by CD Brown
First, while Jim and Fudgie may have discounted the possibility of an attack, they had prepared for it. But they’d done so in the most obvious way: a bunch of beefy white dudes in suits wearing ear pieces. While that kind of muscle would work for a frontal assault, Sophia and her people intended to be stealthy, keeping from the physical confrontation until the last possible second.
They also had Sandy in the room, psychically linked to Sophia through blood. The lawyer had been tentative as she hadn’t bonded with anyone since joining rehab, but she also knew Sophia needed more than just a spy in that room. She needed eyes.
Her one wild card was Jeremiah. He’d recovered well enough from his fall, but she was unsure of the full extent of his powers. Would he be strong enough to kill if he needed to? She’d have to wait and see. But his loyalty was unquestionable and that trumped vulnerability when she had so few soldiers.
The meeting was set for midnight, but most of the cabal representatives arrived early, each wanting their backs covered. Sophia and her crew arrived at 11, so she saw Melvin Green arrive in a vintage Rolls Royce. The chauffeur was also done up in the black and white makeup.
The Venice Beach night was misty, the marine layer rolling in the night sky. Sophia hoped this might give an extra advantage to her side. The first step of the plan started when Tamar and Alpha walked together to the front door at 11:45. The guard at the building’s front door stopped them.
“This building is closed.”
“The fuck it is. We know what’s going on in there.” Alpha’s had been assigned the role of bad cop, so his voice carried throughout the deserted block. Tamar put a hand on his shoulder.
“Chill, baby.” But her voice was fierce when she turned to the guard. “You get your boss on the phone. We’re taking our seats on this council whether he wants us or not.”
“I wasn’t told…”
“Look, bruh. You wanna start a war five seconds after this peaceful bullshit starts? You want that on your head? Cause we’ll ash some fucking vamps.” Alpha’s eyes had gone crazy. Sophia saw from her hiding place the guard had second thoughts.
“Let me call Mr. Ferriday.”
“That’s what we wanted to hear.” Tamar pulled Alpha away as the guard talked into his clipped-on mouthpiece.
Sophia wanted to see the reaction within the room, so she jumped into Sandy’s head. She felt her friend vibrate from the suddenness of the move, hearing Sandy’s internal voice saying, “Watch it.”
Sophia saw the reaction to the downstairs news: Ferriday looked nervous, while Whaloosie kept cool. Ferriday left the room, surely to meet Alpha and Tamar, but Sophia didn’t know where. Sandy then turned to Steve who pointed to the window. His job was to leave it cracked before the meeting. Sophia took notice and hoped she could orient herself quickly when she jumped out of Sandy’s head.
“How many reps does Fudgie have?” Sophia hoped they would have the advantage, but six guys stood behind the larger man. They’d be close to even, maybe even outnumbered. “Fuck.”
“Chin up, babe.” Sandy’s internal voice had the same chippiness as her external one. “You’ve lived long enough, right?”
“You’re a riot.”
Ferriday entered with Alpha and Tamar, his tone conciliatory. “We weren’t sure how to get in touch with you. The Insiders are technology-centered, but we didn’t have any phone numbers, e-mail, nothing.”
“A-ight, but that shit won’t happen again, right?” Alpha’s tone was relaxed, keeping the temperature of the room cool. Sandy sensed the tension in the room ratchet up, with Sophia feeling it too.
“Let’s start this thing.” Whaloosie’s tone was clipped, an order instead of a suggestion.
Ferriday nodded and smiled, while the rest of the representatives took seats around a conference table. He turned on a projection screen white board. As the camera warmed up, Sophia could see a Power Point titled “Evidence of the Caballero’s Death.” She dropped out of Sandy’s vision. She didn’t need to hear his bullshit.
She turned to the Bomb Squad’s Escalade parked half a block down. She pointed at it, the SUV starting up and driving past her, then stopping right in front of Ferriday’s building. Three guards descended upon it, pistols out and aimed. The bullets wouldn’t kill a vamp, but they would have some stopping power before the stakes came out. The window rolled down to reveal Jeremiah behind the wheel.
“Y’all know where the Norm’s is at?”
All of the guards relaxed for a second, giving the Muertos and Bomb Squad soldiers a short window to jump. When Sophia saw them slink from the shadow, she focused all her energy and dissolved into mist form.
As she slipped through the open window, she saw Ferriday still in the middle of presenting his “evidence.” Few looked concerned or persuaded, probably more worried about the council formation.
She dropped back into corporeal form. “If you’re gonna accuse me of something, do it to my face.”
The effect was like a mouse springing a trap: everyone in the room snapped, fingers becoming claws and canines popping out. The previously bored guests were now all in full predatory mode.
Except Ferriday. He looked nervous, like his grand scheme was slipping from his control. Sophia took advantage of the split second to wheel behind Ferriday and put her claws to his throat.
“Tell them you’re lying, Jim.”
“I…I…”
Sandy took the initiative, standing and saying, “Come on, it’s all horseshit. She was in our meeting when The Caballero died. Jim and Fudgie have been planning this for a while.”
“That true, Jimmy?” Melvin Green leaned forward on the table. “Have you and this dago been scheming?”
Whaloosie, surrounded by his men, spoke. “So what? You and your kind will spin away your nights forever. But Jimmy’s got vision. What he don’t have is the muscle and money to make it happen. So we do some things his way and some things mine.”
“Like the Syndicate?” Green laughed, that old Hollywood movie way, quick and sharp. “That’s why The Caballero turned you in the first place. To show those mugs back East you can’t mess with vamps.”
“That true?” Sophia said it softly in Ferriday’s ear. He nodded.
“Well, this could have gone the easy way, but girlie over here ruined that.”
Sophia tightened her grip on Ferriday. “Kiss my ass, Whaloosie. I’m older than you.”
“Regardless, we now got ourselves a hostile takeover.”
“Fuck that!” Alpha leapt onto the table. “We ain’t going for none of your shit.”
The battle lines drew together quickly. Half of those here for the council formation bolted, unwilling to be caught in the middle. Whaloosie had his gang, plus a few of Ferriday’s people. Sandy, Tamar and Alpha stood together. Green stood with them, as well as Steve and a few of his co-workers.
“You can stop this. You can stop it now.” Sophia turned Ferriday so that he looked her in the eye. “All of your plans are about to be flushed unless you get us back to the table.”
“Frank’s in control. He always has been.”
“Then grab it for yourself. Your time is now.”
Sophia pushed Ferriday into the middle. She saw him gulp, but he put up his hands, ready to take this back to zero.
“Frank! Frank, listen. I know you want control, but we’ve got other ways. We’ll all be rich and even more powerful. We’ll keep it open, man. Like it’s always been. Freedom is the way. Right?”
“Pretty words, Jimmy. But it’s all bullshit.” Whaloosie’s left hand grabbed Ferriday’s shoulder, pulling him forward, while his right hand shoved a stake deep into his chest. Ashes dropped to the carpet. A woman screamed. Sophia turned to see Pamela collapse in the corner.
“That’s my scion, you son of a bitch.” Green raised his fists and charged Whaloosie.
The room erupted in chaos as the fighting began. Sophia looked around the room to see if anything could be used as a weapon but saw her claws were t
he best. Green and Whaloosie were locked up, so she went into protective mode, pulling one of the mobsters stabbing at Steve’s back and slashing his throat with her claws. With a ripping motion, she beheaded him.
The fight drained from Steve’s face as he squirmed on the floor. “I…I can’t do this.”
“I know I told you to fight the predator, to be in control of your life. But we need you now.” Sophia slapped him open palm across his cheek. “Get mad, Stevie! Get mad!” She released him when she saw his canines.
She checked the scene in the room. Green and Whaloosie differed in size, but the smaller Black and White was quick. Maybe playing tough guys all those years ago wasn’t fiction. Sophia whipped her head around.
“Sandy? You okay?” Sophia saw the lawyer, high heels still on, jam her claws into a mobster’s neck, then kick his legs out from under him, driving him to the ground. With a loud “kiyaah,” she decapitated him. “I guess so.”
Sophia turned her attention to Whaloosie and Green. The mobster had a stake up against the movie star’s chest, but Green fought on. But Whaloosie anticipated his zigging, driving the stake in and ending the fight. As Whaloosie wiped the ashes from the front of his coat, Sophia flamed up her own anger to face off the bigger man.
Whaloosie went into a knife fighter’s crouch, waiting for Sophia to make her move. All around her, she sensed even matchups. She’d have to take this man down fast if she wanted to turn the fight.
They danced with each other for a second, Whaloosie’s smirk growing more cocky as they went on. “You ain’t got it, bitch. This is my fight.”
“Not anymore!” Jeremiah’s voice rang out as the remaining Bomb Squaders and Muertos busted in the room. They were down a few soldiers and Jeremiah’s face was scratched up, but the numbers didn’t bode well for the mobsters. Sophia stood tall.
“It’s over Frank. Give it up and we’ll let you go on. Things will be tough for you, but you’ll survive.”
“Nothing’s over. Not for good, at least.” The big block of vampire charged at a window, smashing the glass in thousands of pieces. Sophia ran to the opening to see a bat flying off toward the ocean.
“Oh, fuck no.” Sophia took three sharps breaths and threw herself out the window, feeling the salt air buoy her flight. The mist form had depleted her, but she had enough to chase him for a little bit. She heard Jeremiah call her name, but she had to finish this fight.
She knew Whaloosie could sense her on his tail. Knowing the fight would be one on one, he landed on the beach only a few blocks from the building, then changed back. He stood cross-armed as Sophia landed and transformed.
“You got some fucking nerve, lady. You’re the newcomer, not me.”
“I was playing by the rules. Open city.”
They started circling each other, neither looking ready to attack just yet.
“That’s Caballero talk. He didn’t see the real world. The way the Syndicate makes it, we all win.”
“As long as you’re in charge.”
He shrugged his shoulder. “Somebody’s gonna do it. I figure I’d start now since Jimmy gave me the tools.”
“Too bad you had to run into a true believer in openness. I’m still willing to let you live.”
“Yeah? We’ll I’m willing to watch you die!”
Whaloosie was quick, but his shoes slipped for a second in the sand and Sophia was able to roll away from him. Her running shoes were better than his broughams on this soft surface. He jumped again, but she went straight up and over him, tumbling in the air.
But she could feel her strength waning. The mist, the bat, the fighting, all were weighing on her body. She was stronger than him, she knew that, but he might just wear her down.
His fist to her face proved the point. She was a hair too slow and he caught her under the chin, sending her eighty feet across the cool sand. As she jumped to her feet, he grappled her in a flying tackle, both rolling the same distance to the edge of the water.
She kneed him in the gut, pushing him up and away. He sailed back towards the street, throwing sand in the air as he crashed down. Blackness crept around her eyes, she unsure how much more she could take.
She felt the wind rush by, then instinctually ducked. Whaloosie had tried to grab her from behind, but he whiffed. She kicked his legs out, then jumped on top of him, hands around his throat.
“It’s over. Give up.” She pressed her claws into his neck, but he continued to fight.
“Me? I don’t give up.” He grabbed her wrists to relieve the pressure. “The best part of being undead is I can take the long view. I’ll take my place on top. But for now…”
Sophia felt her hands clap together as she fell into the sand. The silky cloud of misty Whaloosie drifted back inland, away from her and back into the shadows.
Sophia was too exhausted to do anything but walk back to the building. It took half an hour, but when she returned to the board room, the mood was much more festive. Jeremiah hugged her as soon as she stepped through the door.
“He dead?”
“No. He misted away from me.”
“But you beat him.” Tamar sat with a champagne flute full of blood. “That’s what we all needed.”
“So, we had some time to talk. And make a few phone calls.” Sandy looked brimming despite all the ashes on the floor. The janitors were gonna have one hell of a day tomorrow. “Whaloosie is officially vampire non grata. And you are in the clear.”
“It should have been that way already.”
“Well, yeah. But now it’s settled.”
“I’m glad.” Sophia smiled, then looked at Pamela who was still dabbing around her eyes. “You okay?”
“Would you believe I didn’t know anything about this? I knew Frank, but just thought he was money.”
Sophia looked around the room. A general air of forgiveness hung about, so she went with it.
“Will you take over the company?”
“Yeah. I still think we have a mission to complete. But The Insiders? That’s done.”
“Speaking of missions.” Sandy’s mouth formed a strawberry colored paisley, her version of excitement. “A few things were decided while you were…on the beach.”
“Really.”
“Yeah. Without The Caballero, we don’t have order. So, we need someone to replace him. Someone who has a sense of duty and fairness.”
“I don’t know the town.”
“You’ll learn on the job. Babe, come on. It’s where you belong.”
Sophia let out an exhausted breath, even if there wasn’t any air in her lungs. “I got one condition. All y’all are paying my rent.”
Part Two: A New Sheriff
Chapter Twelve
Sophia had taken a week away from the ZLVG center to relax after the fight on the beach. She had stayed at Jeremiah’s place, ignoring her phone and the outside. But finally too bored to watch any more television, she called Sandy.
“I’ve got all of Carmen’s records,” Sandy said. “I was waiting for you to emerge from your cocoon.”
“You haven’t looked at anything?”
“Nope. I was told it was secret.”
They agreed to meet at the center. Sophia had dressed down even for her, one of Jeremiah’s torn tees and shorts. She had planned to finally fix her room from the damage done by Whaloosie’s thugs. It would take more than paint and putty to replace the hole in her heart, but she knew she couldn’t avoid her new responsibilities anymore.
Sandy was there when Sophia arrived, sitting at the reception desk and typing on her laptop. The lawyer pointed at the phone as soon as Sophia opened the door.
“The voice mailbox is full, babe. There’s, like, thirty messages.”
“For me?”
“For who else?”
“Who’s calling?”
Sandy shrugged. “Get used to it. You taking over for The Caballero means you’re a celebrity to the vamps. Your meetings are gonna be filled to the brim with wanna-bes and hangers-on. It�
�s the Hollywood way.”
“Are they gonna follow the program?”
“Get a grip.” Sandy stopped typing and gave Sophia a side-eyed glare. “There’s screenwriters in this town who go to AA to meet producers and agents. It’s all a game of who you know. It spread to the undead. You ain’t in the boonies anymore.”
Sophia went into the meeting room where the least amount of damage had been done: a few holes in the wall, busted aluminum chairs and some scorch marks from the fire upstairs. But the room was still useable for meetings. Sandy rolled in the desk chair while Sophia piled up the metal seats. Sandy unsealed a manila folder.
“The incorporation papers had you listed as an employee, so that’s a good start.” But after Sandy read a few pages, she let out a low whistle. “Damn, that Carmen was something else.”
“What?”
“She had the deed to the building.”
“She never told me that.”
“It’s all here. Insurance papers, holdings, bank accounts.” Sandy paused as she shuffled to a stapled group. “And a living will. Dated two weeks before her death.”
The two vampires read through it together, each paragraph more surprising than the next. Not only had Carmen designated Sophia as her heir, there was a whole portfolio of investments that Carmen had acquired through the years. Sandy swatted Sophia’s shoulder with the back of her hand.
“You are set, babe. There’s enough here to rebuild. Even expand if you want to.”
“From what you said, I may have to.” Sophia dropped to the floor, stretching out and staring at the ceiling.
Her whole life had been a struggle. Even when she was David’s and they followed the New Orleans council, they’d never had much. Just enough to live in the French Quarter in those tiny apartments. But from when she was born, way back on the farm outside of Crowley, Louisiana, right after the Civil War, she’d had to work as hard as she could alongside her father and brothers, plus help Mamere in the kitchen. That rough life was part of the reason she fled to New Orleans, happy to rollick in bed with men instead of pushing a plow or washing the cast iron pots. Even when she found herself trapped by creeps, prostitution was better than pig slopping.
