by C. J. Pinard
Chapter 19
Homicidal Maniacs
Pensacola, Florida – 1992
I’d been working at the Thirsty Parrot and had even found a very nice house to rent for over four years when my luck ran out.
Or so, I thought.
Two of my fellow coworkers were vampires. They’d discovered me before I’d discovered them, as I was still fairly new to this gig and didn’t know how exactly to spot a fellow vamp. They taught me how to differentiate smells between humans, vampires, and wolves. Yes, I learned about werewolves during this time, as well. They weren’t super prevalent around the area, as they preferred colder climates and woodsy areas, but they were still around. The few I did meet looked very gruff and unkempt as humans. Long beards, less-than-clean clothes, bad habits. Chewing, smoking, illegal drugs, and lots and lots of hard liquor.
“You see, you can spot one a mile away,” my vampire friend Brian said. “It’s not hard. Plus, they fucking stink.”
I nodded and grabbed a round server tray from the bar-top. I went to a group of three wolves seated around a table and picked up their empty glasses. I took a big whiff and yes, sure enough. Sweat, cigarettes, and something foul I couldn’t put my finger on assaulted my nose.
One of them made eye contact with me and then scowled. His eyes flashed yellow temporarily and then he growled low at me. “Fuckin’ fanger.”
Well, guessed I’d been made. I let my eyes turn black and then back to their hazel color before putting on a smile. “Can I get you anything else?”
“Yeah, you can fuck off, leech.” I looked at the foul-mouthed woman who’d said it, and shook my head before walking away.
“Well, that went over like a lead balloon,” I said, setting their empty glasses on the bar-top.
“See how easy it is for us to spot each other, though?” Brian jutted his chin toward the trio.
I saw them all stand up and prayed they were going to leave. They had to pass by us to get to the door, so they muttered insults and curses at us both on their way out.
“Why do they hate us so much?” I asked Brian as I lifted the partition to get back behind the bar. A few customers were waiting to order drinks.
He followed me back there. “I don’t know… it’s always been that way. Natural enemies, I’m told.”
After taking two orders and serving them, I collected their money and then wiped my hands on the towel slung over my shoulder. I looked at my friend. He was so average-looking with his light-brown hair, brown eyes, and beach attire. He definitely didn’t look menacing or threatening. “That’s stupid,” I commented.
He chuckled and began refilling the ice bucket. “I agree.”
“Whatcha doin’ after you get off?” I asked.
“Gonna play poker with some friends. Wanna join?” he asked.
“Definitely,” I replied. I had no idea how to play poker, but I was a quick study.
After we closed, Brian jotted down directions to his place on a napkin, but I told him I’d just follow him on my bike.
He tossed the napkin in the trash with a shrug. “Sounds good to me.”
There were a few condominium buildings on the beach and his unit sat on the fourth floor. I parked my bike and followed him up.
“We have to keep somewhat quiet since there’s a bunch of old fogies living in the building. They get up at the ass crack of dawn to go play golf and shit.”
I laughed. “Okay.”
I walked into his condo and saw a group of men sitting around the table. One smoked a cigar, the others had tumblers of liquor in front of them. Using what Brian taught me, I could immediately tell that one was a vampire and two were humans. One of the humans was the cigar smoker.
“Guys, this is Vane. He’s going to join us.”
They grunted their hellos and I took a seat.
“I’m Stan,” said the biggest guy at the table—one of the vampires. “It’s double or nothing tonight, so I hope you brought some cash.”
I nodded. “Of course.”
I had no clue what double or nothing meant, but I was about to learn.
He shuffled the deck of cards and began passing them out.
Thankful to be a quick study, I actually won a couple hands and pocketed a couple hundred bucks by the end of the night. Once dawn began to creep in, Stan told the two humans it was time to go.
They had won big, and I could tell Stan and Brian were not happy. I watched them curiously as Stan glanced at Brian and then nodded.
Then, all hell broke loose.
I jumped back when they attacked the two humans, wrestling them to the floor. They pinned them down and sank their fangs into their necks as they yelled and hollered for help. I stood there stunned until the strong scent of blood hit me. Feeling my fangs descend, and my eyes turn black, I jumped on the bigger guy and plunged my fangs into his wrist, drinking deeply as the guy’s life force drained out and the life flickered out of his eyes.
Once I realized what I was doing, I leapt off the guy and stared at the two vampires in horror. “Stop!” I cried. “They’re dead, or almost dead. Stop!”
They both did, in fact, stop, and looked up at me, confused, their faces smeared with bright-red blood.
“Why?” Brian asked.
I pointed at the prone humans. “You’re killing them!”
“So?”
I stared at him incredulously. “I didn’t think you were like this.”
He stood up, an angry look I’d never seen before coloring his features. He shoved me in the chest, and I stumbled back. “You some kind of goody-two-shoes, or something? How else we supposed to eat?”
Stan also stood and came to stand next to Brian, his arms folded across his massive chest. “Yeah, you a snitch or somethin’? Or are you one of those pansies who eats outta stolen blood bags from the blood donation truck?” He snorted out a laugh.
I shook my head. “I’m no rat, but I’m leaving.”
“The hell you are. You ate here, too. You have to help clean up.”
He wasn’t wrong, but it was some sort of primal instinct that caused me to drink from the big guy. I wiped my mouth with the back of my hand and said, “Okay.”
God, I was such a pushover.
I looked toward the window. “But it’s almost daylight.”
“No shit, Sherlock,” Brian said, rolling his eyes. “Take the sofa, and at sundown, we dispose of these two.”
I stared at him in horror. This condo was tiny. The living room and dining room were practically the same room, and there were two small bedrooms and one bathroom. He wanted me to sleep the day away with two corpses lying ten feet away?
“Sweet dreams,” Stan said with a chuckle and then burped, wandering into one room while Brian went into the other. They closed their doors and I stood there staring at the dead men.
Did they have families? Surely someone was going to be missing them.
Didn’t anyone teach these assholes how to feed without killing? I would mention it tomorrow, but I doubted it would go over well. Those guys seemed good and content to just feed as they saw fit and had zero regard for human life. I’d never asked Brian how old he was, despite looking about thirty years old. I briefly wondered if the older I got, the more callous and jaded I’d become. Would my regard for human life become weaker and eventually fade into nothing? I wouldn’t see how. No human had ever tried to hurt me. In fact, the only ones who had ever harmed me were vampires.
I shook my head, grabbed a blanket that was thrown over the couch, and used it to cover the bodies. I went to the couch and rolled over to my side. I doubted I’d be getting much sleep today.
Begrudgingly, I helped load the bodies into the back of Stan’s pickup truck. It had a camper shell on the back to hide our murderous secret. I had been mortified when Stan had whipped out two coroner-grade body bags from a closet inside the condo. These dickheads kept body bags on hand? How often did they kill people?
At least I didn’t have to look into their dead
, pale faces. One had died with this tongue sticking out.
With the three of us crammed into the front seat of the cab, I watched curiously to see where we were headed. When a marina appeared in front of us, and Stan parked the truck, I already knew where this was headed.
“Stay here, I’ll get the boat started and ready.” Stan pulled the keys from the ignition and I watched him under the almost full moon as he jogged to a large fishing boat, hopped on board, and disappeared below deck.
I scooted over so I wasn’t so close to Brian and said, “We’re dumping their bodies in the ocean?”
He chuckled. “Well, it’s technically the Gulf of Mexico, but yeah.”
“I’m pretty sure that’s illegal, and—”
He slapped me upside my head. “So is murder, you idiot. We can’t let the cops find their bodies. They might be able to tie them to us.”
I rubbed the side of my head and said, “Don’t touch me again, asshole.” I exited the truck and stood with my back leaned against it, arms folded.
Brian got out and came toward me. “I was just playin’. Now help me unload.”
I saw Stan walking back toward us. He had backed the truck up closest to the boat. He turned the handle to the window and then opened the bed door. With our vampire strength, it was easy enough to load the bodies onto the boat.
“You know these corpses are just going to wash up on shore. You should just bury them somewhere,” I said after we set the second guy down on top of the first on the deck of the boat. It was so dark and quiet out here, nobody was around. Thank God.
Stan unwrapped the rope anchoring the boat and then went to the steering wheel. He started the ignition, pushed the throttle, and the boat took off into the choppy waters.
“Even if the sharks don’t get to them, by the time they wash up, they’ll be unrecognizable,” Brian yelled over the sound of the engine, holding on to the side of the boat as we careened further away from shore.
I turned around to see the marina getting smaller and smaller. I grew nervous they might throw me overboard as well. I’d probably die before I could swim back to shore. And then there were the aforementioned sharks. Fairly sure I couldn’t survive even one round with a Great White.
Once we reached what seemed like the middle of the ocean—gulf—Stan killed the engine. He and Brian unzipped the body bags and made me help them dump each body overboard. I said a silent prayer for each one’s soul and hoped whoever was listening knew I never meant for this to happen.
Stan started the engine while Brian hosed out the body bags with strong jets of water with an onboard hose. Then, he folded them up and shoved them under the seat he’d taken.
I just stared at him.
“What?” he asked.
“Has no one taught you how to feed without killing?”
He grinned wickedly at me. “Yeah, I know how.”
“Then that makes you more of a monster than I thought. Here, I was giving you two the benefit of the doubt that you just didn’t know how to control yourselves. I was going to teach you.”
His smile dropped and his face grew angry. “I don’t need you to teach me shit. They’re just humans. There’s five billion of them on the planet. Nobody’s gonna miss those two, anyway.”
I folded my arms across my chest as I sat opposite him. “How do you know?” I shouted over the roar of the water and the engine.
“Barflies, they’re in every night. If they had a family, they obviously didn’t want to be around them.” He looked at me with a smug look.
“That doesn’t mean they won’t be missed. That doesn’t mean nobody loved them.”
He waved a dismissive hand at me. “Oh, get off your high horse. We won’t be inviting you to any more poker games.”
I snorted. “Yeah, please don’t. And next time, feed without killing. It’s un-fucking-called for, and you know it.”
He stared at me intently, then gave a noncommittal shrug. “Yeah, maybe. We’ll see.”
We rode the rest of the way back to shore in silence.
Chapter 20
Moonlight On The Mississippi
Present Day
This chick was something else. I had smelled the blood a split second before Face came rushing up to me to inform me the alarm on the armory had been activated. An intruder alert on his phone. He pulled up the camera to my office where I saw MyAnna snooping around in the dark before she fell against the keypad and caused the door to slide open. How was that even possible?
“I promise I’ll have it fixed,” Face said before I could even bark at him about the malfunction.
Face, Shadow, Phoenix, and I exited the club quickly then used vampire speed to race through the walkway and toward the offices. The fact that I smelled blood was more concerning to me than the fact she’d found our weapons room. Was she hurt? It wasn’t an overwhelming smell of blood, but it was hers, nonetheless. The fact that I’d already memorized her scent bothered me.
I got there first, punching the code into the wall and it slid open. MyAnna fell and lay on the ground, staring up at us.
“What the fuck, MyAnna?” I asked, angry, but relieved to see she was all right, just a small cut on her finger.
“Where’s the damn light switch in there?” she asked angrily as she tried to sit up.
I picked her up the rest of the way and put her into another fireman’s hold, draping her over my shoulder as she kicked and protested.
I left the room and made my way toward the staircase. “You got locked in a room full of weapons and that’s the question you ask?”
“I’m afraid of the dark, you asshole!” she said, and then started crying.
Dammit.
“It’s a pull-down chain with a lightbulb in the middle of the ceiling. Not that it matters now, you won’t be stepping foot in there again,” I replied, trying to ignore the fact that her ass was in my face and her hands were close to my butt she pounded the backs of my thighs with her angry-kitten fists.
I had so much other shit to deal with that I couldn’t be bothered to let my attraction to her be a distraction. I just wanted to run my clubhouse and my men without the disruption of MyAnna. I locked her in her apartment and then stormed down the steps to the offices.
On finding them empty, I was infuriated. I needed Face to get all her new life crap arranged before I lost my shit on everything and everyone.
I stalked into my bar and scanned the area until I found Face. “What’s going on with the girl’s background? You get her new IDs and shit situated, or what?”
He downed the drink and tried to throw me one of his “charming” smiles. I scowled at him in return. At the moment, I hated the bastard. Former model turned vampire, I wanted to crush every last delicate and perfectly placed cheek and jawbone in his fucking face with my fist.
“It’ll be a few days, but once the paperwork comes through, you can set her free. I already put a deposit down and paid first month’s rent on a one-bedroom down in Jefferson Parish. Used the LLC name to rent it so she can’t be located. She’ll be close enough to find work locally but far enough away from the freaks in the Quarter.”
I cocked my head at him. “Not all the freaks stay in the Quarter, though.”
Face signaled Dash to pour him another and grinned at me. “Yeah, uh, I guess? I’m from LA so I’m not sure. Going in blind here, boss.”
I growled. “I should lock you in an office where you belong,” I snapped before walking away toward my other lieutenants.
Shadow, Phoenix, Venom, and Kovah sat at a table in the corner, sipping on drinks.
Phoenix grinned up at me. “She kick your ass for keeping her waiting so long in the armory?”
I slunk into the vacant chair at the table and ignored him. “Why you bastards wasting all my good liquor?” I pointed to their drinks around the table.
“I’ve got a good buzz,” Kovah said with a grin behind his stupid-ass sunglasses.
“I’m also pretty toasted,” Venom commented w
ith a lazy smile.
I narrowed my eyes at them and looked at Shadow and Phoenix questioningly.
“Club soda, boss,” Phoenix quickly said, pointing at his water-looking drink.
“Same,” Shadow parroted.
These fucking supes.
Just then, two people dressed in suits and ties walked into my bar. I turned to look at them and muttered, “Ah, fuck.”
The duo approached the bar and asked for the manager or owner. With my supersonic hearing, I knew nothing good would come from their visit.
Fucking BSI cops. The “Bureau of Supernatural Investigation”—the Justice Department’s dirty little secret.
When I saw Jewel incline her head in their direction, I knew I needed to get them gone ASAP. I glanced around the table and said, “Don’t say a fuckin’ word. Let me do all the talking and I’ll explain later.” I pointed at Kovah. “Especially you.”
Of course, I couldn’t tell what he was thinking or where he was looking at behind his sunglasses that he wore twenty-four seven, but he did nod at me in agreement.
“Are you Vane Matson?” The female stared down at me, her hands in the pockets of her trench coat.
“I am,” I replied. “Can I help you?”
She nodded and looked around the bar before speaking. They both produced fancy-looking badges and flashed them at us. “Yes, I’m Special Agent Mara Shields, and this is Special Agent Nolan Bishop with the Department of Justice. Can we have a few minutes of your time?”
I stared up at the agents. The male, Nolan, he definitely looked familiar. I glanced at my lieutenants to see Kovah’s face aimed toward the young-looking agent. God, I wished he would take those fucking sunglasses off, but I knew why he kept them on. “Yeah, sure. What can I do for you?”
I watched Agent Shields stare around the group at my table, then back to me. “In private?”
“Sure, I’ve got an office,” I said, standing and heading toward the back of the bar.
I hadn’t been in here in a few weeks, but I sat in the chair like I was comfortable in it and stared up at the two agents. “What can I help you with?”
