by L. M. Justus
“You’re missing the point! To kill a human, unprovoked . . . this is a grievous crime. You must be punished,” Marcel said.
“Why are you treating these humans like guests? They’re our food, Marcel. Humans don’t invite cows and chickens into their living rooms; why would we invite our dinner inside? I knew you were more liberal-minded than those stodgy old fools in Boston, but this is ridiculous. I came here looking for freedom to live the way a vampire is meant to live. Why are we still lurking in the shadows while humans rule the world? We’re infinitely stronger than they are and we’re the predators. They’re the prey.” Marcel jabbed his finger in the air toward Trudy to emphasize his point.
“Kyle, you’re missing the point; there are good reasons for having rules against killing humans,” the King argued. “We are not invincible. We have weaknesses, which the humans will exploit if they discover us living among them. They may not be as physically strong as we are, but there are millions of them for every one of us.”
Kyle crossed his arms and clenched his jaw, glaring defiantly at the King. “I won’t apologize for my actions. I am perfectly justified in my methods. I’ll leave your realm if you can’t abide my behavior.”
Marcel’s brows furrowed and he shook his head. “No, Kyle,” he said softly. “There is no ruler on earth that would accept your misguided ways. You will meet the sun. Your life is forfeit.”
Katrina and Gabriel took hold of Kyle’s arms. His eyes grew wide and his fangs shot out.
“This is madness,” he shouted. “You would claim my life for taking one of theirs?” He turned to Trudy and let out an ear-splitting howl as his fellow vampires held him back.
A movement off to the side caught Nathaniel’s eye. Sophie stepped from the hallway into the room’s large doorway. “What the heck is going on down here?” she blinked in the bright light. “People are trying to sleep upstairs, you know.”
Sarah ran up behind her sister, surveying the situation with wary eyes. “Soph, I think we need to get out of here, now.” She pulled her by the arm to drag her back down the hallway.
Kyle ripped himself out of Katrina and Gabriel’s grip faster than the humans would have been able to see, and moved to trap Sophie from behind. She yelped when he grabbed a handful of her hair, holding his other arm around her neck.
“Sophie!” Sarah shrieked. “Let her go!”
“Stay back,” he growled, “or I’ll rip her head off.”
Sarah froze and everyone else remained statue-still.
“Let’s see how much you value these humans’ lives,” Kyle spat out. “If you try to keep me here against my will, this one dies.”
Everyone started shouting at once.
In a flash, Katrina’s twin knives sliced through the air in an attempt to part Kyle’s head from his body. He twisted away, but the knives cut a deep gash on either side of his neck. Sophie was thrown to the side and slammed hard onto the floor. Blood spurted out of Kyle’s double wounds.
Screams erupted into the air while the vampires scrambled madly to seize Kyle. In a macabre spray of red, Kyle managed to elude everyone as he took off down the hall.
“Stop!” Marcel commanded.
Everyone but Kyle paused in their tracks.
“He has nowhere to run,” Marcel said. “It’s broad daylight out.”
“What? We can’t let him go,” Trudy said. She gave Nathaniel a pleading look to back her up.
“He’s heading toward the tunnels,” Katrina said. She stood with every muscle taut, ready to give chase.
“The tunnels are suicide,” Marcel said.
Sarah had crawled over to her sister to check for injuries, but continued to follow the conversation.
“What tunnels?” Reed said.
Marcel swung to face the boy. “There are tunnels from this house, leading to the city’s sewer system. They are not lightproof though; sun shines through the gaps in the manhole covers. If Kyle survives, it will not be unscathed.”
“Well . . . I’ll go after him then,” Reed said.
“No, I told you, it’s suicide,” Marcel argued.
“The sun doesn’t affect me.” A muscle in Reed’s jaw twitched as he waited to observe the King’s reaction.
Marcel’s eyebrows lifted, but he seemed to accept Reed’s revelation almost too easily. With all the commotion, perhaps he needed more time to process the news.
“The sun doesn’t affect me either,” Sarah said. “Because I’m human. I’ll go too.”
Trudy stood and held out one of her hands. “Can I borrow one of your knives, Katrina? I’m in.”
“No, no,” Marcel said, squeezing his forehead. “Two humans and one newling vampire are no match for a vampire like Kyle. We must let him go. We’ll search for his remains after sunset to confirm his demise.”
Sophie rose to her feet, trembling badly. “You people can do whatever you want, but I’m leaving,” she said, half shouting and half crying. “I am so sick of this vampire bullshit! I’ve had it with all of you. I’m done being kidnapped, and running, and hiding. I’m constantly being attacked and grabbed and thrown around like a sack of garbage!”
“Sophie . . .” Sarah said, placing a hand on her sister’s arm.
“No, Sarah,” she said, brushing her hand off and twisting away. Her lower lip quivered and a single tear escaped her eye, rolling down her right cheek. “I’m calling Mom, and I’m going home,” she choked out, running from the room. She slipped in the blood coating the floor, but managed to regain her footing.
“There is nothing you can say that would convince me to spend another minute in this hellhole,” she continued ranting as she stalked down the hallway. “I’m tired. I’m starving. I’m in constant danger. And all the cute guys around here are gay!”
Her footsteps echoed in the stairwell as she stomped upstairs. A few seconds later, a door slammed.
“She cannot leave,” Nathaniel said.
Sarah sighed. “She won’t. She needs to blow off some steam, that’s all. She’d never leave without me, and I’m not going anywhere, I promise.”
Reed scratched his head. “Wait a minute . . . I’m not gay.”
Sarah gave him a half-lidded glare and swatted him in the shoulder.
Reed opened his mouth to say something, but Marcel spoke first. “Please. While we wait for night to fall, there is something I want to discuss with you. Now that you are all here, with the exception of Sophie, of course. You can relate our plans to her later. I have come up with an idea for you to live more comfortably, and without worry of the Queen doing any harm.”
Resigned to waiting before they could chase after Kyle, Nathaniel and the rest of his companions gave Marcel their attention. Solving their problem with the Queen was the more pressing issue, and despite the brouhaha with Kyle, Nathaniel was interested in hearing what Marcel had to say.
Reed
No one sat down. After all the commotion, we couldn’t relax as if nothing had happened. Gabriel left and returned quickly with cleaning supplies to mop up Kyle’s blood from the floor. I stood waiting, muscles tense. Katrina, Sarah, Nathaniel, and Trudy did the same.
Nathaniel cleared his throat. “I feel we should apologize for bringing discord to your lair, Marcel.”
“Non, you helped reveal a cancer among our ranks. I should thank you,” the King replied. He sank into one of the couches looking deflated.
“So . . .” I began. “What’s this plan you said you had for us? You said something about not having to worry about the Queen.”
“Yes, after the sun sets and we complete our search for Kyle’s remains in the tunnels, I know of a place you can go. About a ten hour drive north from here, I have a large property with two chalets on a lake. It is quite remote, but there are enough humans in the area for you to feed from, and your companions can obtain the supplies they’ll need from the town nearby. As an added security precaution, and also because I am familiar with the location, I will accompany you there.”
; Gabriel immediately stopped cleaning the floor, jerking his head to stare at the King. “Marcel! You have said nothing of this to me.”
Marcel’s lips pressed together in a grim smile. “I will not be gone long, mon amour. And I know you will make an excellent master of the realm in my stead.”
Sarah moved closer to me and I slipped my hand around her waist. “How do we know the Queen won’t track us up north?” she asked.
Marcel looked distracted for a moment, and Nathaniel answered her question before the King had a chance to say anything. “The farther we go from civilization, the less likely she will be able to discover our whereabouts. There will also be fewer witnesses. I concur with Marcel’s decision to leave the city.”
“And if she does find us . . . we’re screwed,” I said.
“There are no guarantees,” Nathaniel said, “but I believe this is the best plan for now.”
“I agree,” Trudy said.
“Me too,” Sarah said, tilting her head to look up at me.
“All right, all right,” I said, shrugging. “Let’s go pack then. Oh, wait, we don’t have anything to pack,” I grumbled. For some reason, I felt like everyone was ganging up on me. Maybe Sophie’s bad mood had rubbed off.
“I will gather supplies for our journey and we can rendezvous here in a few hours,” Marcel said. He stood up and his gaze flicked to me quickly before he turned to leave.
Was he unhappy with me because I hadn’t instantly jumped on board with his idea to go up north? Plus, he’d hardly seemed to care about my being able to go out in the sun. Not that it had made any difference.
Nathaniel and Trudy left, leaving Sarah and me alone.
“Is Marcel upset with me?” I said.
“No.” Sarah grasped my hand and caressed her thumb over my skin. “He seemed preoccupied, but the only thoughts I picked up were about Gabriel. He kept thinking about the time they first met. I’m guessing they’re going to miss each other a lot.”
Her touch was innocent enough, but it still sent electric tingles of desire through my body. Now that the overpowering smell of spilled vampire blood had been washed away, Sarah’s clean scent filled my nose.
She smoothed her hand across my chest and then gave it a small pat. I frowned.
“I should go check on my sister,” she said and gave me a guilty look.
“Right. You should, of course. I’ll just . . . play some solitaire pool. Or something.”
She rose onto her toes and gave me a quick kiss. “See you later.”
Her footsteps retreated down the hall while I walked over to the cue rack and selected a stick. I rubbed one of those little chalk cubes on the end of the cue and wondered how things could go from exciting to boring so quickly.
A few hours later, everyone gathered to begin the search for Kyle, or what was left of him if he’d fried in the sun. The tunnels and sewer system obviously weren’t heated, so we put our winter wear on before heading out. I wasn’t sure we needed all eight of us to track down a pile of ashes, but even Sophie was joining the search and I wasn’t about to stay behind.
At the far end of the basement, Marcel opened a door leading to a narrow stairwell that went deeper into the earth. The stairs were made of uneven stone, and the air smelled musty and damp. Katrina led the way with her knives ready.
“Why is this tunnel here?” I asked.
“This house is over a hundred years old,” Marcel answered. “During the prohibition era, this tunnel was added by the previous owners. They housed illegal devices used to manufacture alcohol as well as the alcohol itself. We simply extended the tunnel to reach the sewer system because at the time, we felt it wise to have an escape route. We never got around to making it safe for us to use during the daytime. As the years went by, we became comfortable enough that we no longer felt it necessary to improve the tunnels. This could be to our advantage now; Kyle may not have realized how perilous this route is during the day.”
We followed, single-file, until the tunnel widened enough for two people to walk side-by-side. Sophie hung on to Sarah for dear life, and I brought up the rear. When our path connected to the sewer tunnels, the stench became almost unbearable. Thank God it was winter–I didn’t want to think about how much worse it would have been during the summer.
Lights from the streets above filtered through the manhole covers at uniform intervals. It was plenty of light for the vampires to see by, but the humans stumbled more than once. As we rounded a corner, my nose crinkled. I’d hoped for the smell of burnt vampire, but got a whiff of rotting meat instead.
There were cries of disgust and I almost gagged when I saw the odor’s source. A giant pile of maggots squirmed over an unidentifiable chunk of . . . something.
“And I thought it smelled bad before we found that,” I said, covering my nose.
“Don’t be such a baby,” Sophie said.
I gritted my teeth. “Do you have any idea how strong my sense of smell is? I feel like a frigging bloodhound. Multiply what you smell by a million. That’s what it’s like for me.”
“Could that be part of Kyle?” Sophie asked, pointing at the grisly pile.
“No,” Sarah said. “Fly larvae don’t hatch that quickly.”
“Fly larvae,” Sophie repeated with a grimace.
“Maggots,” I clarified.
“I know that!” Sophie glared at me in the dim light.
“Shall we continue?” Nathaniel said.
Everyone turned and stepped carefully past the maggot mountain. I tried to breathe through my mouth, but then my tongue felt coated in a layer of grossness. How long could vampires hold their breath?
We continued for another ten minutes or so, until Marcel jerked to a stop.
“The scent trail leads there,” he said, peering upward. A set of metal rungs led up a cylindrical passageway to a manhole cover. Unlike the other covers we’d seen so far, no light filtered through.
“I don’t know how you can smell anything except sewage, but whatever,” I said.
Katrina headed up to the surface first, and the rest of us followed. We emerged into a dark space–a huge warehouse or shipping bay. Three large trucks were parked side-by-side along one wall, and pallets stacked with boxes lined another. I gulped in the relatively fresh air and hoped we were done with the sewer tunnels for the night.
The King let out a sigh. “He is gone. Kyle’s scent trail leads toward the city center, but we will not be able to discern his newest tracks from the old ones; he has frequented the downtown area extensively and his scent will be everywhere.”
Trudy’s hands curled into fists and she clenched her eyes shut. “No! We were so close.”
Nathaniel raised a hand to Trudy’s shoulder, but didn’t touch her at first, as if he didn’t feel comfortable enough to finish the motion. He hovered like that for several seconds before finally resting his hand on top of her coat. Her eyes popped open and they shared a look.
“I’m guessing Kyle could be anywhere by now?” Sarah said.
“That is correct,” Marcel confirmed. “If he is smart, he will flee far from here and never return. The most we could do is search the city’s perimeter and hope to find his path out of Montreal. Even if we did determine which direction he was headed, there isn’t really any point in wasting our efforts and pursuing him across the globe.”
Trudy’s smoldering look suggested she didn’t agree, but everyone else seemed fine abandoning the chase.
We returned to the vampires’ house, taking the roads, not the sewer tunnels, thankfully. Then we prepared to leave on our journey north.
Sarah had gone to take a shower and wash off the leftover sewer smell, while I called our new vampire hunter friends to tell them the news.
The phone rang only once before someone picked up, answering in French.
“Uh, hi,” I said. “Is this Justin or Alexandre?”
“Yes, this is Justin. Who is this?”
“It’s Reed. The guy you kidnapped?”
“Oh, hey! The vampire and his girlfriend,” he said. “What’s up?”
“Well . . . the good news is, we figured out which guy was responsible for murdering your best friend. His name is Kyle.”
A pause. “And the bad news?”
“It turns out your buddy isn’t the only person Kyle has killed. Someone in our own group recognized him from something that happened a few years ago. Apparently, he killed her fiancé and she was more than a little pissed. Anyway, we told the King about him because the vampires have rules against killing humans. We confronted this Kyle guy and he actually confessed. Then he took off and we weren’t able to catch him, which means he’s probably long gone. The King said Kyle had to die for his crimes, but now it looks like he’s off the hook. As long as he doesn’t show his face around here ever again that is.”
“Man,” Justin said. He stayed quiet, waiting for the news to sink in.
“Yeah, so . . . I wanted to give you the scoop before we leave. Sarah and I are heading somewhere up north with the rest of our group. We have our own psycho vampire to deal with, so we have to leave before she tracks down our sorry asses. Sorry we couldn’t be more help, but I don’t think you’ll have to worry about problem vampires anymore. The King’s a good guy, and he doesn’t let the vampires around here get away with killing humans.”
“When are you leaving?” Justin asked.
“Tonight, as soon as we’re done packing,” I said.
“All right. Thanks for everything. I guess there are good vampires and bad ones, just like people.”
I laughed. “Exactly. The only difference is the crazy vampires are practically impossible to deal with because they’re really, freaking strong. The vampire that’s after us, I’m a total weakling compared to her. She’s hundreds of years old, which makes her insanely strong, but she looks like a twelve-year-old girl. It’s kind of humbling to tell the truth.”
Justin chuckled. “A humble vampire, who would have guessed? Good luck to you, my friend.”
We said our goodbyes just as Sarah returned from her shower.
