by CD Brown
She knew that crying would drain the emotions, the physical representation of letting it all out. Without such a purge, she had to hold it all in. And seeing this man, so connected to her, going through such pain meant no relief. The only thing to fill the void was pain, so she pounded her fists in the dirt, scuffing her knuckles.
As soon as the beast was fully formed, it wanted out of the cage. Grabbing the bars, it jumped and clanged and shuffled its jail around the pen. It tried to work on the lock, so Sophia whipped it. It tried to unfurl the cage’s loops, its finger-like paws able to get purchase, but Sophia whipped it. For twelve long hours, the creature cajoled, whined and wheedled. Sophia showed it no mercy. By the time the second transformation came along, she was ready to collapse into her coma.
Jeremiah, body streaked with dirt and huffing as if he’d just run a marathon, limped with Sophia back inside. Neither could talk, but each felt the need to cling, to draw some power from the other even though both were needling empty.
They entered the shower together, the light outside a day-for-night blue. Sophia lathered him and allowed his wandering hands to explore her crevices. He didn’t have enough strength for a full erection, just desired the closeness. After fighting all night, she felt cleansed as his rough hands massaged her body. But as soon as they dried off, she felt overcome with the coming day. The next thing she knew, she was waking again to an anxious Jeremiah.
Night two was as draining as the previous, but at least Sophia had gone through the experience and knew what to expect. Still, during the car ride home the next night, both of them were quiet from exhaustion. But after thirty minutes on the interstate, Jeremiah had to talk.
“You never answered me, you know. About me loving you.”
“I know.”
“Wow. Just like The Empire Strikes Back.” Jeremiah saw her confusion. “If I’d have told my friends back home I’d be dating a woman who had never seen Star Wars, they’d have laughed.”
“They’d also laugh if they knew I was the same age as your great-grandmother.”
“Sure. But, y’know, where you standing on this whole thing?” The puppyish side of Jeremiah was on full display. Sophia usually found it cute, but right now she needed something less cloying.
“What do you want me to say?” His face indicated he wanted to hear love pouring out of her lips. “I’m getting there, okay? You can’t ask more than that. Shit, it hasn’t even been a year yet.”
“Look, I know there’s the whole Chip thing, and I respect that…”
“Thanks. I’m glad you considered that.”
He looked wounded by her sarcasm but continued. “You let me in. You gave me the green light. I just want to know that I’m enough for you.”
“You are. But when you say words like love, you’re also saying forever. Don’t deny it.” He pursed his lips but remained silent. “I have a different notion of time than you do. It took me almost a decade to tell Chip I loved him. You can’t expect me to act fast when your life—and my non-life—are so fragile.”
“So, if I say I want a commitment?”
“Do I not look committed? Or do you just need the words?” He looked like he needed the words. She softened her eyes. “I’m into you and you only. But we have radically different lives. We can’t expect this to last…” He opened his mouth, but she shushed him. “…but we can do our damnedest to try. That’s the best I can say.”
“If I say I love you, will you at least nod in agreement?”
Sophia thought, then smiled at an idea. “You can say it once a month. Try to do so after making love, so it won’t seem random.”
“That’s it?”
“That’s all. After a couple of years, maybe we’ll go to two.”
Jeremiah snickered and it sounded like a snake hissing. “You are one messed up vampire.”
“We all are, boo. You just get to work it out on the full moon.”
Jeremiah decided he needed some time to recover, although Sophia thought that meant time to pout. She knew she was being needlessly harsh to him, but she was way too old to live a lie or play games with someone’s heart. She cared for him, but she also needed to be string free. She knew if anything happened to him, she would be devastated, but the emotional remove could at least insulate the blow.
As she rose the following evening, she took a long shower, putting almost no cold water into the mix. Her skin reddened, but she wanted the warmth. She heard her phone ringing fifteen minutes in, so she decided to get out and return to her duties for the day as clean and warm as she could make herself.
The phone call was from Maisie who sounded like she was choking when she left the message. The same tone clogged her throat as she told Sophia to log onto VampAmp.
The video had been posted in the middle of the day, unusual for any of the site’s users. Sophia recognized the location as the Scions’ church nearby. She could make out Balthazar wearing the new VampAmp patches, his ghostly face beaming as he broadcast his message to the camera. The service must have made it all the way to naked time.
“Greeting to all of you who’ve only ever heard my voice. But through the true blessings of our friends at VampAmp, we can now broadcast our ceremonies for live streaming and video podcast.” Sophia could hear the excited hollers from the congregation. Balthazar still stared at the camera. “Now, friends, we have a few kinks to work out, and maybe need to hire a few camera operators, but I hope you still enjoy our message and get excited about being here with us. At least virtually.”
The camera was off to the side of the altar, aimed wide to capture the entirety of the church. Balthazar went to the altar to give his sermon for the day. He started in on his usual subject, the healing power of the sun, but he stopped mid-sentence. He began yelling at people in the back.
“Who are you?” His normal encouraging tone had turned angry. “You have no right to be here. No! No!”
Sophia could see the storm in the back of the church. For the next few minutes, she heard screaming and grunting. But the only visual was empty clothes making ashes appear suddenly, then drop on the pews.
She saw Balthazar run up the center aisle, his claws out and his shadow-outlined face furious. He swung and bit at empty suits, leaving clouds of gray in his wake. She had only an inkling of how powerful he could be, just him breaking up the fight the other night, but he dealt death with every swing. But when he reached the middle of the church, he floated in the air and kicked his legs around. Someone had him by the throat.
Still mic’ed, he said, “You’ll pay for this. They will hunt you down.” His words stopped with a cough of his constricted throat.
A scratch sounded from the mic and Balthazar crumbled into nothing, the patches disappearing as they fell below the pew line.
Sophia, shocked to speechlessness, watched as the ash piled up row after row until whoever was there reached the altar. She heard a voice coming through the camera’s microphone.
“This is only the first strike. One by one, your council will fall until the real vampires have control of this city.”
With that, the camera was yanked from the wall and buzzed out.
Sophia called Maisie and told her to call an emergency conference call. But as she hung up, she thought to check in someplace else.
She called the place in Pasadena. She talked to Mike and Evelyn’s human partners who told her the two had been in the church at the time of the attack. And as bad as that was, all of the sunsuits had been taken sometime in the early morning. They had security cameras, but they only showed the doors being opened and the suits being carried off.
Sophia dialed into VampAmp to hear the council each check in.
“This is serious, y’all. Fudgie is making his move.”
“Does anyone think these sunsuits are going to work?” Pamela didn’t sound frightened, but she had the least to worry about.
“No, but they looked damn impressive. We’ll know what he’s planning to do soon.”
“Do
es this mean war?” Loretta’s voice sounded like she looked forward to it. “Do I get to break out my old WAVE costume?”
“Loretta, we lost over 100 vamps in that church. This is no time for jokes.” Sophia worked to steady her voice. “Whatever we do now will affect the way this city is run.”
“Should I talk to the mayor?” Pamela’s tone stayed even which relaxed Sophia.
“Not yet. But be ready to pull that trigger when the time comes.”
Loretta groaned, “What do we do now, darling? Now that you’ve worked us up into a lather?”
“Survive the day. Any way you know how.”
Chapter Twenty-Two
The next night, VampAmp’s boards read more like an obituaries page. Ten vampires were killed during the day. None of them were in a cabal and the deaths ranged from desert San Bernardino all the way to San Clemente in Orange County. But the message was clear: no safety for any bloodsucker.
Sophia, Sandy and Tamar all met at the offices where Pamela waited with a few ideas. They sat in the conference room, eyes on the screen to see any new additions to the site.
Sophia spoke first. “I’m thinking this was a test run. They went after the loners this time, the ones they thought nobody would miss.”
“This new technology seems to work.” Pamela scrolled down to see if there were any references to the sunsuit on the dedicated Scion page. “Look: only Balthazar had ever gone out. And then, it was only for an hour.”
“If they try something like that with us, Papi would stop them.” Tamar turned her hand into a gun shape. “Pop, pop, then chop, chop.”
“Babe, not all of us have people.” Sandy looked nervous, her usual tough expression gone. “I’ll need to hire a bodyguard.”
“Maybe it’s time to get that thrall.” Sophia smiled and the old Sandy returned for a second. “But seriously, all of us who are solo will need protection.”
Pamela turned to the door. “Maisie, are you hearing this?”
Maisie walked to the doorway. “We have the dating app. We could rejigger that to find thralls willing to bodyguard.”
“Swipe right for muscle you can count on? I’m in on that.” Sandy got her phone out. “In the meantime, I’m letting the OC people know what’s what. Maybe we should get a hotel room tonight.”
“That’s a good idea. I hope Jeremiah’s up for some guard duty.” Sophia rubbed her eyes. “I’ve already had my place destroyed once. I’m not leaving that open for another attack.”
“Fudgie’s really got it in for you, babe. I’d maybe double up on the muscle.”
“You don’t trust my war rodent?”
“Oh, he’ll fight like hell for you. I just want to make sure he doesn’t get overpowered.”
Sophia paused. “They only have ten suits. Plus, these are vamps in the sun. They’re the ones taking the big chance.”
Horton walked in at this point. “We got a beta on that bodyguard app.”
“That was quick.” Pamela handed him the keyboard. “Let’s see it.”
While there weren’t any people volunteering just yet, the parameters looked right and the choosing was easy. Sophia looked at Sandy.
“You could have been using this to find dates all the time?”
“Who says I haven’t? I just can’t find The One, okay?”
“Looks like you can get the ten, though.”
“My body is a shrine, not a playground.”
“Just saying, even a shrine needs a worshipper.” Sophia turned back to the group. “Okay, let’s collect everyone we know who can protect us. We have to nip this now before Fudgie achieves his goal.”
Jeremiah wasn’t his anxious self this night. A focus enveloped him, so much so he didn’t want to joke about it. Whenever Sophia tried to make him laugh, he would brush it off. Finally, with only an hour left before she had to be in bed, she cornered him.
“This is me, boo. This is what I am.” They sat together in her bed, she prone and he, garbed in full camouflage for any coming fight, upright with his combat-booted feet on the floor. “When you grow up on the bayou, when you live in a city built on shifting sands, that inevitability gets built into your personality. We spent years—shit, centuries—making a city we love that could come crumbling down in an instant. And because of that, we laugh. We dance at funerals. We make jokes in death’s face. We make everything about fun.”
“Can you at least see that you leaving me forever would be the opposite of fun?”
“Of course. But I know you. I know what you would do for me.” She paused, feeling she had a real chance to get this right or, possibly, poison her well forever. “It may seem that what you do for me is not reciprocal. I know I don’t give as good as I get, but we set it up that way. Ever since I set foot in this town, I’ve been made responsible, like I’m the goddamn first-born child or something. So I have to put all this other shit, plus everything I promised David, over my own personal happiness. And, yes, yours.”
“I don’t know what it is. I guess I should be mad about all that.” He took a deep breath, another one of those things she missed so much, and leaned back to look her in the eyes. “I can’t. There’s something in you, I’ll call it a soul, I don’t care. That thing makes me happy. It’s that loving life thing. As much as they heap on you, they can’t stop you from smiling.”
“And I see the same in you. And I see your love for me radiating all around you like a halo.” She reached up and grabbed his chin. “So I know what’s there. All I need is something I got plenty of, but you are lacking. Time. Just like I’ve run out of now.”
She felt the wave of blackness wash over her and she hoped that this wasn’t the last time her eyes would be open.
She did rise the next evening, the first thing she saw being Jeremiah’s face. It had been bruised, a few cuts weeping on his chin and neck, but it was also smiling, his crooked choppers peeking through.
“Are you okay?”
“You should see the other guys. Well, other guy.” Jeremiah looked at the ceiling, then smiled again. “I guess you can see him, but there ain’t much left.”
“Tell me what happened.”
“Let’s both eat while we do that.”
After Sophia put on her robe, they went to the conference room. Sophia grabbed a bottle of her chicken blood stash while Jeremiah had a fast food bag with two sandwiches and a heaping order of fries. “Fighting vamps sure makes you hungry.”
“That was over twelve hours ago. This is just dinner.” He bit into the first sandwich, a double patty cheeseburger with chocolate-colored chili spilling out the sides, then began his tale.
“It didn’t take him that long to get here. I gotta think they have a hideout nearby, or this one stayed at a hotel in the neighborhood. Regardless, it wasn’t but 7 o’clock before I saw him creeping up Hyperion.
“They gotta know those damn suits make them easy to pick out. They look like freaking astronauts. So, this vamp comes lumbering up to the front door. But ain’t no way he’s getting in here, right? I gotta keep the fight on the outside if I’m gonna have the best chance.
“Even a vamp in the sun is still stronger than me. That’s what I forgot. He don’t have the speed ‘cause of the suit, but he got the drop. Pushed his right hand under my grasp and went straight for my throat. He had me up against the wall before I could get one punch in.
“Now I’m at a disadvantage ‘cause I can’t change form. I mean, a fight in the street between two dudes, even if one of them is wearing a scuba suit, would just get somebody calling the cops. But a guy in a moonsuit fighting a giant possum? They’d, like, call in SWAT or some shit. But I got my feet up against the wall and pushed. That gave me a bit of separation from the wall, so I could put my hands back to get the momentum to kick. Caught him square in the chest and broke his grip.
“I still have to catch my breath, so he’s back on me before I can attack. But this time I keep my arms in close, so he’s gotta throw roundhouses to have a shot at whopping me. So
here come the punches, but I can block them. But, shit, they hurt my forearms. It’s getting harder to play defense, so I know I gotta make a move.
“He throws another wide punch, so I go low this time. Squat and dive straight at his knees. He falls forward, trying to grab me, but my possum bones squirm out the way. I got him face down on the concrete. I don’t think he’s hurt, but he’s damn sure vulnerable.
“So I go all wrasslin’ moves on him and jump on his back. He’s pushing us up ‘cause he’s still damn strong. I kick out his hands and he’s face down again. That’s when I put the camel clutch on him.”
Jeremiah looked inordinately pleased by this, but Sophia had to ask. “You know I don’t have a freaking clue what you’re talking about.”
“Went the full Iron Sheik on his ass. Planted my feet on the street, set his arms over my knees and pulled back as hard as I could on his head. I heard him yelling with pain ‘cause he don’t know how strong I am. That’s when I felt the helmet loosen. I didn’t know how to get him out of the damn suit, but that was the best I could figure.
“I felt around under the helmet to get any finger hold I could find and hauled backwards with all my strength. I heard a ripping sound, then I fell backwards. I rolled to my knees to see what he was going to do. He screamed and sat up. His hair was on fire within seconds.”
“Oh my god. What about his skin?”
“Charred immediately. I guessed that was the end of him, so I put the helmet back on top.”
“Why?”
“I didn’t want the suit to burn up.”
