by Matt Kincade
The back warehouse looked empty and abandoned. But soon the small side door opened, and a man wearing a button up shirt and slacks exited the building. An unlit cigarette dangled from his mouth. He propped the door open with a brick and lit up. As he smoked he turned, and Alex saw the pistol holstered at his waist. The man leaned against the wall while he finished his smoke, then went back inside.
The din of rock the crusher ceased. The employees filed out of the buildings toward their cars. Engines started; headlights glared. One by one, cars pulled away. The last man out had a big keyring in his hand. He turned a key in the front-door lock, rattled the handle to be sure, and headed to his car.
Alex sat motionless, his binoculars still trained on the compound. Next to him, Carmen shifted and fidgeted. “Are you sure this is the place?” she asked.
Alex nodded. He rubbed a hand over the stubble on his chin. “This is the place all right.”
“Shouldn’t something be happening?”
“You gotta be patient. Shouldn’t be much longer.”
Carmen rolled over and sat up. “I don’t want to be patient. She could be in there right now. Why don’t we just go in and—”
“Yesterday you didn’t know a vampire from Adam. Now you’re here tellin’ me how to do my job?”
“I just—” Carmen sighed. She looked out at the desert, and the last light of the sunset highlighted the angles of her face.
“Look, I know. I’m sorry, but this is the way it is. You won’t do your sister any good by running in there and getting yourself killed.”
Full dark descended. Stars shone brightly in the New Mexico night. Soon, a pair of headlights crawled through the empty desert. The front gate of the factory rattled open even before the car arrived. The car, a silver BMW, eased into the driveway and crept through the front gate.
“Here we go,” said Alex, “now we’re getting somewhere.” He flicked open the latches on a black plastic case and pulled out a device that looked like a camcorder.
“What’s that?” asked Carmen.
“The FLIR. Heat vision,” he said. He flicked it on, and the screen filled with varying shades of blue and red and orange. “Well, would you look there?” said Alex. He angled the screen so Carmen could see.
On-screen, the BMW had stopped at the second gate. The guard leaned over, speaking to the driver of the car. The guard was a riot of color, shifting splotches of greens and yellows and reds. The car’s engine and exhaust glowed white, but the driver blended into the background. He seemed not to even be there.
Alex elbowed Carmen. “See? That fella there’s about as warm as yesterday’s coffee. We just found us a vampire.”
The second gate rolled open, and the vampire pulled the BMW through and into the hidden portion of the factory. He got out and lit a cigarette. He was tall and thin, and wore a black suit with a black tie. The glowing tip of his smoke made a tiny orange dot, visible to the naked eye. He pulled out his cell. The phone’s screen briefly lit up as the vampire checked his messages, before returning the phone to his pocket.
A minute or two later, another set of headlights appeared on the highway. It was a white parcel van, the kind you might rent to move or that would deliver produce to your favorite deli three times a week. The vampire saw it too. He tossed his cigarette down and ground the butt with his toe. The van downshifted and bounced through the front gates, then the back gate. One of the big overhead doors of the warehouse rolled open, spilling light across the gravel apron, and the van slipped inside. The door rolled shut after it.
The heat vision told the tale. The van was visible through the wall, its engine pulsing white in the display. The driver, however, gave off hardly any heat at all. “See there?” Said Alex, as Carmen leaned in close to look at the screen, “Another vampire.” On the FLIR screen, they saw a dozen humans huddled together in the back, some staggering as they tried to keep their balance, some crouching or lying down. Four other humans were in the building, all carrying guns. They opened the back of the van and gestured with the guns. One by one, the multicolored silhouettes stepped out and disappeared down a flight of stairs.
“Huh,” said Alex, “They must have a basement. We can’t see their thermal signature through the ground.”
“So Mia could be in there.”
Alex didn’t answer.
With the thermal camera, they watched as the vampire from the BMW gestured toward a captive. The men with guns pulled her from the crowd. She cowered in fear, falling to her knees. He pulled her to her feet and leaned in close. He made a small, quick movement, like a striking snake.
“Oh, my God,” said Carmen.
On the small digital screen, they watched as the girl’s hot blood infused itself into the vampire. A tongue of orange warmth filtered down the center of him then worked its way through his extremities.
“We have to help her!” said Carmen. “Jesus, that could be my sister!”
Alex put a hand on her wrist. “Ain’t no help for her, whoever she is. All we could do right now is die along with her.”
The girl struggled in the vampire’s grip at first, then went limp. The vampire pulled away and passed her on to the driver. Once again, her blood flowed into him. After he finished, she fell in a heap on the floor of the warehouse. Onscreen, she faded from red to orange to green as her body cooled. Carmen grimaced and looked away.
Alex clenched his jaw. “Believe me, I don’t like it neither. But runnin’ in there wouldn’t do nothin’ but add two more corpses to the pile. Like I said, this is a rough business.” He continued to watch the screen. “We can’t just go runnin’ in with guns blazing. And you never want to fight a vampire at night. They got all the advantages. Like jumpin’ into the ocean to wrestle a shark.”
“So we just watch?”
His expression was unreadable. “Oh, we’ll even the score. Don’t you worry ’bout that.”
More trucks arrived throughout the night. Some dropped off prisoners by the dozen; some picked them up in ones or twos. By the end of the night, forty or more prisoners had been moved through the facility. The deliveries stopped a few hours before sunrise.
Alex stowed his equipment away and crawled down off the boulder with his usual liquid grace. Carmen reached the ground more awkwardly and hurried to catch up as Alex climbed into the SUV.
“We’re gonna find out where this vamp hangs his hat,” said Alex. He started the engine, leaving the headlights off, and made the short trip to the road, where the factory’s front gate was visible. “What about the delivery drivers?” said Carmen, “They were vampires too.”
“As much as it chafes me, we ain’t got time for them right now. If I had my way, I’d watch this place for weeks. I’d follow every damned one of them home, then I’d invite some of my friends to the party. But here and now, we can only follow one. And when in doubt, I always follow the vampire in the luxury car.”
After few minutes, the BMW eased out onto the empty highway. Keeping the headlights off, Alex pulled out a safe distance behind it.
They followed the vampire across the desert and through the sleeping streets of Las Cruces, with only the occasional dairy truck or long-haul semi for company. They came out in the desert on the other side of town, driving away into the sparsely populated hills.
“It’s gotta be somewhere around here,” said Alex. “Can’t be too far, but not too close to the city neither. Vamps gotta have their privacy.”
Sure enough, a few minutes later, the car pulled off onto a private drive marked only by a mailbox. Without touching the brake, Alex rolled past the driveway. The BMW’s taillights receded into the darkness.
“Now what?” said Carmen.
“Now we get some sleep. Big day tomorrow.”
***
The Wagon Wheel Motor Lodge was the perfect picture of roadside Americana. A giant neon sign featured an animated wagon wheel and a cartoon cactus. A smaller sign advertised color TV and a heated pool. The motel was boxed in by the grimy urban
sprawl that had grown up around it like weeds over the decades. There was a tire shop next door and a strip-mall liquor store across the street.
“They only had a single room. I’ll take the floor,” Alex said. He turned the key and pushed the door open. The room was clean but carried the distinctive stale odor of an old, cheap motel room.
Carmen walked into the room, turning her head away from Alex.
Setting down his bags on the chair, Alex heard a sob. He looked at Carmen, who sat on the bed, facing the wall. “Hey, now, it’s okay,” he said.
“It really isn’t.” Carmen let out a trembling sigh. “I was hoping to make it into the shower before I fell apart.”
Alex sat next to her. “Look, I know you’re in a bad place. I know you’re hurting. I wish there was more I could do.”
“Well, there isn’t.”
“Yeah, I know.” Alex squeezed her shoulder before standing up. “I’m gonna go get some fresh air. I’ll be back in a bit.”
Carmen didn’t respond as he slipped quietly out the door.
When he returned to the room, Carmen was sprawled out on the bed, fast asleep. He sat down in the room’s single chair and pulled his boots off, then stood and pushed the curtains back an inch. The giant wagon wheel turned below the words wagon w eel motor lodge.
He smiled. “Classic,” he whispered. He turned around and regarded Carmen. She shifted and frowned in her sleep, and her thin, arched brows furrowed.
After a moment’s thought, he knelt and untied her shoes. He slipped them off her feet and set them neatly at the foot of the bed. He went around to the other side of the bed, picked up the unoccupied pillow, and set it on the floor. Before he lay down, he removed his belt and his small-of-the-back holster. He set the .45 close at hand and lay down on the threadbare gray motel carpet.
An hour later, Carmen woke with a gasp. She sat up and looked around the darkened room, seeing no one at first. She noticed Alex sleeping on the floor, the pistol next to him. She watched him sleep for a moment. He looked cherubic, laying there on the floor with his lips slightly parted. She smiled, briefly, then lay down and drifted back to sleep herself.
***
Carmen again woke abruptly. Daylight streamed through the narrow vertical crack where the motel curtains didn’t quite come together. The air conditioner beat out a spastic rhythm. Somewhere outside, a semi droned by. She sat up in bed and pushed her tangled hair out of her face.
The digital clock on top of the TV cabinet said eight thirty. She swung her stockinged feet over the edge of the bed and stretched. Before she even got her bearings, the door opened. Alex entered, carrying two cups of coffee in a cardboard carrier. He held a bakery bag clenched in his teeth.
“Oh, bless you,” said Carmen, as he handed her a cup.
“Milk, no sugar.” Said Alex.
She smiled. “You remembered.” She sipped the coffee while Alex dug a chocolate frosted doughnut out of the bag.
“Already hot as a mother out there.” Alex took off his battered Stetson and hung it on the coat hook. He flopped down in the motel chair and took a bite of his doughnut. “How’d you sleep?”
“Like the dead.” She pulled out a doughnut with multicolored sprinkles. “I feel like I’m saying this a lot lately…but what now? What’s the plan?”
“We got some work to do today.” Alex pulled his laptop out of its case, set it on the bed, and flipped opened the screen. He opened Google Earth and zoomed in on their location. “We got us a factory to shut down, and we got us a vamp to kill. Way I figure, ain’t no real advantage in doin ’er in one order or the other. Which one you wanna do first?”
As he spoke, he zoomed in on the house they had followed the vampire to earlier. The screen showed an L-shaped roof surrounded by nominal landscaping, a bright-blue kidney shaped pool, and a whole lot of desert.
Carmen finished her doughnut. She looked at the blurred satellite picture of the house. “Let’s kill a vampire,” she said.
Alex smiled. “My kinda girl.” He paused for a moment. “Don’t suppose you got anything nice to wear? A dress or something?”
“No,” said Carmen, “I pretty much just packed jeans and T-shirts. Why?”
“Guess we’ll have to stop and buy you something, then.” Alex picked up his duffel bag and went into the bathroom. He shut the door.
“Why do I need a dress?” Carmen repeated, loud enough to be heard through the bathroom door.
Alex stepped out of the bathroom a moment later. He wore crisply pressed black slacks with a white button-down shirt tucked into them, and a black necktie. His hair was neatly combed into a pompadour. He cinched up the tie and then pulled the Gideon’s bible from the motel’s bedside table. “Because we gotta be dressed nice if we’re gonna go talk to this vampire about the Lord.”
“I get it,” said Carmen. “Who would think twice about annoying evangelists knocking on the door?”
“Exactly.”
Carmen looked him up and down. “You know,” she said with a wry smile, “you clean up pretty good.”
***
The sun beat down. Heat radiated from the rocks and the dust until the air shimmered. In the front driveway of the vampire’s house, Carmen and Alex sat in the SUV. Alex killed the engine and set the emergency brake. “Okay, remember,” he said, “this is a vampire. They’re stronger’n horses, and quicker’n snakes. But if you put enough bullets in ’em, they gentle down some. Ain’t nobody wants to go dancin’ around with a shattered knee, vampire or no. Then, once you get ’em to hold still for a second, that’s when the sword comes in.”
Carmen shrugged. “Seems pretty straightforward.”
“So does ridin’ a bull at a rodeo, until you give it a try.” Alex climbed out of the SUV. He straightened his tie, checked his hair in the rearview mirror, and pulled a book bag from the backseat. He tucked the Bible under his arm.
Carmen got out of the passenger seat, wearing a demure cotton print dress and holding a book bag of her own.
“You ready?” said Alex.
Carmen nodded. “I’m ready.”
“All right. Let’s go bring this sumbitch to Jesus.” Together they walked up the flagstone walkway to the front door of the vampire’s house.
It was a single-story home with modern styling, painted in a desert palette. The front of the place was landscaped with desert plants and gravel. A flagstone path led to the front door.
Alex and Carmen reached the front step. Alex pushed the button. From somewhere deep in the house, a chime sounded.
“Good news, friend!” called Alex. “We’ve come bearing the word of the savior of mankind! Is anyone home?” He knocked again, louder this time. “Do you have a moment to talk about the Lord?” No answer.
After a minute of this, the peephole in the door darkened. “Sir, have you accepted Jesus Christ as your personal lord and savior?” said Alex.
From inside, a deep, gravelly voice said, “Go away.”
“Should I just leave your copy of The Watchtower out here?” Alex reached into his bag. Instead of a religious tract, he brought out a short-barreled pump shotgun. Following his lead, Carmen pulled a pistol from her bag.
“What part of ‘go away’ do you not—”
Alex fired a round of double-ought buckshot through the door. The noise of the shotgun blast echoed and rolled off of the far hills. Someone grunted on the other side of the door. The next shot blew the doorknob off, and Alex kicked the door open.
The vampire staggered backward, snarling, one hand clutching his bloody gut. He was shirtless, wearing only the wrinkled slacks he’d thrown on before going to answer the door. Alex fired again. The shot went wide, vaporizing the corner of a black leather couch as the vampire dived and rolled behind it. The creature lunged out of the roll and grabbed a wooden end table. He flung it at Alex, who threw up his left hand and turned away as the table shattered against him. He fell back against the wall, stunned.
The vampire bolted across the room, t
oward the hall. Carmen suddenly remembered the gun in her hand. She tried to draw a bead on the fleeing vampire and opened fire, peppering the wall and fracturing an enormous seawater aquarium. The vampire stayed one step ahead, disappearing down the hall. A heartbeat later the aquarium gave way, and a flood of water and doomed tropical fish poured across the white carpet.
Alex shook his head to clear the cobwebs and jacked another shell into the shotgun. “C’mon! After him!” He splashed through the living room and raced down the hall, with Carmen following close behind.
The vampire slammed the bedroom door shut. Alex kicked it open again before it could latch. The shotgun bellowed and another knot of buckshot caught the vampire in the back. He seemed not to notice. He dived across the bed and reached for a drawer in the bedside table. He came up again with a pistol and aimed it at Alex.
Alex pulled the trigger, and the vampire’s hand exploded. The blood-spattered gun fell onto the bed. Alex racked the shotgun, but the vampire was too fast. In an instant the creature was there, wrenching the shotgun, one handed, from Alex’s grip. Alex stumbled backward and pulled his pistol, but the vampire drove forward and batted the gun from his hand as well. The vampire lashed out with a kick that sent Alex careening into the wall.
Carmen barreled through the doorway and found herself standing between Alex and the vampire. She raised her pistol and sighted on the vampire’s chest.
The vampire turned to face her. He had a lean, rugged face with a Mediterranean tint, a disheveled tuft of black hair and thick, black eyebrows. He bared his fangs and hissed, like a snake ready to strike. His eyes bored into her.
Like a hammer blow, fear hit Carmen, washed down her spine, trickled down her legs. Her feet froze to the floor. Her breath came fast and shallow. The pistol shook in her hands. Try as she might, her trigger finger wouldn’t flex. A whimper escaped her lips.
