80 Proof Hex_Deckland Cain 2

by D Michael Bartsch

  Carl came to the door, knocking on the frame. I looked back, realizing I’d forgotten to close it and happy that I hadn’t gotten completely naked.

  “How’s it look?” He asked.

  “Could be worse. Gonna need the first aid kit though. Can you grab it from my closet?”

  “Yea.”

  He disappeared down the hallway. I looked into his room and saw Cat standing at the door. She was looking at me. I don’t know what it was, but something made my cheeks flush as she stood there seeing me in my undies. I’d taken off my shirt to check for any cuts or scrapes I hadn’t noticed, but standing there, almost entirely exposed, I felt a little violated as she stared at me.

  Thankfully, hitting the gym had helped tone up a lot of the loose flab that I’d accumulated, and I’m sure not drinking had helped me slim down a bit too. Though, all that did was help accentuate the mess of scars that riddled my body. You don’t hunt Hellions for most of your life and look pretty, not if you’re alive and good at it. I was just lucky that I hadn’t lost an eye, ear, or nose. There are a lot of gnarled old bastards in the world from doing what I do.

  Still, despite all that, underneath the embarrassment, there was something nice about the fact that she was staring, obviously not entirely repulsed by what she saw. Unless it was one of those situations where you slow down and look at the carnage of a car wreck on the side of the road. You couldn’t help but look despite how horrified you were.

  I didn’t have to wallow on that for long before Carl came back, carrying a hefty duffle bag that contained my first aid supplies, another necessity in the Hellion business. I take it as seriously as I do weaponry. You don’t really win if you kill the Hellions and then bleed to death later cause you weren’t prepared.

  Carl flipped the toilet seat down and opened up the bag. I killed the shower and patted my leg dry with the left leg of my jeans. They were ruined anyway, and I didn’t want to get blood on one of our few remaining towels.

  “Quick clot and some gauze,” I said.

  Carl nodded. He’d been damn near worthless with a needle and thread when we first met, but about a year of patching me up had been good for his skills. He pulled out the quick clot and examined my leg. The tiny holes were all pouring little rivulets of blood down my leg. He ripped the packet open with his teeth and started to dump it. I had to turn around and let him get at my calf.

  He used two packets of the stuff for good measure. He covered each hole with a nonstick pad and then broke out the gauze, wrapping my leg just tight enough to keep some pressure on the wounds. The nonstick pads would prevent the blood from drying to the gauze and ripping off when it got removed. Once he was satisfied and tied it off, Carl took out a roll of medical tape. He ripped off several, foot-long strips and began to wrap it around the gauze. I’m not great at staying off my feet or resting up so the tape would help keep the bandage from falling off. It’s also the reason I shave my legs and arms. I don’t care who knows it. I’d rather get mocked every day of my life then pull off tape and blood-soaked bandages with hair on my legs.

  Once he was finished, Carl rooted around in the bag and came out with a small white bottle. He popped the lid and handed me two tiny white capsules. I wanted it to be a painkiller, anything from the opioid family would have been fine. It wasn’t though. They were vitamin K pills. I knew that it would help with the clotting, but I still wished it came with a side of morphine. He gave me few Ibuprofen and started putting everything back in the bag.

  “You were stung.”

  We both turned to see Cat standing at the door to the bathroom.

  “Part of the job,” I said. “I’ll be good to go if they show up.”

  Cat shook her head. “Gauze and pills won’t help. I’ve seen what happens when they get their tongues on someone.”

  I looked at her as I put some weight on my leg. It felt mostly fine. I wouldn’t want to sprint anytime soon, but the Vampire’s fangs were too small to do any real damage. The quick clot would make sure I didn’t bleed out, and my body had already cleared out all the venom.

  “Normally, you’d be right, but I’m special,” I said.

  “You don’t get it.” She said, crossing her arms. “If you’re lucky, you’ll be dead by morning. If you aren’t you’ll turn into one of those things. Then you’re going to feed on us. Either you go, or I do.” She huffed for good measure.

  “Look, lady,” I said, regretting saving her life more and more with every word that came out of her mouth. “I don’t have time to explain the finer details of anything to you. I’m gonna be fine. The venom is already out of my system. I’m not going to die, and I’m sure as hell not going to turn.”

  “Bullshit.” She said.

  Irritated and wishing I had something to drink, I shoved past her into the hall. “Carl will you please explain to the woman that I’ll be fine,” I said, walking down the hall and into the kitchen.

  I popped open the fridge and grabbed a Redbull. I cracked the can and guzzled, wishing it was mixed with a healthy pour of vodka.

  “Don’t just walk away from me,” Cat said, appearing in the doorway to the kitchen.

  Carl stood just behind her, hand on a shoulder. “Please. Let’s all just sit down and talk about this.”

  I turned and around and hopped up onto the counter, leaning against the fridge and taking another drink.

  “Whatta ya say?” I asked. “Feel like playing nice or should we drive you back to Sanctuary and leave you on the porch. I’m sure Maccus is still there.”

  I could see her thinking about telling me to go screw myself. I’ve annoyed enough women to know the warning signs well enough. “I’ll listen.” She said. “And if I don’t like it, I’m gone.”

  “Sure sure,” I said, waving my hand. “Quid pro quo though. You ask a question, and then, I ask a question. Each of us answers. I’ll even let you go first. Cause I’m a gentleman.”

  I drained the rest of the can, burped loudly, and tossed the can onto the counter. Cat watched me, looking disgusted and angry.

  “Fine.”

  I swung my legs up and hopped off the counter. I landed with a thud. Jerry smacked the wall a few times. I stomped my foot on the floor three times and shouted.

  “Shut up Jerry! We have company!”

  Three more thumps came through the floor as Jerry smacked the wall again.

  I dropped to my hands and knees, cupping my hands and pressing them into the floor. I put my face into my hands and screamed.

  “Jerry, I swear to God I will come down there and beat the living shit out of you! Don’t test me tonight you son of a bitch! I will come down there with the fire of God’s own fury! You hear me!”

  “Deckland!” Carl said.

  I looked up. They were both standing in the kitchen now, looking down at me as I crouched on all fours, screaming at the floor.

  “What?” I asked. “He started it.”

  Cat looked at Carl. “Gentleman huh?”

  Jerry smacked the wall again, saying something but it was too muffled to hear through the floor.

  Carl just shrugged. “He has his moments.” He stepped back and gestured her to go through the doorway first. She walked past him. He looked back at me and shook his head before leaving. “Get it together.”

  I looked down at the floor. I turned my head to press my ear to the ground. I couldn’t hear anything. They could judge me all they wanted. It was clear to me that there was a method to my madness. Grabbing the counter and pulling myself to my feet, I gave Jerry the finger through the floor and walked into the living room. I tried to move with a lead foot, stepping on the floor with more force than would have been strictly necessary.

  Jerry gave the wall a final thump. I looked at the floor and then up at Carl. I could see the impending scolding in his eyes. I ignored Jerry and walked over to my chair, collapsing into it. Cat sat with Carl on the couch.

  “Let’s get this over with,” I said. “I’m getting sleepy.”

 
; Cat didn’t smile. Neither did Carl. No one appreciates me.

  “Alright. Why do you think you don’t have to worry about the Vampire bite?” She asked. “I’ve seen enough people get them to know they are almost always fatal.”

  “Sting.” I corrected. “It’s not the bite that kills people. It’s the fangs in their tongues.” I gestured with my finger to my own throat. I could have sworn she’d said that I’d been stung earlier, but I was in the mood to be difficult.

  “Fine.” She said. “Sting.”

  “I’m magic proof.”

  She looked at me, distinctly unamused. I sighed.

  “I can sense and negate any magical energy. Vampires aren’t traditional Hellions but part of the venom in their fangs, just like all their power, is rooted in magic. I’ll bleed like a stuck pig from the holes, but I’m not in any danger of turning or dying.”

  “How did you get that ability?” She asked.

  I held up a finger, wagging it. “Nah ah ah. My turn. How did you get mixed up with Maccus?” I asked.

  I could tell she was frustrated that I hadn’t answered her second question. Then again, it was my turn.

  She took a breath. “Veronica and I met him at the bar. A friend of a friend introduced us. We’d heard the back patio was always reserved for private parties. When we found out we could go back, we were excited. We didn’t know at the time. No one ever knows at first.”

  “But you kept going back.”

  “It’s my turn.” She said, looking as if she were daring me to argue or ask again.

  “That wasn’t a question,” I said.

  She raised an eyebrow. I looked to Carl. He shrugged. Traitor.

  “Fine. Go.”

  “How did you get the ability you have?”

  “I sold my soul to the Devil,” I said.

  It wasn’t technically true, but she didn’t need to know the difference between the Devil and his Demon Lords. Besides, I never said I wouldn’t lie. I just said I’d answer her questions.

  “What?”

  “My turn,” I said. “I saw you out there tonight. You knew Maccus and Veronica were Vampires. Why did you go back?”

  She took a couple of breaths, buying time. I could tell she was going to ask something else. I could see it in her eyes. I held up a finger and raised my own eyebrow. She frowned at me, then answered. “I didn’t have a choice. They’d kidnapped me. When I found out what was going on, I went straight to Veronica’s place. It was crazy. Vampires. I mean, that’s fairytale stuff.

  “I told her we needed to bail. Maccus wanted to turn us both. They’d already gotten Stacy. I got her outside and to my car before I found out that Veronica had already been turned. I should have seen it coming. Maccus was there. They jumped me and threw me into the car. I don’t know why they didn’t turn me right then and there. They didn’t even bleed me. They’ve kept me locked up for the last few days. Tonight was the first night they let me out of the trunk for longer than a few minutes to go the bathroom or throw a sandwich inside and close the lid again.”

  “They kept you locked in a trunk?” Carl asked.

  She nodded. “For four days.”

  I was glad Carl asked. It didn’t technically count as one of my questions. Her story made some sense. I thought back to what Charlie had told me he saw the night Cat had come over to get Veronica. They’d been arguing, and when they’d left, they had been out by the gate. It had been dark and snowing. It was easy to see where Charlie may have thought he saw someone attacking both of them, but it had actually been Veronica and someone else attacking Cat.

  Standing up, I began pacing around the room.

  “Maccus is holed up in the bar with a whole mess of Vampires. Vampires that he seems to be actively feeding Hellion blood too. No way we’re going to be able to go in there and take them out on our own. Hell, even if we had the firepower, I’m not signing up to go looking for him.”

  “So what? You just wait for him to come to you?” Cat asked.

  I laughed. “Hell with that. Come tomorrow night, I’m getting the hell out of here. I’m gonna get my cash and put as much distance between here and where ever I end up as I possibly can.”

  “And what about the people here? What about the people that go to that bar?” She asked. “You’ll just let them all die, or… or worse?”

  “Not my problem.”

  “Coward!”

  I looked back at her, shaking my head. She wasn’t exactly wrong. She wasn’t right either. A coward wouldn’t have put his neck on the line to pull her dumb ass out of the bar when I did. It was my stupid self, pressured from Carl mind you, that was the only reason she was even alive. Ungrateful.

  “I can live with that,” I said.

  “Deckland.”

  I looked at Carl. “No. Not this time. She got herself into this mess, and it was me that pulled her out.” I looked at Cat. “If you want to go back in there and risk your life, by all means, go for it. You want my advice, wait till daylight and firebomb the place. Burn it to the ground and piss on the ashes. With any luck, you’ll kill em all. Don’t forget to block off the streets though. You don’t want the fire department showing up and hosing the place down before they’re all blackened toast.”

  “That place is connected to like three other buildings, including an apartment complex,” Cat said. “That could kill people.”

  I shrugged. “Should have been at work.”

  “Deckland. There’s got to be something we can do?” Carl asked.

  “Like what Carl, ask nicely? Oh please, Mr. Vampire, could you perhaps not come after me and my friends? I know we showed up to your house and shot your friends and stole your dinner, but I promise not to get in your business if you promise not to bleed me dry and turn my friends into undead assholes.”

  Cat broke in, standing and shouting. “You could do something other than run away!”

  “Running away is what I do best, lady!”

  Jerry pounded on the wall. I cut off, looking down at the floor. I looked back to Carl, eyes going wide in anger. The Holy Man jumped to his feet.

  “Deckland.” He had a hand raised.

  “No. No more.” I said. “I’m gonna kill him.”

  Carl rushed between me and the hallway. He moved quick and made more noise than Jerry wanted to hear. The bastard pounded on the wall again. If only he knew he was berating his only chance for survival.

  Carl put his hands up. “You can’t just kill someone for hitting the walls.”

  “Watch me,” I said. “Where the hell is my gun. I’m gonna shoot him.”

  “You can’t just go around shooting people.”

  I walked to my closet and rotated open the wall.

  “Deckland. I need you to tell me that you know you can’t go down there and shoot him.”

  Pulling out my fanny pack, I strapped it around my waist and put on a pair of mostly clean pants. I turned around and looked at Carl.

  “Fine. I understand that I can’t go shoot him.”

  Carl sighed, looking relieved.

  Unzipping my fanny, I pulled out a collapsible baton and whipped it open.

  “Deckland!”

  Jerry pounded on the wall again when Carl shouted.

  “See!” I said. “The son of a bitch is mad at you for shouting. You are the only thing standing between him and near death, and he’s pissed at you. Let me have this.”

  “Absolutely not,” Carl said. “You can kill him with that thing just as easy as if you had a gun.”

  “That’s not true,” I said. “A gun would be far easier. I wouldn’t even need him to open the door. I could just blast him through the wood.” I held up the baton, gesturing. “With this thing I gotta wait for him to open the door and then push my way in. I need to create some distance, wind up, and then follow through with the swing. It’s significantly more work.”

  “Deckland.”

  “Fine. Nothing above the waist.” I said. “I promise.”

  Carl held out
his hand. “You aren’t taking that thing down there.”

  I took a step forward, intending to swim move by Carl. He sidestepped and put himself squarely in my way. Unless I meant to beat him with it, I wasn’t getting by him.

  “Fine,” I said, sighing heavily for effect.

  I handed him the baton.

  “Can I go down there now? I promise I won’t hit him.”

  Carl collapsed and pocketed the baton, holding out his hand again.

  “What?”

  He raised an eyebrow at me.

  “Fine.”

  Unstrapping my fanny pack, I handed it over to him. I took half a step forward before realizing Carl still wasn’t moving. He still had a hand out.

  “You know I could just break your leg and go anyway right?”

  “You won’t.”

  Muttering to myself, I pulled my belt knife out of its sheath and threw it into the wall, the blade sinking into the drywall.

  “Real mature,” Cat said from behind me.

  “Look, lady, it’s not like I’m getting my deposit back on this place, and trust me, if you knew the guy who owned this rat trap, you wouldn’t feel bad about him having to patch a few holes.”

  “Do you have anything else on you?” Carl asked.

  “No, mom,” I said. “Can I please go play with the neighbor now?”

  Taking a moment to think about it, Carl nodded and moved aside.

  “I’ll be back before the street lights turn on,” I said.

  Moving down the hallway, I opened up the front door of our apartment and started down the hall to the stairs. I muttered to myself the whole way.

  “Stupid Carl and his stupid rules. ‘No you can’t go downstairs and kill the asshole who pounds on the walls.’ ‘No you can’t go beat him until he learns his lesson.’”

  I took the stairs two at a time as I headed down them.

  “Like I was actually going to kill the guy,” I said. “I was just going to shoot him a little. Something small, like in the leg or the kneecap. It would be a great lesson not to do stupid shit to piss off people you don’t know. There are a hell of a lot of crazy people in this world. Being nice could damn well save your life.”