Night Owls

by Lauren M. Roy

  “We had McDonald’s earlier.”

  “See? You want your last meal to be a Big Mac? It’s blood from here on out.”

  “Val.” He’d been timid and awkward these last few days. Now all of that was gone, replaced by a stubborn resolve. “If you don’t help me, my last meal might be a person. Then Elly’ll stake me and that’ll be it.”

  “He’s right. I’d stake him if he killed someone,” she said.

  “Big help,” said Val. “Thanks.”

  Elly shrugged. “I’d do it nicely.”

  Justin wasn’t finished. “Listen to me. These things killed Professor Clearwater. They killed Helen. I don’t want to be one of them. And if that means becoming a vampire, fine. Don’t make me be what they are. Please, Val.” He clasped his hands in front of his chest, like a little boy begging to stay up past his bedtime. “Please.”

  She stared at him, long and hard. From outside came the sounds of Creeps dying—the hiss of silver burning their flesh, the tearing of limbs, the meaty ripping of vampire fangs in their throats. Katya’s dark, tinkling laughter floated over it all.

  Val glanced out there, then back at Justin. Her mouth set in a grim line. In that moment, her decision made, she looked old and tired, and more than anything, sad. Then she quirked the kind of grin Elly imagined you’d see on someone stepping up to the gallows.

  “Your parents are going to kill me.”

  • • •

  VAL LED THE procession to the back room, Justin behind her, Chaz lurching along after, one hand on his side. She could smell his worry. Elly stayed four steps behind Chaz, covering their retreat should a Jackal make it past Sunny and Lia. From the pile she’d seen at their feet, though, she didn’t think it likely.

  The fluorescent lights in the back were almost too bright after the darkness that had reigned at the front of the store. Val sat Justin in the chair and hunkered down in front of him. Those eyes were damned disconcerting, and hard to reconcile with the thought that this was Justin looking out from them. Elly was right; there wasn’t much time.

  “Last chance,” she said anyway. “How are you going to finish your degree?”

  “I’ll take night classes. And see what they have for courses online.”

  “Got it all figured out, huh?”

  “Enough of it.”

  College kids.

  “All right, fine.” She looked around. Elly was in the doorway, her back to them. She’d drawn a line of runes on the threshold, just in case. Chaz hovered nearby, his bruised face looking all the worse in the harsh light. When this was finished, she was going to have words with Bitch. Words and fists.

  But first, she had a vampire to make. “Chaz, I need you to hold him steady.”

  Dutifully, he stepped behind Justin and held his shoulders, pulling him into the back of the swivel chair. But when he tried holding Justin’s shoulders, the pain was clearly too much.

  Elly glanced into the back room at Chaz’ shout. “Hang on,” she said, scuttling over to him. “I can help.” She wiped the spike off on her jeans and tugged Chaz’ shirt up before he could protest. Lightly, ever so carefully, she sketched a rune on his skin with the tip. She pricked her finger and chanted under her breath, smearing the blood over the scratches that had raised themselves up. After a moment, Chaz took a slow, deep breath.

  “Hey, that’s pretty good,” he said.

  “It’s temporary. I took the pain away, but your rib’s still broken. Go easy, okay? It’s going to hurt like a bitch again in another ten, fifteen minutes.” She was already heading back to guard the door before Chaz could nod.

  Ready for another try, Chaz planted his hands on Justin’s shoulders once more. He didn’t question her; he didn’t argue. It was clear from the look in his eyes that he didn’t like the plan, but he followed her lead, anyway.

  Hell, Val didn’t like the plan. She didn’t regret being what she was. After forty years of being a vampire, the novelty had yet to wear off.

  That didn’t mean she thought a kid who only last spring had been deemed old enough to legally buy booze was old enough to be a vampire. Justin still had a human life to live, things that drinking blood and sleeping during the day sort of ruled out. Give him another ten years and she might not have argued.

  But he didn’t have another ten years. He might not even have ten hours before the spell in his head made him a full Jackal. Sometimes, life snatched your good choices away and left you with a set of new, shitty ones.

  She’d have to explain herself to Ivanov later—new vampires normally weren’t made without wading through the bloodsucker equivalent of a sea of red tape first—but Val set that aside, too. This wasn’t the time to fret over politics.

  “This is going to hurt,” she said. “I’m sorry.” She said it for Justin, but she meant it for Chaz, too. He nodded, once, and there was no use stalling any longer.

  Val drove her claws into her chest. Her ribs and breastbone splintered beneath the force of the blow, and for a moment she thought she’d black out from the pain. She breathed in once, twice. The oxygen was utterly useless to her but the act itself was calming. Then she squeezed and felt her claws pierce the sac around her heart. The muscle spasmed wildly as she impaled herself. She held on, flinging her other hand forward to clutch onto Chaz’ shoulder so she could stay upright. Justin sat sandwiched between them, his amber eyes wide as saucers.

  After a moment, her body seemed to figure out that she was being struck with neither pine, nor cedar, nor dogwood, and her heartbeat settled to its normal rhythm beneath her claws. Val felt blood pooling in her palm, gave it another count of three, and withdrew her hand. Her chest made a sucking sound as the claws came free.

  She stood swaying a moment, holding Chaz’ gaze as the gaping wound in her chest closed. Skin first, bones later. She could feel them shifting around inside. When she was steady, she looked to Chaz. “Ready?” He’d gone ashen, but his jaw was set, his knees locked. His grip on Justin’s shoulders tightened.

  She dipped down low, coming up from Justin’s solar plexus rather than smashing straight through his sternum. He grunted as she reached up through his chest. He might have tried to scream, but her fist was inside him, her knuckles brushing his lungs. Her clawed fingers found his heart. It fluttered and jerked as she closed her hand around it. Justin’s eyes had rolled up in his head. Good. Better not to be awake for this.

  Val squeezed, her claws puncturing atria and ventricles. Justin bucked beneath her, but Chaz held him as still as he could. Val leaned on Justin’s legs with her free arm, keeping him from thrashing off the chair. He groaned, long and low, his heart pulsing rapidly in Val’s grip.

  As her heartsblood mingled with his, Justin’s struggles subsided. He took one last, shuddering breath, his eyes fluttering open once more. Clear, focused, awake.

  Then he died.

  Val pulled her hand from his ruined chest and sat back. With one of her clean claws, she opened a vein at her bloodied wrist and brought it up to Justin’s mouth. He lay there, slack against the chair, as she dribbled blood over his tongue. He didn’t move. She rubbed her wrist over his lips like a mother encouraging her baby to nurse.

  “Is he . . . ?” Chaz asked, in the hushed tone you heard at wakes.

  “Give him a minute,” Val said. I did it right, didn’t I?

  Didn’t I?

  Just as doubt was getting a solid hold, Justin’s eyelids fluttered, then Val felt the twin stabs of his fangs sliding into her skin. She winced as the flesh tore even further, but she didn’t pull back. Chaz let his shoulders go, and Justin surged up, clutching her wrist to his mouth and swallowing every few seconds. At last he stopped, pushing her wrist away. He panted, glancing down at the fist-sized hole in his stomach.

  It was closing, but slowly, new flesh spreading like ice crystals along a pond’s surface.

  “You’re new,” Val said. “It’ll take some time.” She held up her wrist: the wound had already closed. She was bloody from the base of her
hand to the tips of her fingers, and from the middle of her forearm to her elbow, but the spot Justin had been drinking from was completely clean. “I guess you were thirsty,” she said.

  “So that’s it?” Justin stopped staring at his knitting flesh and looked around the room. “I’m a vampire now? I don’t feel very different.” He paused, then poked at his stomach again. “. . . okay, I guess that should hurt a lot more.”

  “You still have some changing to do, but for all intents and purposes, yes.” She caught his chin. His eyes were no longer dog-like, but the irises had gone back to yellow instead of brown. Val sniffed, sorting past the scent of her own blood and the Jackals’ scent clogging the air from outside. He definitely smelled like a vampire now; there was a heaviness that hadn’t been there before. But there was more—not the putrid meat smell of the Jackals that had clung to him when he’d arrived with Cavale and Elly earlier, but something dry and hot that made her think of wide-open grasslands beneath a relentless sun.

  “What is it?”

  “I don’t know. But I think you’re okay. Do you still feel like your face is too short?”

  He touched his nose, his lips, his chin. “No.”

  Chaz grinned. “Better question. Do you still want to bite Elly?”

  Justin twisted around to look at her. She ducked her head into the room and eyed him, the silver spike held loosely in her grip. “Um. No.”

  “Good.” Val pushed herself up out of her crouch and gave Justin a hand up. “Lean on me and we’ll go have a word with our friends out front.”

  29

  BY THE TIME they got to the front of the store, there were only a handful of Jackals left outside. Chaz took over acting as Justin’s crutch so Val could make a stop at the register. Elly’s short-term remedy was just about up. As they limped down the aisle together, the pain returned. He felt like his chest was on fire. Still, the hole in Justin’s middle trumped a few cracked ribs. Chaz gritted his teeth and kept going.

  “Thanks,” said Justin. He still had the fangs out, so it made his speech come out a little funny. Chaz got the sense he didn’t know how to retract them yet. “Hey.” He crinkled his nose, in what Chaz had learned over the years was his thinky-face. “Are we cool?”

  It was a question Chaz had figured he’d deal with later, but now it was right there, in the open: Val had made someone else a vampire, and not him. Katya’s offer had repulsed him, but when Val was turning Justin—even the part where she’d reached into his fucking chest—he’d felt jealousy wrapping its fingers around his throat. Why, though? Because I secretly want to be a vampire? Or because now I have to share her?

  He looked at Justin. The kid hadn’t asked for all this shit to happen in the first place. Not his fault. Not Val’s, either. “Yeah, man. We’re cool.”

  And he realized it was true.

  “Hey.” Val shouted over the din of the fighting outside. She was waving around a piece of white cloth that Chaz recognized as the dust rag they kept under the register. “We’re ready to talk.”

  It took a bit more shouting before the battle crawled to a stop. Cavale trotted over to stand with them, Elly trying to be subtle about it as she inspected his injuries. Even after Ivanov’s crew and the Jackals all stood down, Katya and Bitch kept trading blows. Neither of them seemed to be trying to land a killing blow, really. From their grins, they were enjoying beating the shit out of one another.

  Finally, Lia stepped over beside Val and stuck her fingers in her mouth. She let out a shrill whistle that would’ve done a gym teacher proud. The women stopped smacking each other around and looked toward the store.

  “Valerie?” Katya looked pouty. “I hope we’re not surrendering.”

  “Not exactly.” Val gestured to Chaz and Justin. They picked their way forward to her, glass grinding beneath their feet. “Circumstances have changed. Bring her over here.”

  “Gladly.” Katya reached out, snake-like, and collared Bitch. The Jackal woman cried out in surprise. Chaz snickered. She didn’t know Katya was playing with her this whole time.

  When they got close, Bitch began sniffing. She was all Jackal-ed out, so she tilted her pointed snout into the air and snuffled. At a nod from Val, Katya released her hold. Bitch circled them warily, sniff-sniff-sniffing the whole way around. At one point, she sneezed and her whole body shook, like a dog with a noseful of pepper. She kept at it for almost a minute. Chaz half expected her to shove her face in Justin’s butt in doggy-greeting.

  Instead she stepped back, horrified. She didn’t protest when Katya clamped a hand on her arm once more. “What did you do to him?”

  Val smiled, letting her fangs show. “He’s mine now. He was before, too, but even more so now.”

  “The spell. Does he still have it?”

  “Let’s find out.” In addition to the dust rag, Val had grabbed a pad of paper and a pen from beside the register. “Justin? Want to try writing for us?”

  Chaz took the paper so Justin didn’t have to unlatch. He held it up and watched as words crawled across the page:

  JUSTIN KENNEDY. NOW LEAVE US THE FUCK ALONE.

  He held it up for all of them to see. Bitch groaned. Sunny and Lia clapped and cheered. Chaz might’ve been tempted to appreciate the jiggling bits if it weren’t for their knives leaving ominous smoke trails.

  “Call them off,” said Val. “We’re done here.”

  Bitch turned around and gave an order in the Jackals’ speech. At Chaz’ side, Justin frowned, but didn’t comment.

  The Jackals wavered a moment, uncertain whether they should obey. Bitch barked another command at them—literally—and one by one, they slunk away into the night.

  The vampires stood their ground, waiting on Katya. “Go home,” she said, sounding bored. “Tell Ivanov I’m on my way.” Unlike the Jackals, the vampires dispersed as soon as she was finished giving the order. Katya stood there, holding on to Bitch. “If you don’t mind, Valerie, I think I’ll bring her home as a present for Ivanov. I’ll say you chipped in.”

  “I don’t care what you do with her. Far as I’m concerned, it’s over.”

  “It’s a bad idea,” said Bitch.

  Katya shook her hard enough to make her teeth rattle. “Shut up. No one asked you.”

  “I’m just saying. My alpha’s going to be upset enough as it is that we don’t have the boy. If I don’t come home, either, he’ll take it out on the undeserving.” She looked at Chaz as she said it, unblinking even after a cuff on the head from Katya.

  “Wait,” said Chaz. He looked at her for signs of a bluff, but he had no idea how to spot a lying Jackal. “The kids?”

  “Mm-hm. Among other . . . associates.”

  Marian. Or her husband. Probably both. “We have to let her go.”

  “We should kill her,” said Elly. She gripped the spike like she might just go ahead and do it. Though, at a warning look from Katya of all people, she lowered it to her side once more.

  Katya rolled her eyes. “Charles. Look at what she did to you. Your poor face. You can’t mean it.”

  Bitch watched the exchange, looking smug. She might have been lying. She probably was, but he couldn’t take that chance. Those kids weren’t bad, they were desperate. And he’d promised Marian he’d help her. What sort of help was it if he got her husband punished, or worse, killed? “I do. There are people there. Humans. They weren’t hostages like me, but they don’t deserve to be hurt, either.”

  Katya looked to Val. “Valerie, are you allowing this?”

  Val tilted her head, trying to puzzle him out. We really need to work out some sort of secret code. “Yeah,” she said at last. “I am.”

  Katya’s pout deepened. She gave Bitch a shove to get her moving. “Go. If I can still see you in ten seconds, I’m coming after you.” She started counting.

  The woman smirked. “You’ve gone soft, Leech,” she said to Val. “Not that I’m complaining.” Then she flipped them all off and took off up Main Street at an easy lope. She blended into t
he shadows before Katya got to six.

  “Well,” Katya sighed, then unwound a long strand of black hair from around her fingers. She passed it to Cavale. “I assume you can use this to track her.”

  He took it and held it up to the light. “It’ll do.”

  “Good.” Katya sketched a bow. “Then I think I’ll get home. Ivanov will be in touch.” She looked at them all, her eyes lingering for a bit on Chaz and Justin before she showed Val a mouthful of fangs. “With all of you.” Then she was gone, heading off in the direction Bitch had run.

  Justin let out a sigh that was more of a wheeze. “Holy crap. I think I’ve been holding my breath all this time.”

  “You have.” Chaz hadn’t felt him breathe since Val had handed him off. “You’re kind of done needing as much air as you used to. Well, outside of using it to talk.”

  “Huh. Neat.”

  Elly came bustling over. If she was upset about letting Bitch go, she was saving the argument for now. She reached up to touch Chaz’ face, her fingers cool and steady. “My kit’s in with Cavale’s stuff,” she said. “I can help with the—oh, hello.” She took his left hand and turned it over. Her palm was still leaking a bit, so she dipped her pinky in it and spread a line of blood on Chaz’ wrist. The rune Marian had drawn with oil earlier flared. “Someone was protecting you.”

  “Really? Because I still feel like I got hit by a truck.”

  “It could have been worse. When Twitch was hitting you, I was sure he was going to puncture a lung.” She said it absently, concentrating more on the sigil than on him. Then she looked up, and it hit him.

  He knew why Marian had looked familiar.

  “Elly? Uh. Do you have family? In the Brotherhood?”

  Her face closed up; the tentative smile she’d been trying on fled. “No.” Cavale cleared his throat and she relented. “Okay, maybe. I never knew my parents, but they were in it. Why?”

  She was still cradling his hand. He turned it over carefully, giving her fingers a gentle squeeze. “I met a woman today who looked enough like you to be your mom. She’s one of the people the Jackals have a hold over.”