by Lee French
Pastor Chris’s brow popped up in surprise. He took half a minute to finish the bite in his mouth, chewing slowly enough that Bobby suspected him to be stalling for time while he decided how to answer. “God did give us free will, making it a struggle to do the right thing when we could do what’s easy or convenient instead. That’s why faith is important, it shows us the right path.”
Poking his fork into the lasagna, Bobby frowned. “What if there’s more’n one right path, or all of ‘em suck? What if what I’m choosing is ‘tween saving this guy or that guy? How does a body pick at times like that?”
“The road to Heaven isn’t achieved through perfection, it’s through doing the best that you can with what you have, and helping those who are less fortunate than yourself. Some will tell you it means following God’s laws like they’re the only things that matter, but I say, listen to your heart. It knows what’s right. Do unto others as you’d have them do unto you. We’re all in this world together and should act like it.”
His frown growing deeper, Bobby said, “You sound kinda like a Democrat.”
Chris laughed quietly, covering his mouth with his napkin. “I rather think I sound like a decent human being, but everyone is entitled to his own opinion.”
“God’s got a plan, though, right? They always say that.”
“The only thing I’m truly certain of is that I feel Christ in my heart, there to guide me when I feel weak, warm me when I’m cold. Whether there’s actually a plan or not…” He shrugged. “We are to God like ants are to men. Comprehending something on such a vastly different scale is chancy, at best. Use the mind He gave you, the heart He gave you, the hands He gave you. Think, listen, act. Preferably more or less in that order.”
Bobby smirked. “If Pastor Adam heard you say all that, he’d call you a blasphemer.”
“Not everyone interprets his pastoral duties the same way.”
Nodding, Bobby stuffed the last bite of lasagna in his mouth. He broke the biscuit apart and used the pieces to mop up the last of the sauce before eating them. No matter how weird Chris might be, he offered up a good meal, and Bobby leaned back in his chair to tell him so. The door opening with a soft chime interrupted him.
In walked a man, wearing jeans and a hoodie, the hood pulled up and covering his face. He hopped out of the sunlight while the door closed and shook his hand with a hiss of pain. “I need gloves,” the newcomer muttered.
Chris smiled at this person. “I’ll see if I can find some, Stephen. There’s a box of winter clothes in the basement.”
Bobby narrowed his eyes at Chris, knowing he’d been snookered. “Why’n heckbiscuits didn’t you just say he’d show here?”
Stephen pulled his hood down, revealing pale skin and short platinum-blonde hair. As expected, he had the icy blue eyes. One of his nearly invisible eyebrows arched up in mild amusement. “‘Heck biscuits’?”
“You looked like you needed a friendly ear,” Chris said with a restrained grin. “I’ll let you two talk.” He gathered up the plates and cups, taking them to the kitchen on his tray.
“What do you want from me?” He had a very mild Southern twang, much lighter than Bobby’s. His one hand nearly glowed with a lobster red sunburn.
“I got a story to tell you. Might as well have a seat. It’ll take a few minutes.” When Stephen shrugged and obliged, Bobby told him the whole thing, from start to end. At this point, he could tell it without getting sidetracked or winding up on tangents. It took him about five minutes to lay everything out for Stephen.
“About a month ago, I woke up like you said.” Stephen frowned as he spoke, looking down at his hands. The sunburn had faded to a light pink. “It was… I had this crazy thirst, like nothing I’d ever felt before. I spent that night with my girlfriend, and when I looked at her right then, I wanted her so bad I could taste it. I reached out to mess around and she was light as a feather.” He paused and Bobby watched his face contort while he grappled with something, maybe whatever happened next. “I’m a vampire.”
“Seriously?”
“Yeah. I drink blood, I’m unusually strong, I can fly, heal myself, the whole thing.”
“Dang.” Bobby lifted his hand and finally got to the demonstration part, letting his hand fall into dragons. “Don’t look like holy ground bothers you. How about garlic?”
Stephen stared at the dragons. One landed on his hand and walked across it, sniffing his flesh. “No, nothing repels me that didn’t already before. I never really liked garlic much, though. How many of these are there?”
“Lots. More’n I could count.” Bobby sat back in his chair and watched the dragons, too. He never left them to their own devices. The bunch of them flitted around and investigated everything with curiosity and wonder. They stuck together for the most part, not straying more than a foot or so from the nearest other dragon, but otherwise spread out and got into everything nearby. “You leave behind fang marks?”
“No.” Stephen kept watching the dragon on his hand as it ducked its head up his sleeve and chirped. “My saliva somehow removes the minor injury. It also seems to be a sort of aphrodisiac, or maybe just overloads the brain. Where do your clothes go?”
“No clue. The girl what can turn into a squirrel, hers go with her, too. One second, there’s a fully clothed girl standing there. Next, a fuzzy little squirrel.” Bobby shrugged. He couldn’t think of any other questions for the moment. “You gonna head to Colorado?” So Stephen couldn’t use the dragons as a distraction to evade the question, he called them back. They obeyed without hesitation.
Stephen tapped his thumb on the table a few times. “Seems I wasn’t very hard to find.”
“Not really, no.”
“Unless you want some company, yeah, I guess so.”
Leaning back, Bobby recalled Hannah suggesting that very thing. It sounded like a good idea then, and still did now. His back might not need watching as much as some other folks, but he could use the company. “How fast can you fly?”
“About a hundred miles an hour, give or take. You?”
“Same. Yeah, come with me, that’s cool.” He scratched his beard. “It’s kinda late on for tonight, though, you maybe want to stop in and tell your family you’re okay? Your momma was pretty upset.”
Stephen sighed and raked a hand through his hair. “I left to protect them. From me. I don’t want to accidentally kill one of them. They’re better off without me around, at least until I can get some kind of reliable control over this.”
Bobby pulled his phone out and set it on the table. “Least give ‘em a call.”
Reaching out, Stephen put two fingers on the phone and pulled it closer. He stared at it for several long seconds, then pushed it away again. “Not now.”
“Don’t wait too long.”
Stephen sighed again, now hanging his head. “Next pay phone I see.”
“Speaking of pay phones, your momma gave me this.” Bobby pulled out the wad of cash, trading it for the phone.
The stack sat for three or four seconds with Stephen peered at it suspiciously. He finally sighed and swiped the money, then flipped through the bills. “Christ, this is four hundred dollars, what did you tell her?”
Dang. “She asked if I was your brother, and I said yes.”
“Ah.” He peeled off the outer two twenties and left them on the table for Pastor Chris. “She must have assumed you were in the house I was taken out of when she adopted me. I can see how that might make her feel guilty enough to shove this at you.” Standing up, he nodded for Bobby to come with him into the kitchen. Pastor Chris stood washing dishes in the industrial kitchen. “Bobby’s staying in the basement with me tonight, we’re leaving in the morning. Neither of us will be back.”
“Are you sure? Because you know you’re always welcome here.”
“He’s like me.”
Chris’s brow flew up. “You’re a vampire, too?”
Bobby cracked a grin. “No, I ain’t. But I ain’t all human, neither, j
ust the same as Stephen. If’n you don’t mind, I’d rather keep what I can do to myself.”
“Of course.” Chris nodded and gestured for them to use the door Stephen headed for. “Whatever it is, don’t let it be a burden so heavy you can only look down at your own feet.”
Unable to think of a response, Bobby nodded and followed Stephen downstairs. The basement had boxes stacked in groups, all of them neatly labeled. This bunch had Christmas decorations, that bunch had pageant costumes, Easter stuff, and some with donated clothes. It also had a couch with blankets and a pillow on it, and two easy chairs that looked squishy and comfy.
“So, you sleep still, huh? Wasn’t expecting that.”
Stephen snorted. “Yes, I still sleep.”
Chuckling, Bobby settled himself into one of the chairs. It had a lever that he cranked to stretch out with a footrest. Yeah, he could sleep here. “Hey, it’s a fair question. What about sunlight? I saw your hand before.”
Stephen threw a blanket at Bobby and sank down on the couch. He held up the burned hand, now as pale as the rest of him. “I’ve always burned easily, it’s much worse now. A quick flash of full sunlight turns my skin red, a full minute in it makes me blister. I don’t want to know what longer than that does. Sunblock still works, though.”
“Why’re you walking around in daylight and sleeping at night, then?”
Stephen shrugged. “It’s what I’m used to, I guess. A lot of businesses are only open during the day. Besides, it’s easier to meet prey that isn’t skanky whores.”
Bobby stared at him, trying to decide if he wanted to get into the ‘prey’ issue or not. No, he didn’t. “Maybe we ought to go at dusk, then, get as far as we can before sunup tomorrow.”
“Suits me. Dusk is in about four hours. Where are we going, anyway?”
Pulling out his list, Bobby checked. He hadn’t read it enough times to memorize it yet. “Austin first, then Phoenix.”
Stephen gave a low whistle. “Austin to Phoenix is a long haul. We might want to stop somewhere between. El Paso, maybe. At least for a meal.”
“I gotta stop to eat every few hours anyway.”
Chapter 10
Comfortable and safe, Bobby fell asleep within seconds of closing his eyes. At dusk, Stephen shook him awake, ready to go with a pack on his back. On the way out, Bobby paused in the kitchen to grab two bananas and stuff them in his pocket. His belly stayed quiet for now, so he put off eating in favor of getting to Austin as soon as possible. He’d eat there.
The swarm streamed up into the air and Stephen followed. He floated upwards with his body limp. When they reached an altitude high enough to pass over skyscrapers, he shifted to being hunched over in what appeared to be relaxed comfort. He had the dragons surround the vampire to make sure he didn’t wander off course by not looking.
Less than two hours later, Stephen touched back down the same way he took off. The second he re-formed, Bobby gave him a funny look. “Why d’you fly like that? It looks…weird.”
“How should I fly?” Stephen cracked a half-grin. “With my arms out, like Superman? Or maybe I should flap my arms.” He demonstrated, proving it looked stupid.
“Don’t you gotta do nothing to fly?”
“Like what?”
“I dunno,” Bobby shrugged, “something.”
Stephen barked out a laugh. “No, it’s a lot like making myself run. Just have to want to do it.”
“Huh.” Bobby shrugged and dropped the subject. “I usually find a gas station, they always got maps.” He snorted. “Listen to me. ‘Usually’, like this is something I do all the time.”
Clapping him on the back, Stephen chuckled. “Don’t worry about it, Bobby. Let’s just destroy Christopher’s life and get our asses to Phoenix to keep spreading the love.”
Bobby rolled his eyes. “Yeah, I think that’s a gas station up there.”
Half an hour later, Stephen rang the doorbell for the upper of two apartments over an ‘adult toy’ store. “I could get used to living with a location like this.” He nodded to indicate a bar across the street, and a nightclub next door to it. “Target rich environment.”
“I can’t see no reason to complain much, neither.” They heard footsteps inside. Bobby pulled out a banana and stuffed his face with it.
One of theirs opened the door. He had the swarthy complexion of Hispanic heritage, with dark hair. In good shape, he stood taller than Bobby, but not quite up to Stephen’s 6 foot 2. “Can I help you gentlemen?” The guy had a queer, girly-sounding voice, and he looked them both over the same way Bobby had been known to check out a shapely girl.
“Uh, yeah.” Bobby heard someplace that about ten percent of all people turned out gay. It still never occurred to him that members of their group would be. All his life, he’d been told gays were gross and an abomination. Christopher instantly repulsed him. At the same time, they might be half-brothers or cousins, which meant family. Nothing in the world meant more than family. He had no idea what to think or feel.
Christopher’s eyes went flat and he pursed his lips. “My mistake,” he told Stephen, turning his shoulder to deliberately snub Bobby. “There’s only one gentleman here.”
Mouth open to say something, Bobby stopped because Stephen elbowed him in the side. “We came to warn you that someone may be interested in abducting you because of the unusual abilities all of us with these unusual eyes have.” Stephen tapped his temple.
Christopher sniffed. “Take your jokes someplace else.” He slammed the door shut.
“Way to go, genius.”
“What?” Confused by the exchange, Bobby looked from Stephen to his half-eaten banana. “I didn’t say nothing.”
Stephen’s mouth twitched with amusement. “What do you want to do? I got the impression leaving people behind was out of the question until they understand the risk they’re taking by doing so.”
“Yeah. I dunno. Nobody never slammed the door in my face before.” Food had none of these complications, so Bobby finished the banana, tossing the peel into the open dumpster below them. One look inside it and he had no interest in checking it for food.
“You know, you didn’t actually say anything. He reacted kind of strongly for just the comical expression on your face.”
“Gee, thanks.”
“I’m just saying,” Stephen grinned, “that maybe he can read minds or something. I sometimes get weird little bursts of inspiration about my prey—”
“Do you have to say ‘prey’?”
Stephen ignored him. “I just suddenly know the name of a person they care about, or what they do for a living, or other little bits of information.”
“Your point?”
“It’s completely possible he saw something in your head, only he isn’t aware it’s happening.”
“Great.” Bobby harrumphed and gripped the handrail of the stairs, staring out at nothing in particular. “Maybe you should just talk to him, then. All I can think about when I see a fag is how gross it all is.”
Stephen rubbed his chin in silence for several seconds. Finally, he said, “I know a lot of people who think that. It’s really normal down here. Well, not in Austin so much, so I’ve heard, but yeah. Still, he’s one of us, and that doesn’t change just because he happens to like guys.”
Bobby grunted in annoyance. “‘S’not like I’m standing here calling him a pervert or nothing. Just something I was taught ain’t right, and I was keeping it to myself.”
“Go do something for fifteen minutes.” Stephen waved vaguely towards the street. “I’ll meet you out front.”
“Yeah.” Bobby sighed and hopped down the steps. He knew very well that gay people were still people. Pastor Adam used to say they perverted God’s will. He called them dirty all the time and railed about the stories of Sodom and Gomorrah. The first time Bobby remembered him explaining gay sex, he’d been eleven, and the pictures disturbed him. Without that last part, Bobby thought he’d care about it roughly as much as he cared about the
supposed damnation premarital sex insured. Now he thought about it, though, Pastor Adam focused on men and ignored the idea of lesbians, which struck him as weird.
Whatever. So long as he didn’t have to think about it, he didn’t care. Having a guy right there in his face made him think about it. He leaned against the wall of the building with his hands in his pants pockets, watching people walk past. A few people walking by looked him over suspiciously. A few minutes later, an ordinary guy in a rumpled suit stopped a few feet away.
“Um, hi.” He glanced around nervously. “I’ve, uh, never done this before.” The guy stuffed his hands in his pockets and wouldn’t look Bobby in the eye.
After looking around a little to be sure he was the one the guy was talking to, Bobby blinked a couple of times. “Done what?”
“Um, are you a cop?”
“No.” Was this guy—?
The guy’s shoulders relaxed “Oh, good. Because that would just be—” He chuckled apprehensively. “Yeah. Um, so.” His eyes roved down Bobby’s body. When Christopher did it, Bobby got the impression he’d been appraised and found pleasant to look at. When this guy did it, he felt more like a slab of meat being judged for a meal. “Is a hundred bucks enough?”
Hot damn. Compared to Christopher, this guy made him want to take a shower forever. If this was how girls felt when he leered at them, he’d never, ever do it again. Putting his hands up, he stepped away from the building and noticed the display he’d been standing in front of. This store didn’t hide its light under a bushel. Combined with his own appearance right now, he knew he’d brought this on himself. Punching this guy in the face would be downright rude. “Man, if you gotta pay to get laid, you need to seriously rethink things about your life. I ain’t selling what you’re trying to buy.”
“Oh my gosh.” The guy blushed so hard it was almost funny. “I’m so sorry.”
Bobby grunted with disinterest and noticed a black SUV over the guy’s shoulder, parked across the street. He peered at it and thought the license plate seemed weird, but it was too far away to get a good look.
