Demon Jack

by Patrick Donovan

  Maggie damn near blew him apart with the fireball she launched at him, searing heat following on the trail of more whispered Gaelic. His body went up like a torch, and I had to take a few steps back just to avoid the sheer intensity of the on rush of heat. He hit the ground, a searing hole blown through most of his torso, the rest quickly being consumed by flames. Thick oily smoke billowed into the air, reminding me of a tire that had been set on fire. Another burst of flame from Maggie finished the one who’s head I’d ventilated.

  I hit the pavement, my leg dead beneath me. I could still feel the poison, a thick burning wave that swept through my body with each heartbeat. My other limbs were slowly going just as numb as my leg. I tried to weakly get back to my feet and managed it, wavering drunkenly. Already the dead vampires were decaying, withering into nothing before my eyes. Within minutes, there would be nothing left but dust and a grease stain on the pavement.

  A streetlamp pole kept me from falling all the way over. I stood there, propping against it. If I could ride it out for a few minutes, I’d be able to get past it. The vampire hadn’t hit me with a lot, a glancing blow when my knee had connected with his teeth. Still, the venom was a potent, burning agony racing along my nerves and spreading numbness over my skin. It felt damn weird.

  Maggie made a beeline for Lucy, only slowing down when she was close. She approached the girl slowly, her movements wary and deliberate. She spoke in hushed, soothing tones. I couldn’t hear what they said, but a moment later Lucy was in her arms, her body wracked with sobs. She seemed to convulse under the weight of them. Maggie cradled her head to her chest. Even from several yards away I could see the stark contrast of the vampire’s blood smeared across Lucy’s face, the pain radiating from her features was almost palpable. Not physical pain, but something deeper, something on an almost spiritual level. If Adam had killed her when he turned her, then I was getting to watch a part of her soul die. A part of what had made her human, made her a bright, shining person dimming before my very eyes.

  I leaned against the post for what felt like hours. I stood slowly, testing my weight, feeling the leaden heat slowly lifting off my limbs. A full on dose of that stuff would be nasty with a capital nasty.

  I half walked, half stumbled to Lucy. I sat beside her, well more like deflated to the ground next to her. She looked at me, through me it seemed. Her face was a mess, blood cut with trenches of flesh from her tears. Blood had soaked the front of her hand-me-down shirt, causing the fabric to cling to her body, the blue color marred by a black stain roughly the size of a dinner plate.

  For a minute the words wouldn’t come. My tongue felt thick and heavy, my brain still reeling from the vampire’s venom.

  “Sorry you got caught up in all this mess kid,” I said, the words slurring like I had been drinking.

  “Sorry I tried to eat you, Jack,” she said.

  “Shit happens,” I said, shrugging, “How’d you find us?”

  “I could smell her blood,” Lucy said sheepishly.

  “Not bad. Creepy as hell, but not bad,” I said.

  Maggie heard it first, her head snapping towards the blonde woman’s corpse. A low mechanical humming was coming from blondie's clothes. The vampire Lucy had killed was already dust, and Maggie poked at the pile of fabric, pushing it this way and that with the point of her knife, before plucking a cell phone from the dust and the remnants of the catsuit. She looked at the caller ID, smirked and tossed me the phone.

  Adam’s name flashed on the screen.

  “How do I turn this thing on?”

  Lucy reached over, swiping her finger across the screen, even going so far as to set the speaker phone to “on”.

  “Do you have him?” Adam’s voice, slightly tinny and pitched higher than I was used to hearing, came through the speaker.

  “By him, do you mean me?” I asked.

  Silence.

  “This thing still on?” I whispered to Lucy.

  “Yes, Jack, it is,” Adam’s voice said again. “Should I take it my associates have met with an unfortunate set of circumstances then?”

  “You mean are they dead?”

  “Yes, Jack. Are they dead?”

  “Then I’d have to say yes, they are.”

  “That’s unfortunate,” he said on the other end, “And my daughter?”

  “Excuse me?” Lucy asked, the words leaving her mouth before her brain had a chance to stop them, judging by the look on her face.

  “Hello my dear, when will you be coming home?” Adam asked, his voice a mixture of mocking and gleeful.

  I spoke up quick, stopping Lucy before she launched into what looked like it was going to be a ranting diatribe of epic proportions. Maggie watched the interchange with a smirk and a raised eyebrow, perfectly happy to let me shoot my mouth off for a change.

  “She’s not,” I said. “She’s not coming home.”

  “Oh? I’ll be forced to come and retrieve her then,” Adam said, his voice dropping low and icy.

  “You can try,” Maggie snapped.

  Adam snickered on the other end. “Tsk tsk,” he said, like he was chiding a small child. “Jack, you do realize that I can find you easily enough if I put forth the effort don’t you?”

  “I’m aware.”

  “And from there-”

  “Cut the shit, Adam. Here’s the deal,” I said.

  There was a pause. “I’m listening.”

  I looked between Lucy and Maggie, taking in a long, full breath of cold air.

  “You want this finished. I’ll give you the chance. Me and you, one more time to finally put this shit to bed,” I said, my eyes locked on Lucy’s face. “You win, she’s yours.”

  Maggie and Lucy stared at me, their jaws hanging open in shock.

  “What’s to stop me from going after her after we’ve... settled our differences, Jack?” Adam asked, that faint hint of amusement still evident in his tone.

  I shrugged, and it took a minute for me to realize he couldn’t see it.

  “Assuming that’s the situation, all I can say is I gather it won’t be me.”

  “How do I know you won’t hide the girl?”

  “I’ll bring her with me,” I said, and the look of shock on their faces doubled. Maggie’s eyes narrowed dangerously, hate radiating from her features. Lucy was the polar opposite, her face a mask of shock and fright, already pale skin growing paler.

  “Very well then, my home then. We’ll make a party of it.”

  “Agreed,” I said.

  There was a long moment of silence before he spoke again. “Done. Two hours, call me. I’ll even send a car.”

  The phone went dead, and on cue Maggie was in my face.

  “What the fuck are you doing?” she snapped.

  I looked from her, back to Lucy again.

  “I’m putting shit right.”

  “By walking her into a trap? By getting her killed?”

  “Her is right here,” Lucy said quietly, and we both once again focused on her. She looked around before turning towards us, milk white eyes filmed with cataracts blazing. “Stop speaking like I can’t hear you!”

  “Lucy, Jack’s about to trade you to a vampire. You get that right?”

  “I get that before all of this, it was my parents, now it’s this vampire thing and this is probably my only chance to be out from under Adam. I don’t know what’s going to happen if Jack loses, or if he wins for that matter, but I trust him.”

  “Are you insane?” Maggie asked.

  “Probably, maybe, I don’t know.”

  Maggie looked to me, dismissing Lucy simply with posture and body language.

  “You either come back with her, or you come back in a body bag,” she snapped, storming off down the street.

  I didn’t answer.

  “Where are you going?” Lucy asked.

  “Garrison’s, to get a beer,” Maggie said without looking back.

  Chapter 25

  I stood weakly a few minutes after Maggie was out
of sight. Lucy had to help me to my feet, my body still reeling a bit from the vampire’s venom. Her grip was strong, almost frighteningly so. Once I was on my feet, I moved the gun from the pocket of my sweatshirt to the waistband of my jeans, tucking it in at the small of my back. We walked in silence back towards the Commons.

  “Do you think you can do it?” she asked finally mustering up the courage to say what had probably been on her mind the whole time.

  “We’ll see,” I said.

  “That’s reassuring.”

  “That’s me, picture of stability.”

  She smirked, shoving her hands in the pockets of her oversized coat. She wore it zipped up almost to her chin, covering the bloodstains on her shirt.

  “Why do I trust you?” she asked.

  “I have no idea. It's probably not very smart though.”

  She shook her head.

  “Well, here’s hoping it’s not misplaced,” I said.

  “How did he end up like that..? so... so…” she let her voice trail with the question.

  “So Adam?”

  She nodded.

  “I don’t know. Lot of bad shit happened to him I guess.”

  “Will I turn into that? Cold, vicious?”

  “That’s up to you. I mean, Adam’s story isn’t exactly filled with happy thoughts.”

  “What do you mean?”

  “From what I know he was turned in Auschwitz towards the end of the war. There’re rumors about him, here and there, but I never really cared enough to look into it or have a conversation with him about it.”

  “So that’s what the numbers tattooed on his arm are.”

  I nodded.

  “So the story goes. Maybe he put them there to fuck with people, maybe it’s true. I don’t know for sure. Like I said, I never asked.”

  We made our way back to the bandstand, taking our same seats from earlier on the steps. Silence fell again, and we watched the few late night walkers pass by. The blood Lucy had consumed had already begun to work on her physically, filling her features out, causing her to look softer, more inviting, but making the air of a predator that seemed to linger around her that much more pronounced.

  A woman walking her dog had to practically drag the little terrier away. It caught one whiff of Lucy and froze, whimpering. Even the people who didn’t seem to notice tried to take a wider berth as they came close to the bandstand.

  “Do you have a plan?”

  “Yeah, don’t die,” I said.

  “Sound plan.”

  “I think so.”

  I pushed the hood back from my face, running a hand through my hair. I felt tense, every muscle aching and taut. The first traces of fear fluttered in my stomach. Adam, during the day, had been more than a handful. At night, well, this wasn’t going to go well unless I figured up some sort of something really quick like. There wasn’t much that could kill a vampire. I had gotten lucky with the vampire I had shot earlier, and he had probably been a lot younger and a lot weaker than Adam.

  “Your girlfriend isn’t going to be happy about you putting your life on the line for the parasite, is she?” Lucy asked, the corner of her lips pulling up into just the slightest of smiles.

  “Nope, she’s going to give a whole new definition for the term pissed.”

  “She knows?”

  “Everything I do.”

  “Wonderful. Why hasn’t she shown up then to tell you you’re an idiot and call me nasty names?” Lucy said, full on smiling now. That’s all I needed a fresh turned vampire and a demon as old as, well I had no idea how old Alice was but suffice to say she was pretty fucking old, fighting over yours truly.

  “Who knows? I don’t get her a lot of the time. I think being cryptic is fun for her. She’s been like that since she found me, or I found her. You know what I mean.”

  “It’s fun for her? Wow, that’s... twisted.”

  “It’s all I can think of. I mean, she is a demon after all,” I said with a shrug.

  For a long moment I just sat and watched the world around me. I tried to take in everything, the way the city’s lights played off the sky, casting a faint aura around everything. I watched clouds slide by overhead, making lazy tracks against the stars. I watched people move past me, avoiding the both of us like we had a communicable disease. It was something I wanted to hang onto, just in case I didn't see it again.

  Lucy let me sit there, watching the world, taking it in in total, unwavering silence. She was simply there, unmoving and comforting all at the same time. She was the reason I was doing this. The reason I was going to try to pick up some of the broken pieces I had left along the way, to try to cull the herd of nightmares that had followed me like one of those old prison ball and chains since I’d been a teenager. I didn’t believe what I was doing was right. Hell, I didn’t believe anything about me was right, but it was necessary. I had to keep telling myself that. I had to believe that that’s what it was.

  Necessary.

  “It’s time to go, Jack,” Lucy said, checking the time on the phone we had taken from Adam’s goon.

  I looked down at the screen and nodded. “Alright.”

  She redialed Adam’s number after sliding past probably ten little pop up windows and menus. She pushed the button to send the voice to speakerphone again. Adam picked up after one ring.

  “Where are you?”

  “Commons, near Park Street,” I said. “I'll find you there.”

  “Car will be there in five minutes,” he said and hung up.

  True to his word, a black sedan slid to the sidewalk near the gate. I hung back, watching it idle in silence before I approached. My eyes scanned sidewalks, passing cars, pedestrians. After making sure nothing was going to jump us before we made it to the car, or that Adam didn’t have people ready to shoot us once we stepped onto the sidewalk, I led Lucy by the hand towards the car.

  We slid into the backseat without incident.

  The driver didn’t say a word, just slipped the car back into traffic. We drove for almost thirty minutes, doubling back over ways we had just driven, changing lanes and making useless turns only to have to sort through small side streets to once again emerge en route to Adam’s mansion. Apparently I wasn’t the only one expecting a trap, despite this contest being the sort of thing that vampires held in almost religious reverence.

  Chapter 26

  The driver steered the car towards the countryside, and the mansion rose to greet us as we crested a slow, sloping hill. It was set back along a tree line, a massive house that had wings and servants and all kinds of other fun frills. The windows were all dark, and no lights burned outside. The drive led us to a gate set in a twelve foot high brick privacy fence. It opened on a long twisting driveway that led through perfectly sculpted lawns ripe with massive boulders and sculpture interspersed with towering oaks and maples.

  Four vampires waited outside for us, each dressed in expensive suits and silk ties. They encircled Lucy as she stepped out of the car. One breaking away from the group long enough to pat me down, find, take my gun and slip it into the waist of his slacks. Lucy turned back to me, eyes wide.

  “Go, I’m right behind you,” I said, falling in step behind the little grouping.

  We were led through the maze-like confines of the mansion. The decor was minimalist, offset here and there by more statuary. Each piece was a miniature grotesquerie hidden in its own alcove and changing thematically with each new hallway and room. One hallway was lined in old medical diagrams, various outdated surgical instruments settled on shelves and pedestals like fine art. Another was World War II era photography, starving vacant eyes staring back from behind barbed wire fences. The list went on and on, as we made our way through the sprawl. Lucy, to her credit, kept her head up, eyes straight ahead.

  They led us to a banquet hall, all marble floors and gleaming red hued woods. It had been cleared, leaving a space roughly the size of most people’s homes. Adam stood, amicably chatting with another vampire. He was older than
Adam, or at least appeared to be physically, and was dressed like a Cubano gangster: all breezy white linen with a straw fedora. Another, a woman with short hair cut close to her scalp and severe features, stood separate from the group’s chatting. She watched Lucy intently, eyes flickering to me before turning towards one of the servants and whispering something to him.

  Small groups were dotted around the room’s perimeter, all gathered in animated conversation. The sound of chatter gave the room an audible buzz of noise, a slowly building crescendo of excitement. I didn’t bother looking around to much or trying to place faces. I’d rather not know exactly how many lions were in the lion’s den, so to speak.

  The four vampires ushered Lucy towards Adam and the room fell silent. He watched her approach, his eyes sparkling with something that bordered somewhere in between malice and affection. She ignored him, her eyes focused straight ahead. She didn’t bother with either of us, focusing her attention on a spot somewhere behind me, her chin held high.

  “Jack. You made it. Welcome,” Adam said, walking towards the center of the room. He was dressed simply, blue jeans and a t-shirt, the fabric draping around his stick-thin frame.

  I didn’t bother answering. I peeled my hooded sweatshirt off, tossing it to the side, leaving me shirtless. The scars that covered my face covered my torso in the same fashion. Perfectly spaced infernal glyphs and runes covered every inch of my stomach, chest, arms, back and neck and were now on display for everyone to see.

  “Well that’s very... machismo of you, Jack. Shirts versus skins is it?” Adam asked, smirking. A small burble of laughter erupted around us.

  “Let’s just get this over with,” I said.