by Lolah Lace
“You know why I’m here?”
“Yeah but I don’t give two point five fucks.” Max warned. Just a minute ago he wanted to kill Cyan. But family always came first and he would back his brother’s play or die trying.
Demon Monica raised her hand gesturing for them to take it easy. Taking it easy was exactly the opposite of what she had in store. She karate kicked Max in the face. His body hit the wall sending the blade careening. The knife flipped into the air before landing on the carpet next to his unconscious body. He was out cold.
“Shit!” Ryan spit as his eyes moved to his brother.
Monica began to sing in a sultry croon. “It’s raining. It’s pouring. The Fox brothers are boring.”
“That was a bad move.” Ryan was getting ready to take her out.
“I’m still a fan. I still have a big poster of you guys on my wall and all that stuff I said about Max being my favorite. Just forget about that.”
It was clear. Ryan recognized this demon as the one from the high school parking lot. He had jumped into another host body. He should have let Max kill this punk when he had the chance.
Ryan charged toward the demon with all the speed he could gather. On impact they both landed in the kitchen on top of the table. Ryan looked over toward the kitchen counter by the sink. He saw his machete and his shotgun but there was no way he would be able to reach them with a demon fighting him so wildly. They rolled around before getting back to their feet.
Demon Monica punched Ryan square in the face and he loosened his grip on her shoulders. She kicked him once in the center on his abs. He tumbled back and slammed into the refrigerator. Ryan recovered quickly and blocked the hall that led to Cyan’s bedroom. He glanced down at his injured brother in the hall.
“Hey dude, hand over the terrible two.” Monica bated.
“Fuck off demon!” Ryan grumbled.
“Oops I forget I’m no longer skater punk. I’m the sexy African American waitress with the big tits.” The demon Monica cupped its own breasts with the palms of its hands. “This things feel like heaven. I can understand why you knocked this one up.”
Demon Monica sang imitating Marilyn Monroe’s seductive serenade of JFK. “Hap-py Father’s Day to you. Hap-py Father’s Day to you. Happy Father’s Day Mis-ter Fox.”
This was all surreal. Ryan turned back and jumped over his brother’s body. He rushed to cover Cyan’s bedroom door with his six foot four frame.
“I won’t let you near her.” Ryan declared with a face that meant business. A face that said your ass is grass. The face of a father lion that would protect his cub to the death.
“Say that to my boss.”
“Who is your boss?” Ryan asked while he inched further into the doorframe.
“Coming to the stage is the one and only Vampir.” The demon introduced with a contemptible heartiness.
The vampire Vampir danced around the corner. He was soon standing in the crowded hallway with the duo. He was decked out in a long expensive black leather trench coat. He was outfitted in head-to-toe black, mostly leather. Even his hair was jet black. He looked more like a Goth rock star instead of a powerful vampire. There was an air of failed celebrity about him. He was a wannabe as far as the Fox brothers were concerned.
“Hakuna matata, what a wonderful day.” Vampir glared directly at Ryan. “How cute, the doting dad.”
“Vampir you will never get your hands on my daughter.” Ryan proclaimed.
Vampir tilted his head like a mechanical toy. “Never, that’s a pretty long time. Drack got his hands on you so if history repeats itself I will get my hands on your demon spawn.”
“Not if you’re a headless corpse.” Ryan boasted.
“Oh rats are we going to fight over a stupid kid named after a Crayola crayon. Let’s flip the script. How about you be MJ and I’ll be Paul? You say the girl is mine and I say no no no she’s mine. Now move it, before I usher you out of here and show you I’m a good kisser.” Vampir flashed his elongated fangs. “Going nowhere fast. We reached the climax.”
Ryan tossed the holy water he took from Max on the demon version of Monica. She was the closest. As her skin burned she screamed in pure agony. Ryan opened Cyan’s bedroom door and rushed inside.
Ryan’s eyes scanned the room. He glared down at the toddler bedbut she was nowhere in the room. The window above her bed is open and wet. The window seal was covered in rain.
Vampir entered the toddler’s room with the demon Monica right behind him.
“Enough witty banter, kill him!” Vampir ordered.
The demon Monica sprung into action. She charged toward Ryan and pounced hard into his hulking stone frame. They smashed onto the toddler bed making it crash to the floor. Ryan punched the demon in the face, once, twice. They were engaged in a life or death tussle. Ryan blocked a knee to the groin. His reflexes were sharp. His speed was excellent for a man of his size and stature.
Vampir stood in the corner and watched the frantic melee. He hadn’t planned on getting his hands dirty if he didn’t have too. His demon employee seemed to be holding her own against Goliath.
She skillfully jumped on a chair and leapt onto Ryan’s back. She clamped her arms around his head and throat and applied the sleeper hold on Ryan. He fought hard to buck her off but she had an ironclad grip on his upper torso and neck. Ryan gasped for air that was out of his reach. His hands clawed at her arms. His life flashed before him. His tawny eyes rolled back in his head. He involuntarily shut his eyes. He drifted into unconsciousness. The demon slowly lowered him to the floor.
“What now Vampir?”
“The kid isn’t here. Kill him.”
The demon hesitated a minute. “He’s a Fox.” The demon questioned Vampir’s command. Maybe the demon was indeed star struck. Maybe it was something else. “Drack said—”
“I don’t care if he’s a panda bear. I don’t care what Drack said. You kill him or I kill you.”
Demon Monica looked down at the heap that was Ryan Fox. She took one hesitant step toward him.
Suddenly Max rushed into the room and stabbed the demon Monica in the back with his silver dagger.
The demon’s face flashed silver as the host body plummeted to the carpet.
“You backstabber— This is getting a bit redundant. Later Fox.”
Vampir bolted from the room. He disappeared down the hall. He refused to take the chance of losing a battle with a Fox. Max was holding a weapon that could kill him.
Max fought the urge to go after Vampir but he needed to make sure Ryan was alive.
He knelt by Ryan’s side. He slapped him hard once and watched as Ryan jumped into consciousness. Max was relieved. Max was grateful. Max was going to kill Vampir the next time he laid eyes on him even if it meant he would die himself. In his mind he made the vow.
Max watched the color return to Ryan’s face. He helped Ryan up from the floor. Ryan massaged his sore neck. The pressure she placed on his throat made him cough.
“Where’s Cyan?”
“She’s gone. She must have climbed out the window. Did Vampir get away?” Ryan looked down at the one dead body, Monica’s dead body.
“I’m sorry brother. She was going to kill you.”
Ryan knelt down and silently mourned Monica’s death. He pressed his lips together to hold in his emotion as Max looked on.
Monica’s dead eyes stared up at the ceiling. Ryan ran his fingertips over her eyelids to close her eyes. He stood and grabbed Cyan’s brown teddy bear off the carpet.
CHAPTER 11
Max and Ryan drove until they reached an Interstate truck stop. They pulled into the parking lot. They got out to hit the head and regroup. This was a royal fuck up for them. They were losing at every turn and it felt like a bottomless pit of horseshit.
Ryan was the last one out the restroom. He walked over to the truck. He leaned against the Range Rover drinking bottled water. Max was standing in front of him with his cell phone up to his ear.
�
��Unbelievable.” Max said into the phone as he glanced over at Ryan. “We lost the kid… Yeah my niece, very funny Uncle Donny… We checked the sister’s place. We checked the playground. Where the hell do we look for a two year old?” Max called out. “Ryan!”
Ryan looked over at Max.
Max smirked. “Uncle Donny said next time wrap it up.” Their uncle’s humor was right on time but Ryan didn’t seem to find the joke funny. He realized he cared about Monica. He was the reason she was dead. He was also realized he cared about his daughter. He wanted to find her and he just hoped she was safe.
From the darkness, the vampire Scarlet slowly approached. She appeared from behind a semi-trailer truck. She looked different, a little softer but still like the insatiable vampire Max had known her to now be.
“Oh crap! Uncle let me call you back.” Max ended the cell call before his Uncle could respond.
“Scarlet.” Ryan noticed their former hunter buddy. His surprise registered clearly on his frowned face.
“Ryan.” Scar smiled and tilted her head in acknowledgment. This human gesture made her appear familiar to Ryan. “My brother tells me you have acquired a heartbeat.”
“Yes it sounds like a kick drum. What else did numeral uno tell you?” Scar winked at Max and it didn’t go unnoticed by Ryan.
“Why are you here Scar?” Max chimed in hoping his secret sexual romp with the vamp wouldn’t come to light, to dark or to the hunter grapevine.
“I’m here about Cyan.”
“What?” Ryan asked.
“I took her before Vampir and his minions could get to her.”
Ryan grimaced while holding back his hope. “Cyan is still alive?”
“Yes, of course.”
“What did you do to her?” Max angrily asked.
“Nothing.” She glowered. “Why would I hurt her?” Scar explained but Max raised a watchful brow.
Max was suspicious. He didn’t understand what was going on. “Why should we believe you?”
“I know who she is. I know what she is. I also know why she is so important to Vampir.”
“I don’t know what you think you know.” Max countered a little too heated for the civil conversation.
Scar rolled her eyes at Max. “Ryan, I know she’s your daughter.”
“My daughter?” Ryan stammered and tried to display a poker face.
“Cyan told me herself. She’s not a human child. She is half demon. She’s special. That’s why Vampir wants her.” Scar decided to only give them a piece of the info she had amassed.
“If Vampir wants her then I’m sure Drack wants her too.” Ryan concluded.
“Maybe but does that really matter. She has to be protected?”
“I want to see my daugh—Cyan, now. If she is alive. Take me to her.” Ryan begged.
“Ryan brother, it’s a trap. You can’t trust Vampira.”
Scar frowned. “Stop being so paranoid schizoMAXic.” She poked her lips at him. “Ryan I’ll take you to her.”
Ryan was thinking about Scar’s proposition.
“This is bullshit!” Max roared as he watched his brother move toward Scar. “Ryan you can’t be serious.”
“Max seriously.” Scar placed her hands on her hips. “You don’t trust me. I could have killed you when I had your ass back at that barn but we both know that went an entirely different way.”
Max had no choice but to shut his mouth. If she ratted him out he thought that Ryan might believe her over him. He was embarrassed about his dick getting hard for a vampire.
“Ryan I will take you to her. Just follow me in the truck. I’m parked over there in the Jeep.”
Scar’s body moved catlike across the parking lot. Ryan was already in the passenger seat. Max stood at his driver’s door contemplating his next move. He watched Scar as her entered her vehicle.
“Dude, get in the car!” Ryan’s voice jarred him back to life.
Max tailgated Scar all the way to the Harvester Motel. He pulled the Range Rover into a spot in the motel parking lot. A large gaudy neon sign read HARVESTER MOTEL.
Max turned off the ignition and got out the driver’s seat. Ryan exited the truck. They waited for Scar to get out of the gray Jeep Cherokee. It was parked in the space beside them. They meet up with Scar on the sidewalk. The motel was the kind that had outdoor entrances.
The brothers followed her up the cement stairs. Ryan and Max entered the room 224 a few steps behind Scar.
Cyan was sitting on top of a kid’s twin sized Mickey Mouse comforter that was placed on the floor. Cyan was totally engrossed in an episode of Dora The Explorer that played on the old-fashioned motel television. She was in a cartoon-induced trance.
“Cyan your dad is here with your, uncle.” Scar called out to the little girl like this was a normal casual situation.
Max groaned. Cyan stood and turned to face the odd threesome. Cyan stood frozen in place. The little girl stared at the brothers like they were strangers.
“I think she’s afraid.”
“What? Of us. Why?” Ryan eagerly asked.
“She thinks that now that you know what she is, you may try to kill her. I told her you wouldn’t but she doesn’t believe me.” Scar widened her eyes.
“A two year old told you that?” Max smirked. “Please.” He was the king of skepticism.
“She communicates with me a little different because I’m a vamp and she’s part demon. We’re different but kind of the same species. It’s strange.” Scar hunched. “I can’t really explain it. She can talk to me without speaking.”
“Yeah right. Are you high on tainted blood?
“Max you really have serious trust issues. I think you need a vampire blowjob.” Scar licked her lips and flashed her fangs at Max.
“There’s the vamp tramp I hate.”
“Watch your mouth in front of the kid, Uncle Max.” Scar scolded.
Ryan ignored the Scar Max battle of words. He stared intensely at Cyan. He wanted to close the gap in between them but settled on taking just a few steps. He knelt down to her level and held his hand out to her.
“I’m not going to hurt you.” He promised.
Ryan removed Cyan’s lost teddy bear from behind his back. Her cyan colored eyes brightened. She beamed and took a step toward her father.
“Dad.”
“Yes, I’m your dad.”
Cyan ran into Ryan’s waiting arms. He embraced her. This was familiar to him. He had hugged her back when she first hugged him a few days ago. He had hugged her ever since. Cyan held tight to her teddy bear and a bit tighter to her father.
“Max I need to talk to you, outside.” Scar whispered.
Max reluctantly followed the vampire out the motel room door. He stood facing Scar outside the slightly cracked motel room door.
“I know you’re thinking the worse.” She spoke first because it seemed that Max wouldn’t.
“How do you know what I’m thinking?” Max blurted.
“You are unbelievable.” Scar groaned.
“You are a bloodsucking vamp.” He snapped back.
“I have a heart now. It helps me be more in tune with human feelings.” Scar explained.
“I haven’t seen any paperwork to support that ridiculous heart claim.”
“You felt my fucking heartbeat.”
“I felt something inside your chest. I don’t know what is under your cold skin.”
“I don’t know either.” Scar agreed.
“I could cut you open and find out.” Max threatened.
“Looking at me makes you mad and hostile toward me. Why?”
“You know why?”
“No I don’t. Why?”
Max whispered through gritted teeth. “You raped me.”
Scarlet laughed out loud. “You had a hell of a good time in my vampire pussy.”
“No I didn’t.”
“I call bullshit on that.”
“Call it whatever you want.”
“Would it be better
if I let you take the lead? I can let you get inside me on your own accord.” Scar taunted.
“Never again.”
“Why? You really got my panties in a bunch.”
“Vamp tramps don’t wear panties.”
“Well foxy, you would know.”
“Whatever.” Max shrugged. He did know, and knowing was half the battle.
“You’re such a fucking hypocrite. You get chummy with McIlroy who is a damn vampire. He screwed you raw and uncut. Where was he when you needed him? I’m the one that saved Cyan. Yet you treat me like dirt. I was here. I’m your caped crusader. I saved the day. Just like you followed your hunter orders, I follow my vampire orders.”
“You were never the type to take orders.”
“Things change.”
“Who’s your new daddy?”
“None of your business.”
“Well it’s not Vampir and it’s certainly not McIlroy.”
“Fuck you.”
Max was silently thinking. Why hadn’t Uncle Donny or any other hunter heard she was alive? Why hadn’t she been spotted? “You’re one of Drack’s vamps.”
“You’re an asshole. Hunter’s orders come from other hunters. Vampire’s orders come from other vampires. Haven’t you figured it out yet? Hunters, vampires, wolves, hybrids and demons, we’re all the same. We all are fighting to survive.”
“Vampires with heartbeats talk too much. You are complaining and preaching to me like—” Max took in a breath. “This is beginning to feel like a fucking relationship.”
“I prefer to make love, not war.”
Max swallowed hard. Something about her words made his cock stir in his pants. Something about the way her lips curled. Something about the way her tongue moved between her teeth.
“I just threw up in my mouth.” A quick insult to distract him from being distracted.
“Okay fine Max, can’t blame a vamp for trying— Your niece is special.”
“You said that already.”
Max glanced through the crack in the motel room door. He saw Ryan sitting on the floor with the animated little girl. Ryan and Cyan were holding hands. Max turned back to look at Scar.
“You can’t kill her. Ryan would never forgive you. She’s not a demon. She’s your family. She has power but she just doesn’t know how to control it. I’ll teach her to control it.”
