Tainted Blood

by Martin Sharlow

“Oh, they're nothing.” Bobby said as he looked around the cab in disgust. “Just a dumb hobby I picked up.”

  “Alright then...” Brian coughed.

  Hey, who was he to criticize what some people wanted to believe?

  “A vampire is holding Heather hostage, and I need your help to get her.” Brian said, just as water hit Brian in the face from a small bottle that Bobby had been opening while Brian spoke. He sighed.

  This was going to be long ride.

  12

  “Well. I have to finish this run, I have bills to pay, you know.” Bobby snapped, as he bit into a large greasy hamburger. The thing had what looked like liquid cheese pouring out of its sides as he bit into it. Brian wondered absently how he used to love those things. These day's all he really needed was blood. He could eat normal food if he wanted to, but it really didn't do very much, in fact he suspected he would starve if that were all he lived on. Once or twice, he had been forced to do just that, and quickly watched all his vampire abilities disappear as each hour passed by. It was not a thing he wanted to think about or try again.

  Still, he had to convince Bobby to help, and for once, he wanted to do it the normal way.

  “Listen, I understand that,” Brian tried to reason with him. “But this is Heather we're talking about.”

  “I heard you the first dozen times you told me. You think I'm going deaf?”

  Brian shook his head in confusion. “I don't understand, Bobby. I thought you liked her. You two seemed to get along really well the last time we were together.”

  “Kid.” Bobby threw down his hamburger. “The girl's not the problem here. You are.” He pointed straight at Brian. “I don't know who you think you're kidding, but you ain’t natural, and I don't need you mucking around up in my head again. Darn near lost myself the last time I hooked up with you two.”

  “But that wasn't her fault.” Brian began.

  “No, it was yours. I almost died then, too. Eaten by a Godforsaken werewolf for God's sake!” Bobby's voice rose so loud that a couple passing by turned and looked at the two as they talked.

  Bobby lowered his voice so he couldn't be overheard as he continued to speak to Brian. “I love the girl. I really do, but I'm not getting involved in all this insanity again. I swear I'm going to have nightmares for the rest of life already.”

  “I can't believe I'm hearing this.” Brian said as he watched the trucker pick up his burger and take another bite. A large coke sat next to him, which he sipped between chews. “You'd just leave her to the mercy of a vampire?”

  “I don't see what difference it makes. Him or you, you're both vampires.”

  “The difference is I love her and would never let anything bad happen to her!” Brian slammed his fist on the table.

  “Well you sure managed a great big failure on that one didn't you?”

  Brian shook his head in confusion. “What?”

  “You said you wouldn't let anything bad happen to her, and yet here she is needing my help. I'd say that has failure written all over it.”

  Brian hadn't thought about it that way. He'd known he was somewhat responsible for her predicament. But he'd done nothing to endanger her. In fact, he had kept as far away from her as he possibly could. Yet still she got caught up in something he hadn't even had any intention of involving himself in. The irony was kind of sad, really. In fact, had he been there, she most likely would not have been taken, bringing into question if he had done the right thing by letting her leave. He might never know the answer to that, only time would tell, if anything could.

  Still, if Bobby wasn’t going to help him, then he would have to go at it alone. He wasn't going to suggest the guy again. The only reason he came was because he thought the man was his only real friend in the world. Brian figured he guessed wrong.

  “Fine. If that’s the way you feel, I guess I'm in this alone.” Brian stood up and looked around to get his bearings. He was going to have to find a quiet place that he could dreamwalk back home. He supposed there had to be a motel around some place that he could rent for an hour.

  “So what you going to do?” Bobby asked as he took a long drink from the straw.

  “What I should have done from the start. Rescue Heather, and make that dirty bastard who took her pay.”

  “So, you're just going to do this alone, are you?” Bobby queried as he took another bite.

  It seemed to Brian that Bobby was missing a key ingredient to his meal, fries. They were the best part of a fast food meal from what he could remember. He couldn't imagine eating a burger without them. “No other choices, Bobby, what else can I do? Oh and by the way, you need some fries.”

  “I'm trying to cut back on the fat.” The old guy responded.

  “Yeah, and eating big ass greasy hamburgers is the way to do that.” Brian chuckled.

  “I said I was cutting back, not quitting!” Bobby snapped back at him. Brian smiled at him, and then patted him on the shoulder as he started to walk away.

  “What? That’s it?” Bobby shouted after him. “You're not going to use your whammy to make me help you anyway?”

  Brian waved back at him as he caught sight of a motel just down the road. ”Nope, not today, Bobby. You go on and enjoy that burger without fries. I'll figure out how to do it on my own.”

  Brian heard Bobby's heavy footsteps running up behind him. The old guy roared at him to wait, as he sucked in gasps of air in an attempt to catch his breath. “Damn, you walk fast!” Bobby choked.

  “I’m in kind of a hurry, Bobby, I don't have time to just stroll down the street. Besides, I thought you had a hamburger to eat.”

  “You can't do this without me, Kid, you're just gonna get yourself killed if you do.”

  “Are you sure about that?” Brian asked, as he felt a little camaraderie stir in his soul.

  “Now, don't all go to tearing up on me now. I got nothing better to do anyways.”

  Brian pointed back at the table where his coke and burger now sat alone. “What about your burger?”

  “It tasted like crap anyway, let's get this rescue underway.” Bobby slapped Brian on the shoulder then turned and headed towards his truck. “What’s the plan?” Bobby asked as the two of them strapped themselves into the big rig.

  “I didn’t have one yet. I figured I'd come find you, and then just wing it.”

  “Winging it'll get her and me killed. We need a plan, Kid.” Bobby said as he turned the truck back on the road. “Where did you say this is?”

  Brian told him, along with everything else he could think of that had happened over the last few months. Bobby simply sat there quietly listening as Brian talked. It felt kind of good to be able to share everything with someone for once. It was a different feeling, like he actually had a friend to talk to.

  “So let me see if I got this all right, Kid. You have a werewolf that’s hunting you this time, a super spy aunt that’s not really your aunt, and she might be in on all this and selling you down the river...and you invade Heather's dreams every night?” Bobby said, shaking his head and watching Brian intently.

  “Yeah...well, sort of.” Brian responded sheepishly. The way Bobby repeated that, well, it just didn't sound quite right to Brian.

  “You're some piece of work there, Brian. Does Heather even know what you're doing?”

  “Yeah...At least I think she does.” Brian looked at Bobby, who shook his head as he drove. “Well...I've told her in her dreams, that is.”

  “You mean you haven’t told her in real life? Geez, listen to what I'm talking about.” The trucker just sighed and looked straight ahead. “Anyways, the way I see it, the first thing you need to do is find out how to really kill this bastard. I mean really kill him. We don't need him rising from his grave on the next full moon or something.”

  “Ahm, I think that’s werewolves.” Brian interrupted him

  “Dagnabit, don't interrupt me when I'm thinking!” Bobby turned and shouted at Brian. “You know what I mean! We need to do this rig
ht. I don't want to wake up one night on the road and find this guy's beady eyes staring down at me as I sleep.”

  Brian simply nodded, he was actually afraid to answer the old guy, as he was sure he would break out laughing instead.

  “Anyways, I made a new friend last time I was passing through Reno. She's a nice young gal that works down at the public library there. Told her I was interested in vampires and she helped me find some stuff on 'em.”

  Brian looked around the cab at all the religious symbols and wondered if this was her advice.

  “Anyway, why don't you pop out the way you do, and look her up a spell. She was supposed to do some more research for me for the next time I came through town.”

  “Are you sure that's a good idea Bobby?” Brian asked taking another look around at all the knick-knacks in the cab of the truck.

  “Do have any better ideas? “ Bobby snorted.

  He had to admit, he didn't. That was why he came after the old guy in the first place. The last time he faced Jason, things hadn't gone so well. He was out of ideas. His only real choices were either find Bobby and see if he could come up with an idea, or ask his aunt. He decided Bobby was the least miserable choice.

  Well...if it doesn’t work, he could always just suggest the entire Reno police department like he did back in Woodland, and let the bullets fly again.

  “Okay, so where will I find her?”

  “What the hell, Boy, don't you pay attention? The library, go to the library!”

  “Alright, but who do I ask for?”

  “First good question you asked. Ask for Meryl, and tell her Bobby sent you. Got that?”

  Brian nodded, then settled back into the seat and closed his eyes. It was always hard to try and enter his dream state in a moving vehicle. The swaying motion should have swayed him into slumber, but instead it made him jerk awake each time they hit a bump or made a quick turn. This time was no exception. Bobby was almost as much of a distraction, as at least once or twice he started to hum or sing as he forgot Brian was there. He even heard him mumble in astonishment that Brian was still there. In the end he did finally find himself in the gray world that people dreamed within. Its swirling mist filled most of the landscape and made it impossible to see very far away.

  It was a good thing that he didn't need to see where he wanted to go; all he really needed to do was think of where he wanted to be. Fast and easy, for the most part.

  It wasn't always this easy, of course. In fact, just a little less than a year ago, he used to travel in a less deep state. Then he could see the real world around him, but travel was much slower, and very dizzying as the world passed by him at super speed. He had to admit, the other state was good for spying out areas, or even watching people, but it certainly wasn’t the thing for traveling.

  Brian envisioned his room back in the motel, and as he watched the environment around him changed and molded into his room until it was a perfect picture of it, except for the gray coloring.

  All he needed to do now was lay down in his bed and go to sleep in this dream. In theory, he should wake up in his room on his bed, at least that was how it worked the rest of the time and he could see no reason it wouldn’t this time. “No need to jinx yourself now.” Brian said to no one in particular.

  Seconds later he was in his bed awake and really there. He couldn't help but think about how cool it was to be him at times. The day was still early, and he would guess it couldn't be too much different from where Bobby was.

  “Damn, I never asked where he was.” He had no idea how long it was going to take. Well, if he had to guess, it seemed like he was only an hour or two earlier than where he was with Bobby.

  “Well, at least the library should be open.”

  A couple of hours later, Brian found himself looking at the doorway to what passed as the main library. He hadn’t been in one in some time, at least not since he'd stopped going to school. He actually never really had a good reason to go to the library before. But Bobby had a point, he had no real idea how to off this other vampire, and if he himself was any indication, it wasn't going to be an easy thing to do.

  The place was pretty full for being only a little after lunch. He was surprised at how many people were there. Perhaps they were in college and were there studying for some kind of upcoming exam.

  It didn't take Brian long to find the help desk, but he waited at least twenty minutes in line before he finally got a chance to speak with somebody. He was directed over to the children's section and told that he should find Meryl putting books away there. He hoped it wasn't her normal area of work, because he just couldn't see someone in that department being a big expert on vampires.

  Surprisingly, that part of the library was almost empty. The only person within it, in fact, was a young woman with dark black hair that hung down to her shoulders in what Brian thought was called a bob. He wasn't sure, as he'd never really talked about hairstyles, but he had heard others in the hallways talk about them.

  She turned as he entered the room that he could now see that most of the shelves were empty. Meryl seemed to be putting books onto them as he came in.

  “I'm sorry, but this area is closed while we renovate it.” She smiled at him. The first thing Brian noticed was that the dark blue eyes she had were heavily outlined in black, and then her bright red lips. He decided that the girl was either partly Goth or into punk. He wasn't sure which, but she was drop dead gorgeous for a librarian.

  “Oh no, actually I'm looking for you.” Brian somehow managed, as he quickly gazed down the length of her body and back up to her face. She wore a dark brown sleeveless shirt with a plunging neck line, under that was clearly a see through red shirt. Her breasts were ample enough to catch his attention and cause his eyes to linger there maybe a bit too long.

  “Excuse me?” She asked. “Do I know you?”

  “Ah...no.” Brian looked back up into her eyes. Good God, they were deep.

  What the hell was happening to him? Was she some sort of vampire as well? He was in love with Heather, how could he even think about another girl? “No. Bobby sent me; he said you might have some information for him.”

  “Alright...and you are?” She put her finger to her chin and then pointed it at him as she finished the question.

  “Me? Oh I'm Brian, I'm Bob--”

  “Not the Brian, as in the vampire Brian?”

  “Yeah...he told you about that?” Brian felt a little worried. He never even considered the fact that Bobby might tell people about him, Hell he hadn't thought about Heather talking to people either. That could actually be a problem he was going to have to think over later.

  “Hell yeah he did. How else do you think he would have gotten me to help him?”

  “I'm a little lost here, could you help me out? You helped Bobby why, and how did this include me?”

  “Well. He needed help on how to kick some vampire ass, and he told me about you because he was really pissed about what you did to him. So I agreed to look some things up so I could actually meet you some time.”

  Somehow, this didn't sound like it was going to go the way Brian hoped it would.

  13

  “Okay, so do you have some information for him or not?” Brian looked at the young woman who was excitedly checking him out. It wasn't the most comfortable feeling.

  “Yeah, I've found a bunch of stuff that might help,” she said as she began to circle around Brian.

  “Well, could you show it to me?”

  A pink bubble of gum grew out of her mouth, then loudly popped as she continued to circle and look him over. It was really starting to make him feel uncomfortable, somehow he felt like she was the predator and not him.

  “I could.” She partially pulled out her gum and wrapped it around her finger. “But...I don't think I will. Sorry.” She said, and then started to head towards the open doorway that Brian had entered the room from.

  “Wait a minute!” Brian rushed to get in front of her, and the speed he trave
led at might have been just a little too much, as her hair blew up when he came to a stop causing her to give a startled yelp. “Listen, we need that info. I didn't take all this time out of my day coming out here just to waste it. If you have something, then give it here.”

  For her part, Meryl recovered quickly from her surprise. “Listen, I'd love to share the info with you, and maybe if you invited me out for some coffee,” she smiled at him,” I might change my mind, but why should I believe that Bobby sent you? After all, aren’t you the one he wanted to use this info on?”

  She did have a point, he realized. It was a bit absurd that the vampire who she was looking to help off, or at least find some sort of defense against, would be the one Bobby sent to get the info.