The Shadow Box: Paranormal Suspense and Dark Fantasy Thriller Novels

by Travis Luedke

  “The Eternal Life Christian Church is in league with the Aryans?”

  “They’re a front,” said Dwayne. “Or they are now. You think of Aryans and you assume skinheads and bikers getting drunk and selling meth out of trailer parks. They’re a vast, powerful criminal enterprise, like the Crips or the Mafia. They have to launder their money just like everyone else. What better way to hide unreported income than a church?”

  Max nodded. “Yeah, I got that.” He looked at Moonshadow. “But if you had the church under your control, how’d the AVA ever take it over?”

  She gave him a long look before answering. “They’ve got an older vampire. Very old…his name is—”

  “Boone?”

  Moonshadow nodded. “They saw an easy mark in the church elders and took it. We’d have done the same thing.”

  “Unbelievable.” Max leaned back. “So it isn’t that you wouldn’t be killing these children, it’s that the skinheads are doing it against your will? Why kids? What the hell do you need that many kids for?”

  She tilted her head again. Her look made Max’s insides turn cold.

  “You were selling them?”

  Moonshadow rolled her eyes and looked out the window. Max looked at Dwayne.

  “Factions operating in the same geographical area have to abide by non-competition agreements. We don’t have any interest in selling honky-crack, so we couldn’t give a shit about them brewing it and selling it to crackers—”

  “But selling children?” Max swallowed a lump in his throat. “You do that? You sell children? To whom?”

  “Trucker vampires, mostly.” Dwayne answered. “They use ‘em until they’re done… get bored and trade them or wipe their memories and dump them off. Sometimes, vamps in other states want a kid no body gonna recognize.”

  Max’s skin almost crawled off his body. He wished he could explode into burning white light and melt them all. They made him wish he were a dragon. He realized he was shaking when the bald vampire tightened his grip on his shotgun.

  Moonshadow’s eyes met his.

  “You think I care, Max?” She looked like she wanted to lean to him. Her eyes burned into his skull. “You think I give a damn about maggot human children? Do you cry for the mama sheep when you eat her lamb? Why would I cry for one of yours? Why would any of us cry?” The shotgun-toting vampire next to her grinned and shook his weapon.

  Max glared at them both. “These aren’t lambs, Moonshadow. These are human beings… just like you used to be. And in fairness, we don’t generally sodomize the lamb repeatedly before we eat it.”

  She shrugged and looked away.

  “The skinheads are selling the children from Hagshead. We think.” Dwayne actually sounded bothered by the idea. “We don’t know. However they do it, we haven’t been able to prove it.”

  “Vampires are doing something in your city without you having any knowledge or control? Zol really picked the best of the best.”

  “This situation was brewing long before I became chief.” She clasped her fingers over the afghan. “The previous chief was a dullard, as you well know. After all, it was his idea to kidnap Megan Crunk to lure her dragon lover into a trap.”

  “Yeah, but it was your idea to kidnap me to use me as bait to kidnap Megan so you could...you know what, it was a stupid idea all around, and it would be laughable if it hadn’t almost gotten me killed.”

  “It was not my idea. But I think I’ve paid for my crimes against you, Maxwell.”

  “We’ll see,” he thought as he fixed her in his narrowed eyes.

  “You are also aware that we have rules,” she continued, ignoring his glare. “The authorities of this nation tolerate us so long as we don’t cross certain lines. One of those lines involves selling children to pedophile vampires.” Max felt bile rise in his throat. “Don’t look so surprised, Max Hollingsworth… you know full well the extent of child sex trafficking.”

  “Then shut it down.”

  “We can’t,” she said, shaking her head. “Not without proof they’re doing this in our territory.”

  “Even with that, we’d have to move covertly. The AVA don’t have much pull with the big man, but if we didn’t have a solid case, it’d be seen as unchecked aggression between factions.”

  “Holy shit, you are messing with me.” He looked at Dwayne and shook his head. “You aren’t feudal Japanese shoguns following bushido. You’re vampires!”

  “Zol wishes a cease to the hostilities between factions,” explained Moonshadow. “Vampires are not marauding beasts, Max. If we didn’t have some semblance of order, some rules of decorum, we’d have been wiped from this Earth long ago.”

  “That’d break my heart.”

  She waved a hand. “Any movement against the Aryan vampires would require evidence of their violation of our territory.’

  “It would also have to be covert,” added Dwayne. “It would be better if it never came out—”

  “Bullshit,” Max said with a laugh. “You’re just trying to prove you’re proactive to Zol. You want to take these guys out, then go to him with the evidence so he sees what a good little chief you are.”

  Moonshadow held up her hands. “Does it really matter? Either way you get what you want when we get what we want.”

  “You have no idea what I want.”

  “You want the girl,” Moonshadow replied. “Or, if she’s dead you want to know what happened to her.”

  “I want more than that.” He crossed his arms and stared at her. “I want you out of that park. I want the vampires out of the child sex trafficking business.”

  Moonshadow laughed. “Max, you know I don’t have the authority to do that, even if I wanted.”

  “Then Joplin.” He lowered his face and glared at her across his brow. “Not in my city.”

  “What difference does it make?” Dwayne asked. “You think vampires are the only ones selling children to perverts? Joplin is in the middle of the God damned country. Two major interstate highways pass right through it. Every child sex trafficking operation in the US comes through here.”

  “Human law enforcement can deal with human criminals.” Max looked at him then back to Moonshadow. “They can’t touch you.”

  She was silent for a while before making a steeple with her fingers.

  “So you want us to stop selling Joplin’s children to pedophile vampires?” She raised an eyebrow. “You’re not naïve enough to think that’s going to make much of a difference, are you? We’ve been preying on children for centuries, Maxwell. Us withdrawing from the market will barely make a dent.”

  “I can’t save every child in the world.” He glared. “Doesn’t mean I shouldn’t save the ones I can.”

  She stared at him without smiling. Max heard his pulse in the silence. She nodded and licked her lips.

  “You think you can push us around, Maxwell? You think that because you have powerful friends, dragon friends, that we’ll do anything you want? You think you can’t push us too hard… that we won’t eventually get tired of it and just snap your neck?” She snapped her fingers in his face to demonstrate. Max tried not to flinch.

  “If I thought that, we wouldn’t be talking.” He steadied his voice, “I know your fear of being killed by my dragon friends has a limit. I don’t expect you to push yourselves to a breaking point or accept humiliation in the face of your leaders. I know your kind better than that. But I also know you can be reasoned with. And I know you don’t depend on the child sex trade to survive… so it’s something you can do without. My investigation will turn up the evidence you need to excise a cancer from your territory.”

  Dwayne cut in, “And if we don’t agree to your terms? Are we to expect you’ll just drop this and move on?” He and Moonshadow smiled at him. “That doesn’t sound like you, Maxwell.”

  He shrugged. “Without your help, I don’t have an investigation. And you don’t have a way to get in there. How many other social workers or CPS workers are immune to vampire charm
?” He made a circle with his hand and held it up. “Zero, that’s how many. You know how many Joplin cops or Jasper County Deputies are immune to vampire charm?” He kept the circle up. “Yeah. I’m the only shot you’ve got.”

  “You’re time is up,” Dwayne said after his watch beeped. He took Max by the arm.

  “What’s it going to be?” Max fixed Moonshadow in his glare. She lifted her hand for Dwayne to stop and looked at Max.

  “Dwayne has information for you.” She gestured and Dwayne resumed pulling Max out of the vehicle. Once he was on the sidewalk, Dwayne reached under the seat and drew a file folder. He slapped it into Max’s chest and stepped back before getting in the SUV. The door slammed.

  Max tapped on the blackened window. The glass rolled down with a hum, putting him face-to-face with the shotgun-toting vampire. He looked past him to Moonshadow. A trickle of rain dropped on the back of his neck and made him shiver. He tucked the file under his shirt.

  “So we have a deal?”

  “Find us again when you have proof.” She looked ahead. Max tried to ignore the shotgun barrel leveled at his chest. “Only next time, try not to shoot anyone.”

  “No promises.” Max backed away. The window rolled up, and the rain started. He managed to get to the porch before getting soaked.

  Sadie met him at the door. She pressed the gun into his hand and her body against his under the pale yellow glow of the porch light. He held her for a few seconds before putting the gun in the back of his jeans. She looked up at him and kissed him on the cheek.

  “If you ever do anything like that again,” she whispered, “I’m leaving.”

  “I know.”

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Are you going to kill her?”

  Boone didn’t look at Skyler; he just stared into the rain.

  “What’s the point? She’s already told him everything she knows.” He wrapped his fingers around his chin and tapped a silver ring against his teeth. The light in Soptik’s trailer was off, but he saw the faint glow of her television through a window. When he closed his eyes and focused, he could hear it. If he tried hard enough, he might have heard her breathing.

  “We could still kill her.”

  Boone looked over his shoulder. Skyler sat at a table with a bottle of beer in his hand. Ollie was face down at the same table. Leroy was playing video games with Maulky, their lanky chemist.

  Boone smiled at the Skyler’s disappointed look.

  “You’re still sore she shot you.”

  “No...” Skyler brought the beer to his lips and took a swig.

  Boone chuckled and turned back to the window. Lightning flashed in the distance and made the curtain of rain sparkle. Boone took a short breath and resumed staring at Soptik’s trailer.

  “If you’re not going to do anything to her, why are you watching her?”

  “He’s thinking,” came a heavily accented French voice from the back of the trailer. Boone heard Luc’s boots patter on the linoleum. “You should try it sometime.”

  “Shut up, toad!”

  Boone saw Luc slap Skyler across the back of his shaved head in the reflection.

  “It’s frog, you imbecile! You can’t even get your ethnic slurs right. What kind of a skinhead are you?”

  “Kind that’s gonna kick your frog ass, Frenchie!” Skyler jumped up from the table, knocking Ollie to the floor. He landed with a heavy thud just as Skyler got into the face of the much older, and much less attractive, vampire. Luc smiled and flashed a grill of golden teeth at the younger vampire.

  Boone turned slowly to watch how this went down.

  “Those gold teeth make you look like a colored gang-banger.”

  Leroy and Maulky paused their game. The only sound in the trailer was the patter of rain on the flat roof and Boone’s snickering. Also, Ollie snored.

  Skyler was taller than Luc, but not bigger. He was young, and young vampires were stupid. Luc was old, he even looked old. Compared to him, the rest of the group looked like kids. Boone would almost have been willing to let Luc sort this out just to see Skyler get his ass killed, but Skyler was useful. Skyler was pretty, and pretty got him things the others couldn’t get.

  “You know where I get these?” Luc parted his lips further, revealing the double row of gold teeth running to the back of his mouth. His fangs slid out, revealing tiny gold rings around the white enamel, framing a grill of gold incisors jutting from yellowed gums.

  “Gold teeth make you look like a fucking nigger,” Skyler said with a laugh. “You take those from some colored you iced in France?”

  Luc chuckled “No! I take them from the mouth of Jews I found for Maréchal Pétain. Melt them down and replace my own, so I always carry them with me.” He laughed. It made his face red and illuminated his age lines.

  “Who the hell is Martian Peetine?”

  Hearing Skyler try to struggle through the name made Boone plant his face in his hand.

  “Are you serious?” Luc looked like he was going to slap him through the wall. He turned to Boone with a confused look. “This is what we have been reduced to?” he asked, in French, gesturing to Skyler and the humans. “This is what passes for the master race?”

  His hand passed a little too close to Skyler for comfort. The younger vampire made a move. He growled, reaching for the older vampire’s throat. Boone was certain he was the only observer who saw what happened next. To the humans, it would have seemed like a pair of white blurs.

  Luc grabbed his hand and twisted him to the floor. After a series of pops, Skyler opened his mouth and whined. Luc held him down with one hand and put a boot on the younger vampire’s back.

  Skyler wailed again, turning his bloodshot eyes to the others for help. Maulky and Leroy shook their heads and looked away. They were humans. They weren’t going to rumble with a vampire, especially not one as old and powerful as Luc. Ollie continued to snore—not that he’d have been much help awake.

  “You two ladies need to get a room?” Boone shook his head and gestured to Luc. The older vampire released him. Skyler fell to the floor with a gasp.

  “I could not use someone so pretty.” He grabbed Skyler’s cheeks and shook his reddened face. Skyler jerked away as Luc and Boone laughed. He almost stumbled over the slumbering Ollie and his prodigious belly. That got the humans laughing at him.

  Skyler jumped up into a crouch and snarled at them with his fangs out. “What the hell are you laughing at?”

  They stopped laughing and went back to their noisy game.

  “Where are you going?” Boone asked Luc as he turned to the door.

  “I’m going to the sheds to visit the Grendel.” Leroy and Maulky paused their game again and gave Boone a worried look. “Don’t worry, mes amis, he will not come up here. He asked me to come listen to a record with him.” He shrugged. “It makes him happy, eh? We should keep him happy.”

  They resumed their game.

  Boone waived a pair of fingers at Luc. He nodded and walked out of the trailer. Boone slipped in front of Skyler and gave him a wide lipped grin.

  “You need to adjust yourself, boy.” He placed a hand on the shorter vamp’s shoulder. “You’re lucky the Frenchman was in a good mood tonight, or he’d have killed you.”

  Skyler rubbed his wrist and nodded. Boone put his hand on his face and smiled.

  “Now, has he been to see her?”

  “He’s been,” Skyler said with a nod. “I smelled his car when he was here and smelled it again when I went to see her today.” Boone smiled and put his other hand on Skyler’s face. “You want me to do her?”

  Boone shook his head. “You just keep feeding her sex and the pipe, and she’s all yours for as long as you want.” That idea made the young vampire smile. Boone chuckled. “Stay close to her, show up more often at weird times and in the middle of the night.”

  “I got to sleep over there?” The smile was gone.

  “Oh, you poor baby! God must hate you to make you so pretty that a sweet little
thing like that wants your pole in her every night.” Boone released him and stepped away. “Just watch her close. Ask her about other guys coming ‘round while you’re not there. Get all protective and shit… dumb white bitches love that. Just be an asshole.” Boone grinned. “I think you can handle that, right?”

  “You want me to hit her?”

  Boone rolled his eyes. “No, don’t hit her, jackass! Just… be rougher. Make her think she did something wrong, so she tries harder.”

  “I got it, yeah.” He nodded. “I never did that on purpose though. What if she gets sick of it and tells me to leave?”

  “A bitch will put up with a lot from a guy she loves.” He turned and pointed a ringed finger at Skyler. “Don’t push it too far… just enough to get her to tell you if she sees Hollingsworth again.” Skyler looked confused. Boone pinched his brow. “If she thinks you’re the jealous type, she won’t let him into her place again… especially if you could just show up at any minute.”

  “Right, right! I got it. Damn… you’re like an evil genius with this shit.”

  Boone rubbed his face and looked out the window. “Yeah, well… I’ve had a lot of time to get it down. You mind your manners and don’t go pissing off Luc, you might live this long too.”

  “How old are you, Danny-boy?”

  Boone walked to the window and resumed staring. “Remember the Alamo?”

  “You’re from Texas?”

  “No. But I remember the Alamo.”

  Skyler didn’t answer. Boone felt his eyes boring into his back in fascination. He turned and looked at the younger vamp with a wide, fanged grin.

  “And don’t ever call me Danny-boy again.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Boone knew he was being followed.

  His pursuer had made little effort to keep his attention secret, at least from Boone. He doubted the humans of Carthage, Missouri were aware of his pursuit. Even if they were, they wouldn’t recognize its significance. To human eyes, he seemed no more than a stranger in a dark cloak and silk hat, gliding silently over the dusty boardwalk past a bustling saloon.