80 Proof Hex_Deckland Cain 2

by D Michael Bartsch

  I didn’t have any choice. I owed Prufrock. I don’t have any qualms about backing out of just about any deal, but he didn’t strike me as the type to take kindly to it. He’d found me once. He would do it again. Plus, I needed to get out of town. After my run in at Sanctuary the night before, the Feds may have already been on my case for all I know. It was time to blow Al away and cash Prufrock’s check. It was the fastest way out. Carl could never know. Wouldn’t be the first time I’d held something back from him. Wouldn’t be the last either.

  Groaning, I rolled out of bed. My knees and ankles cracked and popped as I stood and stretched. I was starting to feel more my age with every sunrise. On a good day, it was just aches and pains. On a bad one, it was like I’d been hit by a bus. It was probably a good thing that I hadn’t drank myself into a stupor. The only good thing I had going for me was that I didn’t have a headache or cotton mouth on top of everything.

  I could hear Carl in the kitchen. He’d been up for twenty minutes or so. I’d been awake when he’d left his room. He had crept down the hall as quietly as he was capable of moving, but the fact was, Carl had lead feet, and I had a significant amount of paranoia.

  Shaking from a shiver that shot up my ankles, I put on a pair of sweats before flipping my murphy bed up. If Carl didn’t know I was awake, he did after the damned bed screeched and squealed all the way up. His head appeared in the doorway. “Coffee?”

  I grunted my yes grunt. Carl nodded and disappeared.

  Moving into the kitchen, I plopped down into the breakfast nook, kicking my feet up onto the bench on the other side of the table.

  “You ready to talk about it?” Carl asked. “I have a feeling something happened when you went down there.”

  I closed my eyes, taking a breath and sighing. “About that,” I said.

  I’d done a good deal of thinking during the night, and I had decided an outright lie would be too much. Carl might catch on, or I might accidentally trip up and forget some part of it. Lying by omission is always the best policy. You don’t have to remember a story you made up, just the pieces of the real story you chose to exclude.

  “You remember Prufrock?” I asked.

  There was a popping noise followed by a hundred tiny rattles. I opened my eyes to look over. Carl had dropped a bag of coffee beans on the ground. He was looking at me, wide-eyed as if he didn’t even notice that he’d dropped the bag. “I don’t think I could ever forget him.”

  “I know the feeling,” I said. “He was waiting for me down there last night.”

  “How?” Carl asked. “We haven’t used our real names. We live in this small apartment in the middle of nowhere. How did he find us?”

  “According to him, he never lost us.”

  Prufrock had said us, so I did too.

  “What did he want?”

  And here we go. Time to play it cool. “He wanted to call in the favor I owe him for saving our asses last year.”

  “You aren’t going to do it are you?” Carl asked, finally bending over to start scooping up the coffee.

  “What happened to your word being your bond?” I asked.

  Carl looked at me, frowning and starting to speak. I cut him off. “Don’t have a lot of choice in the matter here, Carl. Prufrock isn’t the type of guy that you double cross. He found us here, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he could find us again no matter where we go. Besides, the favor he wants now is pretty straightforward. I can get it done quickly and without any blowback. Who knows what he could ask for in the future. For all I know, he could show up a year from now and tell me he needs help halfway across the world instead of something local.”

  That part was true.

  “What does he want? Why now?”

  “He’s interested in Al. His research is pretty groundbreaking. Prufrock seemed to feel that it had something to do with him and his business.”

  Carl stopped shoveling beans back into the bag. “You aren’t going to hand Alastair over to that monster are you?” He asked, eyeing me in his judgmental way.

  I shook my head. “No. I’m not going to give Prufrock Al.”

  Carl raised an eyebrow.

  “I promise that Prufrock won’t hurt Al. Trust me.”

  My cell phone started to ring. Never in my life had I been so glad to have to take a phone call. Making a show of grabbing the damn thing, I checked the screen. The number was familiar, but I couldn’t quite place it. I answered.

  “What?”

  “Mr. Cain?”

  I recognized Charlie Owen’s voice and felt my stomach turn to ice. I’d forgotten about the poor kid. With everything that had happened the night before, I hadn’t even thought about having to tell the poor kid that his sister was dead. I sure as hell couldn’t tell him that she was a Vampire. Better if he just thought she'd been killed.

  “Hey, Charlie,” I said, trying to sound kind and understanding.

  “Do you have any news about my sister?” He asked. “It’s been several days, and I hadn’t heard from you.”

  For a moment, I almost wished that I was still trying to skirt the truth with Carl instead of having to tell this kid something I really would have rather not told him.

  “Yea,” I said. “I do, but it’s not the kind of thing to talk about over the phone. Can I stop by this morning and talk?”

  The kid deserved to hear it in person. Besides, I also needed to get paid, and I wasn’t about to take anything other than cash.

  “Yea. You can come over whenever.”

  I craned my neck to look at the microwave clock. It was just past nine in the morning. I had time. Plenty of daylight to get all my stuff done before figuring out a plan to ride out the night and shoot a priest.

  “I’ll be there by ten,” I said. “That work?”

  “Yea.”

  “Good. See you soon.”

  The line went dead. Charlie seemed like a smart kid. I had a feeling he may already know what I was going to tell him.

  “Who was that?” Carl asked.

  “Charlie Owens.”

  He looked confused.

  “The kid who hired me to find his sister, Veronica. The blonde that tried to eat us last night.”

  “Oh no. What are you going to tell him?”

  “Well, I wasn’t going to lead with she’s a Vampire,” I said. “Probably make up a drug overdose or car accident. Something plausible but still ending in death.”

  Carl set the refilled bag of coffee on the table.

  “You want me to come with?” He asked. “It can’t be easy.”

  Thinking about it for a moment, I nodded. “Yea. You can drive.”

  I stood up from the nook.

  “I’m gonna take a shower. We can leave once I’m done.”

  “Sounds good.”

  With that, I went to take a shower. No reason to show up to the Owens’ house looking and smelling like a slob, not when I had to tell the poor bastard that his sister was dead.

  22

  Frozen snow crunched beneath my feet as I walked up to the Owens' front door. A blanket of storm clouds was starting to crowd the sky. The sun was doing its best to burn them away, but the clouds were dark and ominous. It was going to start dumping snow soon.

  I’d told Carl to stay in the truck. I didn’t plan on being very long, and I also didn’t want him to see any money change hands. He was the type to insist on letting the kid not pay me. That wasn’t about to happen.

  I knocked on the door. My hands were cold enough that it hurt my knuckles to smack them against the wooden door. I adjusted my vest as I waited. I don’t usually wear it around all the time, but I was getting hunted by Vampires. If ever there was a time to have protection everywhere I went, it was now. I heard footsteps thudding on the tile on the other side of the door. It cracked open, and I heard Charlie's faint voice.

  "Who is it?"

  "It's Deckland Cain. Can I come in?"

  He didn't peer out of the door the way he had the first time I'd met him. H
e stayed hidden behind the door.

  "Come in."

  I pushed inside, closing the door behind me. Charlie reached up and snapped the deadbolt.

  "How you doin?" I asked.

  "Not too bad." He said.

  "I wanted to talk to you."

  "Okay."

  He walked out of the entryway. I followed him into the living room. The curtains were all drawn, and the only light came from the roaring fire in the hearth. I could feel the heat of it from ten feet away. It was a little moody for my tastes, but Charlie was about to be a teenager, and he’d been worried about his sister. I suppose he was due for some moodiness.

  Charlie sat down on a couch. I stayed standing, feeling awkward. How do you tell a kid that his sister’s dead and then ask him for money? I knew what words to say just not what order to string them all together in to make sure I didn’t get stuck there with a crying kid waiting for my cash.

  A familiar snorting sound came down the hallway. Frank, the minuscule French Bulldog, came mouth breathing into the room. He stood on his back legs and reached up, pawing at my leg. I knew he wanted me to pick him up, but I didn't think it was appropriate to tell a kid that his sister was dead while you were playing with his dog. Again, I didn’t have a lot of time.

  I knelt over and scratched Frank behind the ears for a moment and then stepped away, getting in front of Charlie. The kid didn't look good. He was pale and looked a little sweaty. I thought he might have a fever and it looked like he hadn’t slept much.

  "I found your sister," I said.

  "I know." He replied.

  I cocked my head. I wasn't expecting that. He seemed like a smart kid. Maybe he just assumed that's the only reason that I'd be here. "You do?" I asked.

  "Yea. She came home last night."

  A chill shook my body. The hairs on the back of my neck stood up, and my hand darted to my Sig. I ripped it out of the shoulder rig, scanning the room.

  "Charlie is she here right now?" I asked, trying to look up the stairs while clinging to the wall for cover.

  "Yea."

  "Shit." I grabbed Charlie by the arm and pulled him to his feet. "We gotta go," I said.

  I turned to look down. I was worried he would scream if I tried to drag him out into the snow. I didn’t need a kidnapping charge in my life.

  I saw something in his eyes as I looked down at them. It was dark, but the fire lit his face with dancing light, and I could see his eyes were a pale blue so clear they were practically white. They were dead inside. Something clicked in my brain. He'd stayed behind the door when I walked in. He hadn't wanted to risk ending up in the light. All the curtains were drawn, and there wasn’t an inch of natural light in the whole damn house.

  I reacted. He may have been a Vampire, but I still outweighed him by a hundred pounds. That’s a big difference when it comes to dishing out an ass whooping.

  I yanked him off balance, pulling hard on his arm. His whole body jerked, and he scrambled to stay upright. I pistol whipped him, smashing the butt of the 220 into his tiny face. I turned my hips and put some oomph in it.

  Something broke inside his little demon skull, and his eyes rolled back into his head, but he managed to keep his feet. I really hate Vampires.

  I pivoted, swinging his body toward the fire. I charged forward, pushing him for a few feet before shoving him toward the mesh gate in front of the hearth. He crashed through it and collapsed into the flames. That woke the little bastard up. He shrieked in pain, scrambling to get out of the fire.

  I didn't stick around to see what happened next. I bolted. All I had to do was get outside.

  I wasn't even in the entryway before I caught sight of Veronica. She was between me and the door, smiling. I snapped the 220 up to center mass. My finger was on the trigger, and I had just started to put pressure on it when something hit me from behind. I stumbled forward, my shot going high and hitting Veronica in the right shoulder.

  A silver packed hollow point hit her, and she dropped, gripping her shoulder and screaming. I didn't have time to enjoy it. I was busy falling. I turned it into a roll and tried to come up shooting. Something grabbed me by the coat, lifted me into the air, and slapped the living shit out of me. My whole face erupted in pain. My brain bounced around on the inside of my skull. I tasted blood.

  I stumbled back, losing my grip on the gun as I tripped and fell to the marble floor, stunned. I had the sense to start pushing backward as soon as I hit the ground, and I did my best to get my bearings. I looked up and saw a blonde woman kneeling down next to Veronica. She was dressed in a nightgown of some sort. When she turned to face me, I recognized her.

  It was the blonde Vampire from the park that I'd set on fire. Something deep inside my brain started working again, and I realized why she'd looked so familiar when I'd seen her there. It was Mrs. Owens. I'd seen her in the family photos that lined the walls of the upstairs hallways.

  Thinking about upstairs, I realized that the Vampire had death in her eyes, and she was blocking the front door. My gun was gone. I weighed my options.

  Time to run.

  I scrambled to my feet and sprinted up the stairs. I made for the master bedroom that I'd seen when I'd first come to the house to meet with Charlie. I remembered something that at the moment was my only chance to get out of the house alive.

  "There's nowhere to run! Nowhere to hide!” Screamed Mrs. Owens. “You’ll die for all you’ve done!”

  I could hear her bounding up the stairs behind me as she shrieked in fury. I didn't stop to think about it. I tore through the door to the master bedroom and kept running. I ducked my head down and plowed into a pair of expensive looking drapes.

  Glass and wood exploded as I collided with the balcony doors at full speed. My shoulder flared in pain, but I broke through, tearing the whole curtain rod free as I did and fell forward. I couldn't see anything from inside the drapes, but the crunching sounds and pain told me that I'd landed on the furniture that had been on the balcony. I ended up in the snow, tangled in drapes.

  There was a mind-numbing scream of pain from inside the house. I twisted and pulled, trying to get out of the damn fabric. When I finally managed it, I blinked in the strangled sunlight. I looked around and saw the Vampire standing just at the edge of the shadows inside the room. She was fully transformed, black claws and slathering tongue ready to taste my blood.

  Her skin was raw and blackened, and a scent like fried bacon wafted in the air. She'd been right behind me when I'd broken through the door and must have gotten hit with a blast of sunlight. I got a nice bit of satisfaction from that.

  Veronica and Charlie both came in the door, stopping behind their mother. Veronica was holding her shoulder, blood and pus slowing leaking between her fingers. She was still in a relatively human form. The silver had stopped the transformation until she could feed. Charlie was shirtless and covered in loose, hanging skin that had melted off of his body. His left eye had popped in the heat of the fire, and the right one was in bad shape. The burnt little bastard looked pissed and ready to come out onto the balcony with me despite the sun.

  I opened my arms. “What do you say we talk this over? We all come out onto the balcony and discuss this like civilized people." I said, pushing myself back up against the railing.

  Veronica ducked her head, looking up at the sky.

  "Looks like we will soon enough."

  I looked up and groaned.

  Dark clouds were starting to strangle the sun, casting the world in overcast misery.

  "Son of a bitch."

  If the sky got dark enough, they could come out onto the patio and drag me back into the house without getting burned too badly. I was getting pretty damn tired of dealing with Vampires. I didn't have a whole lot of time, and I wasn't about to waste it standing around. It was time to run away.

  I pulled the Microtech Halo V from my fanny pack and started gathering up the drapes. The fabric was thick and looked expensive. That was good for me. The other good thing w
as that I'd torn the curtain rod off the wall with me when I came through the door. It looked pretty sturdy too.

  Kneeling down, I started cutting.

  "Clever," Veronica said, glancing up at the sky. "Do you think you'll have enough time?"

  I risked a glance. They were already closer to the door than they had been a minute before, the shadows growing longer as the sunlight shrank away.

  I kept cutting but needed to do something to take my mind off of it.

  "Say, Charlie. While I'm here, I don't suppose I could get rest of that thousand bucks? I feel like I kept up my end of the bargain and brought your sister home, even if she did turn out to be a soul-sucking creature that killed you."

  Charlie hissed.

  "Take that as a no."

  He'd taken a lot of damage in the fire, and apparently, his animal instincts were taking over. He screamed at me as I worked. I had several strips cut away. I started knotting them together, pulling as tightly as I could.

  "You know that it's all for nothing. Maccus has an army at his disposal, and all of us will be sniffing you out. You won't live to see another sunrise."

  I kept working, but Veronica was really starting to piss me off. Mostly cause she had a point. If I was outside after dark, I was dead.

  Confident that I had enough strips not to break something, I tied them together. I pulled the tattered remains off of the sturdy iron curtain rod. At that moment, I was supremely thankful that Owens family was rich and had wasted money on a thick iron curtain rod. A lower-middle-class curtain rod would never have held my weight.

  I tied one end of my makeshift rope into a noose and slipped it over the end of the curtain rod. I pulled it tight and then stuck the other end of my rope through two of the iron bars that fenced in the balcony.

  I looked over the edge. My rope was a little short, but I was in a hurry. I could wriggle down and then drop the rest of the way into the shrubbery. Not the best plan, but it would do. I threw one leg over the gate and stepped onto the edge of the balcony.