and panted through the sound of a car approaching, the engine cutting, a door clicking open and shut, and then…nothing.
He raised a questioning brow at me. In a low voice, barely a whisper, he said, “Who’s here?”
“I don’t know. We need to check it out. This way.” I sneaked toward the front of the building—and promptly stepped on a twig. It cracked like a rifle shot. I froze. Hissed from the corner of my mouth, “Shh. Be quiet.”
He rolled his eyes as he glided up to me. “Because that’s what vampires are so lousy at.”
“Snark does not count as quiet.” I crept forward. “What’s your name?”
There was a silence. Then, “I think you’re the first person to ask me that since I…since this happened. I’m Bruce.”
Julian and I had just been talking about Bruce. “Like Batman? Cool. I’m Nixie. Tell you what. If it’s who I think, I might be able to explain myself. Why don’t you stay here?”
He nodded.
I got to the front without any more stick incidents, although I did step on a frog that announced his disgruntlement to the whole world. But, sound of nature, hey?
The lot came into view. A vehicle was parked there.
It was Olyeo’s sedan.
I nearly stepped out with open arms. We hadn’t done anything yet. I opened my mouth to say, “Thank goodness you’re here! I came back to talk to my husband. Let me in,” and that would be the end of it.
But then I caught sight of the commissioner hunting around the ground by the door—and more, I heard what he was saying.
“Damn punk-assed woman.” He was muttering to himself. “She rushed me. If not for her and her non-voter criminal husband, I’d never have lost it. Where the heck is that key?”
I pressed my back to the wall, heart pounding. So Olyeo wasn’t Team Emerson right now, which meant if I showed myself now he’d assume I was here for nefarious purposes—which I was, but why reveal it myself?
When I had my breathing down from steam engine to tiny little cold puffs, I tiptoed back around behind the building. If you’ve never seen a preggers woman tiptoe, I guarantee it’s hilarious.
Bruce took one look at me and said, “What’s wrong?”
“Olyeo is here.”
Tiny fangs flashed. “That a-hole?” This time he said the real word.
“Sounds like you know him.”
“Unfortunately. We went to school together. He was a backstabber then, and he’s a backstabber now, but he’s gotten smoother about it. He’s going to make a run for mayor when the incumbent’s term is up. A cheat and an idiot. Even with fangs, I’d make a better mayor.”
“Incumbents usually win.”
“Rumor has it that she’s going to try for state office.” The skin on his cheekbones darkened. “I was a political analyst.”
“Huh. And here I thought you were a nice guy.”
He smiled at me. “What’s Olyeo doing?”
“Looking for the key to the door.”
“All right, while he’s distracted, let’s break out your husband.”
We slid around the hut until we were one-eighty from the door and the commissioner. Kneeling, I counted up three cinder blocks from the bottom. I gently tapped it and whispered, “Break through the wall here. Ty to make it quiet. If Olyeo comes to investigate, you’ll have to use your vampire mojo on him.”
“What mojo?”
I stood. “You know. Look deep into my eyes.” I Lugosi’d him, complete with waggling fingers.
“I can do that?” His lids opened so far they practically joined his eyebrows. “I could have just hypnotized you out of that blood?”
“No, doofus. I’m immune. Vampire mates have to be. Now, wall, hole?”
“Okay.” He pulled his foot back and kicked.
He was strong, but no Julian. Cinder block cracked and shattered to dust but it took three whumping attacks to break a hole big enough for me and by the end he was rubbing his leg and grumbling.
I hissed, “That’s good—”
“Hands up.” The commissioner came around to investigate—with a drawn gun. “Nice and slow, turn and face me.”
The baby vamp’s hands shot up. Slowly he turned.
“Bruce?” Olyeo’s expression went from surprise to calculation. “Finally, I caught you red-handed. You’re under arrest.”
Bruce scowled. “Just because I wouldn’t run your campaign doesn’t mean you can trample my rights.”
“Breaking out a prisoner does.” Olyeo grinned.
“Woo-woo,” I whispered at Bruce from the side of my mouth.
“What did you say?” Olyeo did not sound happy.
“Nothing.” As I faced forward I slid the poker behind my back. “Mojo,” I hissed.
Bruce nodded and, just like I had, waggled fingers at Olyeo.
I bri
efly clenched my eyes.
“Something wrong with you, Bruce? No more stalling. Raise ’em.” Olyeo jerked “Hands up” with the gun. “Mrs. Emerson, you too.”
“I prefer Ms.” I couldn’t give the baby vamp a full discourse on vampire mind-control techniques so I simply threw him, “Ms. Jedi.”
To my surprise and relief, Bruce’s eyes widened and he nodded again. He got it.
Then he said, “We aren’t the droid you’re looking for.”
I facepalmed.
Olyeo frowned ferociously. “Wh-what?”
I uncovered. That worked? “Deeper,” I whispered. “Say, ‘walk away’.”
Bruce cleared his throat. Adjusted his chin like he was ratcheting down his vocal cords, and when he intoned, “Walk away,” it was almost as good as my hubby. The kid had natural talent.
The commissioner turned and walked away.
Yes. “Tell him to sit by the door.”
“Go sit by the door.”
“Good job,” I said.
“Good job.”
“No, I… Never mind. Let’s finish breaking in.”
Chapter Twelve
I hopped inside the Nixie-sized hole. The kid vampire continued to bash concrete until he could get in too, surprising me. Either he was making sure I wouldn’t renege on the extra blood or he was curious about Julian.
My hubby prowled the cage, a lithe predator blob until my eyes adjusted to the brighter light. But I knew he could see me just fine.
I held up the poker. “Hey, Julian. Look what I have.”
He stopped prowling. As my eyes adjusted I saw he was looking really dour, a word he uses that means “gloomy with a bit of attitude”.
“What?” I said.
“You and electricity scare me.”
Couldn’t help rolling my eyes at that. “Dunno how I managed twenty years setting up amplifiers by myself.”
“I’m not sure you did. If that’s for prying at the metal mesh, you’d better to let me do it.” He held out his hand as if I could just toss him the poker.
“Yeah, because you and electricity go so much better.” I wiggled my fingers and blew on them as if I was blowing out candles.
“I heal faster. Besides, you have Baby Manfred to think about.”
