Bloodlines Part 1

by Drew D'Amato

  “Yea, that’s nice. I don’t know why I didn’t escort the other girls,” Malachi said thinking about Jill’s legs.

  “Five girls in that Honda is tight enough, with you it would have been worse off,” Meredith said.

  “I don’t know about worse.”

  Meredith took out her phone and texted on it. She then received a text, replied, and then put the phone back in her purse.

  “Who is that, your boyfriend?” Jericho asked.

  “No, I was texting Jill. Malachi, she wishes you were in the car too.”

  She gave him a dirty smile and then turned to Michael keeping the smile.

  4

  The girls lived on the fourth floor of an apartment complex. It was a pretty nice place considering the part of town it was in. The walls were about fifteen feet high, and on one wall, four big long vertical windows the height of the wall overlooked the city. A glass coffee table sat in the middle of the room and three fine leather couches surrounded the table on all sides except the one that faced the windows. The windows were on the right of the doorway from entering into the room. Expensive pictures decorated the walls, and the kitchen, opposite the windows, was no cheap job either. The knife set seemed an expensive brand and the refrigerator was a new model, maybe this year’s.

  Jericho took all of this in as he sat down on the leather couch looking out the windows. He figured to himself these girls were rich bitches from prosperous families. Daddy paid for all of these expenses and the girls had nothing better to do then go to clubs, do drugs, sleep with strangers, and maybe go to college once in a while. It wasn’t anything new or rare, it was just depressing that it was what the title of “Daddy’s little princess” had come to mean.

  Jericho sat on the middle couch between Paulina and Sydney. On the couch to the left of them Malachi sat down with Jill to the right of him and Megan to his left. On the other couch Michael and Meredith sat with each other. The sixth girl went down the hallway to use the bathroom.

  Malachi took out a big bag of coke and put it on the table. A little less then an eight ball rested inside of it. They had already dipped into some of it at the club. He emptied all of the coke on the glass and took out a credit card to cut it up. The coke was more of a show to keep the girls happy. One of the things vampires were definitely not put on this earth to do was to give moral advice.

  Jill rubbed some of the coke against her gums. She couldn’t wait.

  “So, you wished I was in your car with you?” Malachi asked.

  She looked at him a little confused but then caught on. “Well, as long as you’re here now.”

  Malachi cut the lines. He made one big one for Sydney and she sniffed down the whole line in one blast with a glass pipe Malachi gave her.

  “Wow, you took that like a champ,” Malachi said.

  “Thank you,” she said with a smile as she wiped her nose.

  Malachi went down to do a line himself when there was a knock on the door. Megan got up to answer it.

  “Did he actually come?” Jericho asked Malachi.

  “Hey, everybody wants to party when I’m around,” Malachi said.

  Megan answered the door. Vlad stood there looking at the young hot blonde, a little confused.

  “Um, are there three guys in here, names rather strange like Jericho—”

  “Are you Vlad? They’re here, come on in. My name’s Megan.”

  Vlad walked into the room. He gave a look around the place. He thought to himself similar to what Jericho thought at first glance. He also noticed the strong perfume.

  “Well, look at this stranger,” Michael said.

  Everyone in the room had a smile on their face. Everyone except Vlad. He looked at the girls. A few of them looked familiar, but he couldn’t place where he knew them from. He took a sniff of Megan and she seemed to be doused in perfume. The place looked really rich, however he could not see how six young girls lived here, maybe only a few did. And why spend so much on the interior in such a shitty location?

  Then the girl from the bathroom came out. She also looked familiar to Vlad.

  “Lucy, their friend Vlad is here,” Megan said as she walked in.

  That was it.

  That was where he knew the girls from. The names, Lucy, Megan, the expensive pad, the overdose of perfume which would only exist for one main reason, to hide a scent. They were the missing girls from Canada.

  “These bitches are with Radu!” Vlad screamed.

  The girls stood up. Their fangs now exposed.

  Two male vampires crashed through a long window each. Glass sprayed everywhere.

  Vlad drew his gun. Jericho always being a good warrior had his with him also. The two of them shot at the two male vampires and they fell back out of the window as easily as they came in. Malachi stood up and pulled out his gun. Michael responded last.

  Two Radusons busted through the front door. Vlad, standing near the door, closed it by shooting an invisible force from his hand. He shot his gun through the door, wasting both of them. The two girls who were sitting next to Jericho—Sydney and Paulina—jumped up to attack him. With his two Desert Eagles he eliminated them with a shot each between their breasts.

  “They are fucking vampires,” Malachi said as he saw them dissolve.

  “Welcome to ten minutes ago,” Jericho said as he tried to stand back up.

  “Well, fuck them.”

  Malachi turned to his side and shot Jill as she lunged at him. He only hit her in the shoulder. It did not stop her. She was now on top of him and started to bite down on his neck. Michael took out his gun and shot her, in the side going through her body cavity and striking her heart. She dissolved into nothing and Malachi found himself now struggling against air.

  Meredith—the girl who had prolonged her existence by offering to blow Radu, and managed to be calm in most situations—now looked confused. Vlad noticed this. She decided to attack Michael. Malachi shot her dead as she made her move.

  Lucy and Megan were the only two girls left. Lucy jumped at Vlad. He hit his right hand against her face and she flew over the kitchen counter into the kitchen, hitting her head on the stove. Megan leaped toward Vlad, who was turned at Lucy. Jericho flew up out of nowhere and shot her through the back. Her body would have landed on Vlad, but the body dissolved in time.

  Vlad leaped up on the counter and sat there like a catcher. He pointed his gun right at Lucy’s heart. She was unconscious from the force of hitting her head on the stove. Vampires could lose consciousness, but only for a moment. Malachi and Jericho came over to him.

  “What are you going to do with her?” Jericho asked.

  “She’ll wake up. When she does, she will take us to Radu. We’ll use her like Radu used her,” Vlad answered.

  “How did you know they were vampires?”

  “A few days ago this ski cabin in Canada that all these school girls were staying at was attacked. Blood drained from the bodies, blood everywhere, all dead, except for four that went missing. They showed their pictures on the news. There were only four of them though. I’m thinking the other two were just some runaways he found down here.”

  “You mean they are just school girls, teenagers?”

  “They were teenagers. This one I think was just fifteen. But they are now Radusons. No mercy for them.”

  Lucy started to regain consciousness. If a human felt that force they would have either been killed or in a coma.

  “Where is Radu?” Vlad asked.

  “You fool, you can’t win. He will kill you all,” she said in a quiet voice like she had the wind knocked out of her. “You are so lucky they didn’t all get here in time.”

  “Where the hell is he?”

  Lucy reached her right hand behind the stove that her head rested on. She grabbed the gas line and ripped it out.

  “I am dead, but soon you will join me,” she said.

  Vlad started to smell the gas. Lucy brought out a Bic disposable lighter, blue, from inside her pants.
/>   “Out the windows now!” Vlad screamed.

  The four of them flew toward the big windows that two vampires had already broken through. Lucy flicked her Bic. The room exploded. The four of them flew out of a window each, as the flat exploded behind them. Some of the flames made it out of the windows but they did not touch any of the vampires. Lucy was dead, and the apartment was on fire. Vlad looked down at the alley below them. A black BMW pulled up to the building. Ash got out of the car to look at the fire. Vlad noticed him.

  “Follow that car,” he ordered

  The men behind him cocked their guns. Ash saw the four of them. He jumped back in the car and sped away down the street. The vampires flew after them. Hovering about forty-feet over the car the four of them rained their bullets down on top of the car. The car tried to speed away from them taking quick corners. The four stayed in their pursuit. The car tried to get lost in the urban setting amongst the small buildings, finally going into an underground garage. The four of them flew above the garage to the other exit but the car did not come out the other end.

  “Michael, go down there and see if they changed cars or if they’re waiting for us,” Vlad commanded.

  “Why just me?” he asked.

  “Because you got us into this mess!” Vlad roared with anger in his voice.

  Michael did not argue and flew down into the garage. The three of them waited up there.

  “How the fuck did you guys not know they were vampires?” Vlad asked the other two.

  “Why should we?” Jericho said back. “We didn’t know anything about Canada, Radu or four missing girls.”

  “You’re right, that was my fault. I should have told you all as soon as I suspected something. But that was in Montreal. I still cannot answer for how the hell he got so close. How does he know I live in LA?”

  Michael flew back up from the garage with his head down. “The car was stopped in the middle of the garage, the doors were open,” he said.

  “Was there an empty spot near it?” Vlad asked.

  “There are a lot of empty spots near it. The garage is not too populated right now.”

  “We couldn’t have missed them, no cars go out.”

  “This is a stalemate. As soon as we all make a move inside, they will either bail or ambush us. They are not going to show their position for just Michael,” Jericho said.

  “So what are we going to do, leave?” Michael asked. “What if Radu was in that car? We should all go down and check it out.”

  “We should wait ‘til daylight,” Malachi said.

  “And what if they took some route underground instead?” Vlad asked.

  “Are you saying we should leave?” Michael asked.

  “I’m saying this was all a trap to use the girls to lead back to me. There are probably more men on the way right now. If we wait here for daylight, we are going to be waiting for hours. In twenty minutes another Raduson can be here with me in his crosshairs and then we are all dead. They have the advantage now, not us. I feel very vulnerable.”

  “Master, they have to get out before the sun. We have them trapped.”

  “We have nothing. There are seven floors to that garage and a sewer route underneath it if the sun comes out. We are sitting ducks, just waiting for their reinforcements to come. Men, turn into bats and get lost in the clouds. I’ll see you back home.”

  They flew back home solo. Vlad had a lot to think about as he flew. Radu had gotten really close tonight, how did he do that? How did he fool three of his best men like that? For the first time in a while Vlad felt like he was not winning the war.

  SIX

  1

  The interrogation of Michael proved fruitless. Vlad spoke to him alone as soon as everyone got home. It was easy for a vampire to see if a human was lying, but to read another vampire was almost impossible. Their mind powers canceled each other out. Vlad could only see his story made any sense. But he had always trusted Michael, how could he doubt him now? Was he slipping? No, but this whole event was odd. He was curious how Radu’s women had made contact with him.

  Michael said he met the girls the previous night at a gas station. He said that there were three of them getting gas at the pump opposite his. They were smiling and flirty and he played along to get their number. There was nothing out of the ordinary with the exchange, Michael thought.

  But the story puzzled Vlad. Had the girls tracked Michael down to the gas station? If they did, why didn’t they just follow Michael home and find out where Vlad lived? Did they already know where he lived? They knew he was in LA. Did they just not want to battle on his home turf? Where they just pawns to lay the groundwork for some more elaborate trap?

  Radu had some of his men now in Los Angeles, and probably himself too. They were getting closer to Vlad. Vlad knew the whereabouts of Radu’s palace in Romania, but going there had always been a moot point. It was suicide. Yet now it seemed possible. However, Vlad would have to get Radu to come back there for some reason. He was in American now, hunting Vlad.

  He had to have known where Vlad lived even before he went after those girls. He wouldn’t have even started this plan if he didn’t think he had a chance to get those girls close to Vlad. Vlad figured Radu might have assumed he lived in California from various hints over the years, but that was still more than half of the western seaboard. Radu couldn’t know that his house was exactly in Santa Barbara. But then how was Radu able to set up the girls to meet Michael at a local gas station?

  How was Radu getting this information? Had one of his men that was upset over not being remade a vampire sold him out to Radu? They don’t know Radu is alive. That still might not stop someone from getting curious and giving it a try.

  Vlad had a second house, in Malibu. It was his safe house, no one knew about it, not even Jericho. The idea of going there was getting tempting. Not tempting—necessary.

  Not just yet though. It would take a lot more to make that move. Today he was taking Jasmine out for lunch. That was his priority. Would it be safe to take her out? Well, he would be doing that during the day. He could relax then.

  A little after eleven that morning Jasmine texted him asking if he liked sushi. He said yes, but he really hated it. She gave him the name of a restaurant she liked. He told her he would be there at noon.

  Daylight, no Radu, and no mind tricks.

  He started to get butterflies.

  2

  Vlad had to fly to make it to Kabuki on North San Fernando Boulevard by twelve. LA traffic was very unforgiving and the place was an hour away without traffic. So after just learning about the place a little past eleven, getting there in a car was impossible. Flying as a vampire during the day was also impossible. So he rented a Jet Ranger from Sinton helicopters at around a thousand dollars an hour. He made it to the restaurant at five minutes before twelve and got a table.

  3

  Jasmine came a few minutes after twelve. She texted Vlad to say she was there and he told her he had a table outside. She made her way through the restaurant to the tables out on the patio out back. They were the only ones outside. It was a sunny day, but the place itself was not too occupied for lunch. She had a smile as she approached the table, but appeared a bit timid. He felt it was a natural reaction.

  “Hey, you found this place all right. Have you been here before?” she asked as she sat down.

  “Yes, it’s really good.” Why stop at just a few lies, right?

  “What’s your favorite sushi?”

  “Um, lobster.” He didn’t know what to say. He decided to mention popular names he had heard before. “And the California Roll.”

  The waitress came and he ordered a red wine, while she had a water with lemon.

  “Drinks by twelve,” she said with a smile. “No work today for the life of a prince?”

  “You should have seen the helicopter I took to get here.”

  “Helicopter?”

  “How else could I get from Santa Barbara in an hour?”

  Jasm
ine was a little shocked. “Are you serious?”

  “Yes, I live in Santa Barbara, I took a chopper here, and I am a prince. I don’t lie.” I am also a vampire, does omitting that count as a lie?

  The waitress came by with their drinks and dropped off two short pencils.

  “Are we playing golf?” Vlad asked as he picked up his pencil.

  “Funny, you know what these are for.” Jasmine marked a few boxes on the vertical slip of paper in front of her. Vlad caught on and hid his faux pas. However, he didn’t really want sushi at all.

  “I’m not in the mood for raw fish this early in the day.”

  “So why did you want to come here?”

  “You wanted to come, I just wanted to see you.”

  “Aww that’s sweet, but I feel bad. Do you like meat?”

  Vlad held back his laughter in his answer. “Yes, I do.”

  Jasmine opened the larger menu for him. “Well there is beef sashimi, there is steak from the hibachi, and beef carpaccio, but that is pretty rare.”

  “I like it rare.”

  Jasmine smiled and looked up at him. “Were you ever on the news, the radio or something?”