“You telling me, if you can break into this app, you can tell us where every vamp is that uses it? ¿Estás jodidamente serio?” Naomi asked, her anger gone swiftly as the possibilities of what he was saying hit her.
“I 'av naw clue waaat yer jist said, but aye, that’s waaat I’m sayin',” Speedy returned with a grin. “Oi shud 'av it done in de next 'our or two. 'Opefully people don’t start turnin' up dead while we wait. I’ll let yer nu whaen Oi 'av somethin'.”
“Can’t you just clone it, like you did mine? Then we can return her phone, forestall anyone actually dying, and still hack it for the information you want?” he threw in.
Speedy was nodding while he was talking, then started shaking his head, “Oi fale waaat you’re sayin', an' Oi totes wud if Oi cud, but whoever they 'av writin' code 'ill nu it’s been cloned. Nice tinkin though.”
Oh joy, I got kudos for thinking, he snarked in his head. “Was just trying to help.”
“You’re gonna need thicker skin if you’re going to be hanging around here. Toughen up and let the shit slide or get lost, I don’t have time to make a man out of you and hunt this fucker down,” Naomi remarked, then turned back to Speedy. “Work as fast as you can. Clone the bastard if you have to. I don’t care who finds out.”
“If we chucker dat an' their tech guy figures oyt waaat we’ve done, they can scramble everythin', warn dohs dat we git locashuns for; everythin' 'ill becum as useless as a chocolate taypot,” Speedy told her.
“What is a taypot?” he whispered to Ezio.
The man snickered, “teapot. A chocolate teapot.”
“Oh, guess that makes sense,” he answered, then cast his eyes about the room, not sure of what he should be doing now that the information had been relayed.
“Why don’t you two go and get some shut eye. Once he cracks this thing, we might get the location of this master of hers. I’ll want to move out as soon as we have that,” Naomi told them, stifling her own yawn. “Kind of like the Marines, sleep when you can get it.”
I just put all this shit on, now she wants me to take it off?
Ezio clapped him on the shoulder. “You heard the lady, let’s hit the sack.”
III
“’Av yer gots its?” a voice purred in a heavy accent, snapping him awake.
He’d already been woken in such a manner once today, so this time he was quicker to push himself back to consciousness and stare about the room searching for the intruder. Had Amanda gotten free? Had she come to finish him off? “Who’s there? Benji? Ezio?”
No answer.
Something had to be there, no way it was just his imagination. It had taken forever for him to drift off, and even the rustle of a branch against the window had been enough to snap him back out of it as he floated from one nightmare to another. “No fucking around, who’s there?”
“Oi peggy dell it. ‘Tis near. Wha is it?” an oily low voice croaked.
Jumping off the left side of his bed, he pulled his side arm out of its holster and swung the gun towards the bathroom, sure that the voice had been coming from there. “I am armed. Come any closer and I will light you up, I swear to God! Speedy, if that’s you fucking around, you’re gonna take one in the keister.”
Silence.
His hand trembled slightly as he moved to turn on the light, eyes warily watching for any sign of movement. If it were a vampire, he was likely fucked; he’d seen how fast they were, and he was not ready for that kind of action. Hopefully he’d at least get a shot off first, so the others knew something was up, give his life some measure of meaning before death embraced him.
The light seared his eyes, but he kept them focused on the bathroom, careful to let his peripheral be attentive as well, not wanting to be blindsided by whatever fucker had come after him. He couldn’t see anything out of place, anything that hadn’t already been there when he went to sleep, and the room was sparse as it was; there was no real place to hide.
“If you’re hiding in the bathroom, I’ll shoot your ass. Best come out of there where I can see you!” he hollered, trying to sound tough and keep the shake out of his voice. That was a lot tougher to do than he’d seen in the movies, far tougher. His adrenaline was pumping, his hand was shaking, and he had to put his left hand on the pistol in order to keep it straight. His eyes were blinking rapidly, as if he had something in them, and his blood was pumping so hard his ears heard the thumping rather than the world around him.
Ezio burst through his bedroom door with an assault weapon in hand. “What is it? A vamp?” The man was moving towards the bathroom and gave him a sideways glance that ended at the tip of his pistol.
He lowered his weapon, his breathing rapid, his heart thudding so loud he was sure the other man could hear it from there. “I don’t know. It was creepy as hell. Sounded like it was at the foot of my bed.”
“Did you check under it?” Ezio asked, lowering his weapon as he exited the bathroom.
He nearly leaped three feet to the left as his body turned, eyes focused on the black hole that was the underside of his box springs. “I stopped checking that when I was ten,” he gasped. “What the fuck is going on?”
Ezio seized the bottom of the bed and flipped it over as if turning the page of a book, revealing an empty floor with nothing but dust upon it. “There’s nothing there.”
“I can see that! That doesn’t mean there wasn’t! I’m not imagining it. There was something here, whispering to me in some heavy accent, kind of like Speedy’s, actually,” he rambled, trying to come to terms with what was happening.
“Speedy’s? You mean Irish? What did it say?” Ezio asked hurriedly, eyes growing a bit larger.
“I don’t know. It was looking for something, thought I had it,” he tossed back. “I was half asleep, I don’t remember all that much.”
Ezio didn’t hear the last bit of what he was saying, the large man dashing from the room like a linebacker after a loose football.
Feeling foolish just standing there, he grabbed his pants, pulled them on hastily, then charged after the man with only his gun in hand. Luckily the hard-wooden floors were recently buffed, or he might have gotten a splinter as he ran down the hallway, grabbed onto the railing for the staircase, and pulled himself around, taking the stairs two at a time.
“What’s the matter?” Naomi asked, rubbing her eyes as she emerged from the large room on the right, across from the room where Ezio had just disappeared.
“Intruder!” he grunted as he hit the last step and pistoned towards the computer room.
What he saw when he skidded to a stop in the doorway floored him, like someone had struck his gut with a closed fist, driving the air completely out of him. There was a creature, no more than three feet tall, with dark green slimy skin, and a body so thin it was a wonder the thing could even lift a limb, standing in front of the dazed Irish youth with a sickening look upon its terrifying features. A pale green and yellow light was flowing from Speedy’s forehead to the outstretched hand of the beast before him, the boy’s eyes wide and full of terror. The youth’s face was starting to look sunken and stretched, as if the monster were siphoning away his lifeforce.
“No, don’t!” Naomi screamed as Ezio pulled the trigger, the assault rifle going off and causing his eardrums to explode as the gunfire in the confined space echoed around him.
Bits of computer monitors and keyboards burst into the air, the creature the man was aiming at vanishing into the netherworld, as if it were a ghost, not leaving a single trace that it had even been hit.
Naomi shoved him aside as she rocketed into the room, coming to a stop just behind Ezio and smacking him upside the head. “Knock it off! You fucking idiot! You’re destroying everything!”
“That monster was killing Speedy!” Ezio protested, the gunfire ceasing almost immediately, his bottom lip pushing outward and exposing his lower fangs. “What the hell did you expect me to do, stand there and watch?”
Naomi was hovering in front of the computer desk in fr
ont of the shattered equipment, her face stern and full of fury. Maybe she was a vampire too.
“Storey bud? Why’s everyone ‘ere?” Speedy asked in a sluggish tone.
He walked forward and turned him away from the desk, getting a good look at the man’s face. It looked drawn, like he hadn’t eaten in weeks, his eyes dopey as they sporadically looked around in confusion. His skin was slightly yellow and there was a horrible stench coming off him; he smelled like a rank diaper. “Are you okay?” he asked with concern, wondering what the hell had just happened.
“Waaat ye chucker ter me computers?” Speedy squealed, having turned enough to see what the others were doing, his hands trembling as he tried to stand up. “Waaat ‘appened ter me?”
“Where is it?” Naomi asked the younger man, her anger visible and barely in control.
“Where’s waaat?” Speedy squealed, flinching as he shied away from the enraged woman.
Naomi smacked her hand on the computer desk, Ezio moving around her and carefully picking up the pieces of equipment he’d broke, tossing them in the garbage as if nothing else was happening. “The gold, idiota! Where’s the fucking gold? It’s why you’ve been on edge right? Why you were so eager to get the fuck out of Dodge? You knew this was coming?”
Speedy backpedaled in the chair and slammed into his waist, making him grunt with surprise.
He was fixed in place, unable to move. He was too stunned by what was going on to do much other than stand there and witness what came next. That thing was creepy as fuck. What world had he willingly thrown himself into? Were all monsters real?
“Gauld?”
“Don’t you play stupid with me. The only reason a leprechaun would venture out of Ireland is if something was taken from one of their stashes. We were in Dublin last year! You gonna sit there and lie to me, tell me you didn’t stick your hand in the cookie jar?” Naomi stormed furiously.
“I—I—,” Speedy stuttered.
“Leprechaun?” he asked, unsure he’d heard right. That sure as shit did not look like something off the front of a Lucky Charms box.
“Do not fucking lie to me!” Naomi snapped, ignoring him. “He was searching your mind for where you’ve stashed it, draining your lifeforce as payment! His magic wouldn’t work if you hadn’t actually done it and you fucking know it! Where—the—fuck—is—it?”
Speedy’s long fingers stretched out and pointed at a cabinet to the right of his desk.
She shoved her way past and yanked the top drawer open. “I swear to Jesus, I’m going to kick your ass for being so fucking stupid.”
“What’s going on? Is everyone okay?” Kayumi asked from the doorway.
Naomi whipped around, a small pouch in hand. “We’re fine. Call Ayana, tell her we need her back here on the double, we have a debt that needs repaying. And tell her to be quick about it, there’s no telling when the fucker will be back.”
Chapter 9
I
“That didn’t look like a leprechaun,” he said softly, thinking of that guy Willow in a green suit, a black brimmed hat, and a nasty wrinkly grin. “More like Gollum.”
Ezio chuckled, “yeah, thereabouts. You shouldn’t believe everything you see on the television. They’ll make up all kinds of shit if it means making a buck.”
He had a shiver snake up his back. “That thing was horrible, I can still hear it’s voice whispering in my ear. And I thought vampires were bad. Why would Speedy do anything to piss one of those things off? Seems kind of stupid, and I didn’t take him for an idiot, despite what Naomi says.”
The other man shrugged, “kind of his story to tell. Don’t know for sure. It’s gone, for now at least, so I’m going back to bed.”
“That’s it?” he asked, incredulous. “Just off to bed like nothing happened?”
Ezio grinned, then stalked away without another word, leaving him standing there in a pair of jeans and nothing else, unsure of what to do next.
Did he go back to bed himself? Seemed wrong somehow. And how exactly did he sleep after being woken up like that? Someone out there had it out for him, they definitely didn’t want him to get any rest. Vampires, werewolves, demons, and leprechauns? How was that even a thing? How could such creatures exist, and no one know about them? In the span of half a day, he’d been confronted by beasts straight out of horror films, and he was starting to feel his sanity pushed to its limits. One would have been bad enough, but four?
Maybe it was like that Russell Crowe movie. Maybe he was schizophrenic, and all of this was in his head? Maybe he was wandering the streets talking to himself, unaware of the world around him, soon to be taken to a psychiatric ward and locked away in a padded room forever.
He had been walking without paying attention to where he was going and found that his feet had taken him back to the smaller cottage where his wife was being held. Staring at the door, he couldn’t figure out why he had ended up there, or if he should follow through and enter. Had that Faraday Cage they talked about failed, had she lured him here with her telepathic abilities? Or had it been some subconscious need of his to see his wife, no matter what state she was in?
“Fuck it,” he muttered as he twisted the knob and pushed the door open. His feet felt the coldness of the tile floor and he winced at the dirt caked up on his feet, nearly falling as he tried to wipe them on his pants leg to clear them off. He should have grabbed his damn shoes.
Entering the stairwell to the basement, he paused and listened for a brief second to see if anyone else had chosen to go down there, or if Amanda was still banging on the glass. All appeared to be silent, so he made his way forward, his feet hating him every step of the way as the hardwood floor bit into his soft soles. All he had other than his pants was his gun, and he stowed that in the small of his back, after pausing a second to ensure that the safety was on. He didn’t need to be shot in the ass, no matter how much ice cream he’d get for it. Forrest could keep it.
Amanda was sitting Indian style in the center of the room, hands folded in her lap and eyes fixed on him as he stepped free of the stairway and into view. It had been like she was expecting him, not a hint of surprise upon her face as their eyes met. Had she summoned him after all, was she about to fulfill her promise and end his life?
There were four other objects on his side of the room that hadn’t been there when they’d left. They were sitting on the chair, as if placed there knowing that he would soon return and have need of them. There was a pint of Jack Daniels, a piece of paper, and two syringes full of God knew what. Who had put them there? Had Ezio done that after their earlier visit? Naomi? To what end?
He glanced back at the glass and flinched; Amanda was standing just on the other side staring at him, the bloodlust in her eyes hard to mistake as anything else.
That’ll get your blood pumping.
He stepped over and picked up the note:
Derek,
I realize that you and I may have gotten off on the wrong foot. Take this as recompense and let it start a new chapter in our interactions with each other. The serum Giovanni injected your wife with earlier was an older, but capable version. The gold labeled syringe contains the latest batch from London and will return her to her former state for an hour, no more. However, once it is used, it can never be used again, the door leading to her old life forever shut.
I know that in your heart you pray for a cure, but if there is one, it may be decades before it’s discovered. How long would you keep her captive? Would you feed her humans to sustain her life, like some alien plant begging for food? That’s what it’ll take, as after six days her thirst will start to weaken her, and she will die if she hasn’t been fed within a week’s time.
I cannot allow that to happen.
She can die in the arms of the man she loves, or from a bullet through her heart and skull. I did not know her in life, and it seems only fitting that the man she married should be the one to choose her fate. Therefore, I leave it up to you.
Within the silve
r labeled syringe is concentrated garlic. You can inject it directly into her body and she will die within seconds. It’s swift, relatively painless, and will usher her into the afterlife to wait for you, rather than continue this damned existence as a monster.
The cameras have been turned off, you will be given your privacy. Remember, it lasts for one hour, that’s all I or anyone can offer.
Oh, and not that I’d think you would, but just in case, sex with vampires is not harmful unless they bite or break you with their increased strength. The act itself is not harmful, or so the scientist, scholars, and Benjamin tell me. I can’t see you acting on this information, but I felt it should be relayed regardless. If it’s your choice to get you some, by all means. Who am I to judge?
I pray you make the braver choice and let your love die by your hand rather than mine, I think that’s what she would want as well.
Be at peace,
Naomi
PS the code to the knockout gas is 855326, the door code is 417114.
Use it well.
Okay, so now what?
He lifted the syringes and inspected their contents, wondering if he’d be able to find a vein or if it would even matter. How would he know? He’d never used a needle before, for any reason. It must have been just as effective if injected anywhere, or else she would have said otherwise, right?
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