Crooked Fang

by Carrie Clevenger

  I had no problem with her sleeping around. We weren’t dating, but the fact that she’d tried to pin something that big on me, hoping I’d be some ignorant scapegoat, pissed me off.

  Her mouth opened and closed like a landed fish’s. “There wasn’t any commitment between you and me.” She held her arms tightly crossed over her chest. Tears flowed again. “I just wasn’t sure about you, and he was there and...you’re a goddamned vampire? A fucking vampire?”

  “Apparently.” I turned the water on to rinse the knife off and to wash my blood down the drain. On my forearm, the gash was nothing but a red line. It’d be gone in a week.

  “Now you see why I couldn’t tell you. And now, I’ve put myself at risk because I have told you.” I was the biggest dumbass on the planet.

  “How do I know I’m even safe around you? I mean, here I am scared as shit because I don’t know what to do with a baby, and the other part is very much ‘what the fuck’ at what you just told me.” Tears streamed down her cheeks. “If you were anybody else, I’d be scared of you too. But you helped me.”

  Her face was unreadable and I wasn’t sure what she was going to do next. “Uh...thank you? Look, I know it’s hard to swallow. And scary. But I am what I am, and nothing’s gonna change that. And you’re gonna have to accept the fact that it’s about all I will tell you.” I leaned over the counter. “Now. You need to think hard about who else you’ve been with.”

  “I asked him first...he said he was using a condom. He used a condom. I know he did.” She bawled a little and I waited while it died down to a bout of sniffles. “If he finds out about this, I don’t know what he’ll do.”

  Fuck. I was still stuck with this mess. I growled and picked up my jacket. I didn’t want to care. I wanted to leave, but the threats worried me. Damnit. “Who’s the daddy, Tab?” I stood in front of her.

  “Don’t hurt him.” Her eyes were wide and wild with terror as she backed up a step.

  I gripped her chin between my fingers and lifted it to get her to look at me. The look in her eyes was awful. Like frightened prey. The predator in me was attracted to that in a very bad way. I needed to get the fuck out of there.

  “It’s Arturo, isn’t it?” I dared her to cover for his ass some more. Maybe I was just a little offput by the fact that she would rather pin a baby on me than turn that motherfucker in.

  She froze for about a minute then slowly nodded before erupting in a fresh river of tears.

  “Tell me where he stays.”

  “I can’t.”

  “Yes, you can.” Her chin quivered in my fingers. “Tell me, Tab.”

  She rattled off the location and I let her go. “Thank you.” I walked towards the door.

  “Where are you going?”

  “To set his ass straight and to make sure he never even thinks about lifting a hand to you again. And to congratulate him on being a father.” I gave her the best smile I could muster and noticed her gaze was locked on my mouth, probably because the fangs were no longer a novelty. “It’s time for you to trust me. Can you trust me?”

  Seconds ticked by on the kitchen clock like heartbeats and I was losing patience. Then she blinked and exhaled softly. “Okay.”

  “Good.” I gave her one last look before I walked out her door.

  * * * *

  Arturo’s grandmother lived in an older Victorian-style neighborhood off Highway 91, between the old mining ghost town Climax and Leadville. A two-hour ride took a little over an hour, which was crazy with how twisty that road was. Bikers loved that route for summertime runs. It was gorgeous out there, with the Rocky Mountains rising out of the ground like half-asleep giants. With valleys and twisting rivers and streams, it was almost a living body, lying there, resting. The sky yawned wide overhead as I shot through the night, fast enough to notice, but too quick to see. The speedometer danced close to triple-digits every time the road straightened out a little.

  I was pissed, partially at her for sticking me in that situation, but mostly at myself for being a big ass hypocrite. From the first bite that made me a vampire, it was pounded into my head that we could not tell any living being what we were. I’d been sent after violators of my kind. And now, including Scott, I’d told two living persons. I might as well have written it on the nightly specials sign at Pale Rider:

  Ladies–No cover. Two-dollar domestic longnecks. Oh, and Xan Marcelles is an immortal bloodsucker.

  I’d even put Serv at risk, because she didn’t have to be a genius to assume if there was one vampire, there could be two. We could be easily identified by the pointy teeth. Fuck. To tell the truth, I was looking forward to knocking Arturo down a few notches in the name of aggression-relief.

  The house looked too neat, at first glance, to be some place a punk like Arturo would stay at. It was a tall, pointed, pale-yellow home with cheerful scalloping under the eaves. But on closer inspection, I noticed the white pit bull on a length of thick chain, dozing under the long porch. An upside-down bicycle missing a tire and the seat. Old rags draped over the banister.

  I parked a distance away, hugging the RS against a curb. The neighborhood was quiet, but thanks to being a vampire, I could hear Brujeria, an extreme metal band from Tijuana, playing while I stood in front of the house there on the sidewalk. Yeah, he was there. There was no car in the driveway, but it could have been in the detached garage.

  As I approached the house, the dog snapped against its chain and erupted into a volley of sharp barks. It had a spot over one eye and reminded me of that old beer mascot, Spuds Mackenzie. That dog didn’t like me one bit.

  “Shut up.” The canine sat back on its haunches and whined softly, licking its muzzle as I went through the front gate. But even if Martinez didn’t know his ass from a hole in the ground, he’d be aware someone was outside his house that Spuds didn’t recognize. Consequently, the lights went out in the front windows and the door opened as I stepped up on the porch. The matte-black muzzle of a GLOCK-9 stuck out from the semidarkness beyond it.

  “You got five seconds to ’splain why you here, man.” Weak light silhouetted him from behind, but I recognized him as the man I was after.

  “Tabitha Cole.” I grinned. The gun was jerked out of my face and the door swung open, exposing Arturo in faded jeans, a wifebeater and bare feet. He worked out–it was obvious by the way dozens of tattoos of religious icons and girls’ names rippled over his muscles. Idly, I wondered what his grandmother thought of him.

  “What the fuck about Tabitha?” His face was twisted into a cruel sneer but his pulse was fleeting like a rabbit’s. He was scared of me being there at his house.

  “Let’s talk inside.” I brushed past his glare and watched as he shut and locked the door behind us.

  “I know you.” He gripped his gun tightly, and I had no doubt he’d have no problem raising it again to fire on me.

  “Yeah, I threw your dumb ass out of Pale Rider once.”

  “Why are you here? I should shoot you in your fucking face, bass player.”

  I smiled. “At least you got it right this time. I’m sorry we keep meeting under shitty circumstances.”

  “Besame el cul.”

  He wasn’t going to be reasonable, that much was apparent. “I intend to do way more than kiss your ass, ese. I intend to plant a foot in it, because there’s a girl that’s fucking knocked up, scared and out of options. And guess who Daddy is?”

  “You got no proof, man.” He nodded at me once. “Who’s to say it ain’t fucking yours, huh? You been fucking her, Marcelles?”

  I sighed through my nose before I shoved him back into the wall hard enough to crack the plaster. He hesitated–enough for me to wrangle the gun out of his grip and toss it over the back of the sofa, where it landed with a soft thump.

  “Good. You remember my name. Now you know who did this.” I punched him across the jaw, knocking his head back into the wall.

  “What the fuck? I told you, you got no proof!”

  “All I need is h
er word. And yeah, I’ve been doing her. And no, it ain’t mine.”

  “You been doing her–what? How?”

  “You’re nothing but an ex, payaso. One with some responsibilities to address.”

  “I’ll kill the bitch first,” he said with a daring leer, and I slammed my fist into his teeth. He whipped around, so I threw him on the floor and hit him again, straddling his body. I could have finished him easily, but he wasn’t worth the trouble. He curled up into a ball, and I stopped, realizing that I wasn’t being any better. Beating on a weaker being in anger. It wasn’t my style. I’d fucked up with Freddie. I wasn’t burying another body. I rose to my feet.

  “Stay away from her if you don’t want to claim responsibility. Or I’ll find you. I’ll hunt you down and make this look like a cuddle.”

  He groaned and shifted in response, but it was enough. He’d heard me. I left him there on the floor, cradling his bleeding face. The scent of it was driving me nuts.

  By the time I got back to the car I was nearly blind with the need for blood. It was on my knuckles from where I’d hit him. I sat in the driver’s seat with my hands on the wheel and stared at it for a minute before licking it. The dim tingle was all I needed. I couldn’t return to Tabby like this. She’d be all worried about me and close and...

  I fled his neighborhood and drove into Frisco to hit the first bar I could find. I was fiending and wasn’t really in a state where I could be patient and sweet-talk some cute chick into an alley or a dark corner. The violence had kick-started something I had to quell. I bit the inside of my cheek as I flipped my wallet open to show my ID at the door.

  The place was big. High open ceilings with the typical Colorado-style exposed rafters going on and bare concrete floors. Four pool tables to the left of the door. Bar on the right that ran pretty much the length of the room. It was crowded, but a waitress paused in front of me, a short little thing, blonde with shiny pink lipstick.

  “Can I get you started on something?”

  I blinked and thought better of telling her what I’d love for her to get me started on. “I’m good for now, thanks.”

  “Okay, well the bar is busy, so when you’re ready you’ll have to be patient.” She eyed my leather jacket and black t-shirt underneath. I realized that people here were dressed a little nicer than I’d usually find at some shitty tavern on the edge of some Podunk town. Smells of cheeseburgers and spicy fries hung in the air, along with the earthy scent of microbrew beer. I headed back to the restrooms. My appetite was busy commanding my feet to take my fangs to an artery, stat.

  A three-guy line waited outside the men’s room, which probably meant there weren’t like fifty stalls. I breezed past the drinkers and reached the door just as it opened. A surprised dude of about twenty-five met my hand with his face as I shoved him back into the bathroom and locked the door behind us.

  “Who the fuck are you?” He backed against the wall to the right of the john. I said nothing, just took him in my arms and sank my fangs deep into his throat. The hunger was bad, but I dutifully counted off twelve seconds as the precious blood washed over my tongue and filled my veins with a massive surge of relief. It was like a drug, quieting the pain of being a vampire. A quick shot of oh hell yeah. A little bit of my blood spilled over the punctures to hide the evidence. He slumped against me and I let him down to the floor easy. The vampire voodoo would wear off in a minute or two. While he sat there all happy and relaxed, I turned to the sink to wash my hands of the rest of Arturo’s blood. My face glared at me from the mirror. The startling silver in my eyes faded quickly to the usual stormy gray. I frowned at myself, brows knitting.

  Bad Xan.

  Someone was pounding on the door. I turned and helped the dude rise to his feet and he just gaped at me.

  “You passed out.” I shrugged, smiled and opened the door to a line of angry males in very dire need to take a piss. His blood zigzagged through my veins, restoring rational thought. I pushed past the dudes and through the bar out onto the sidewalk again. Once outside, I broke into a run back to my car before anyone decided to follow.

  Back out on the road, I cranked up some old metal, Megadeth’s Killing Is My Business, slapping the steering wheel and laughing like a maniac. Blood made me feel so awesome, why I waited until it was absolutely necessary was stupid, but when I drank it I felt like a motherfucking god.

  High on stolen life and loud, hard riffs with Dave’s snarling lyrics, I felt better. And like a dumb shit, I went back to Tabby’s house.

  She greeted me with open arms, wanting to hear where I’d gone, what I’d done. She’d been crying again. “I thought you wouldn’t come back.”

  I hugged her and stroked her hair. “I don’t think Art will be bothering you again. If he does, you tell me.”

  “What happened?”

  I shook my head and took off my jacket to lay it across the arm of the adjacent chair. I wanted to bathe first. “Don’t worry about it.”

  “Did you hurt him?”

  “A little.” I went into the bathroom, started the shower and stripped off my shirt.

  She appeared in the doorway. Steam from the hot water rushed past her, seeking the colder air in the hallway. “Tell me what you did.”

  “I took care of things,” I mumbled, staring at the floor. There were three Q-Tips by the wastebasket. I picked them up and threw them away.

  “You’re cleaning?” She laughed. “You must not be wanting to talk.”

  “Not really.”

  She chewed her lip. “Is he...alive?”

  I frowned. “Of course he is. It’s more than I think he deserves, but that’s not up to me.” I met her gaze. “It’s up to you whether he’s held accountable or not.”

  “You’re right. I’m sorry. It’s just all been a lot to accept in one day.” She stepped in front of me and put her arms around my waist, giving my hair a playful tug. “Thanks for looking out for me, Xan.”

  “You know I will.”

  “Yeah.” Her cheek was against my chest. “Did you do that vampire thing?”

  I scowled. That wasn’t really the kind of thing she would need to know. “Tab–I didn’t bite him. I hit him. A lot. I had to stop myself because the thought of him hurting you really pisses me off.”

  “But I know you do it. You have to. What happens?”

  I blinked and sucked in my cheeks. “Tab, are you on crack? I’m not going to share that part of me with you. I’m just a bassist. I couldn’t do much to Arturo that he’s not already doing to himself.”

  “I’m with a vampire. You can’t blame me for being at least curious.”

  I held her by her upper arms and pried her away from me. “We’re not dating. I’m here because you need help.”

  “And I’m sure you need a lay.” Her voice rose. “A fuck-buddy, right?”

  “Leave it alone, Tab.”

  She shook off my grip. “I can’t do anything right, can I? I don’t know what to expect from you, except to be left in the dark all the fucking time.”

  I clenched my jaw. “I told you way more than I was ever supposed to. The conversation ends there.”

  “Did you kill anyone tonight, Xan? Have you killed anyone before?”

  “We’re not discussing this anymore.” I picked up my shirt and spun around to shut off the shower. “I’m going home.”

  “You don’t have to go, just talk to me.” Her voice broke into sobs. I squeezed my eyes shut and willed time to rewind. Why hadn’t I just gone back to fucking Pale Rider in the first place? No, I had half-cocked sense to think that this girl would just accept that I went out, busted a skull or two, drank blood, and not ask a goddamn thing. And now we were “together?” She was pregnant. I pressed my hands to my forehead. It was too much. Too much at once.

  “Please let me go, Tab. I need to go.”

  “I deserve some answers.”

  “The hell you do. I don’t owe you anymore answers. I don’t owe you a goddamned thing. What I do on my time is my bus
iness. We’re not dating. I fucking told you that. I thought you understood.” I gritted my teeth and clenched my hands tightly at my sides. “Telling you was a mistake.”

  “Just talk to me, Xan.”

  “Tab, let me fucking leave!” The growl just came out.

  She stumbled backward against the counter. Her eyes widened. She hadn’t heard me mad before. Not to that point. I brushed past her and threw my shirt back on, grabbed my jacket and picked up my keys. “I don’t know when or if I’ll be back. If you tell anyone what I am, I’ll be gone from Pinecliffe for good. I just want you to keep that in mind.” I walked out the door.

  Cold air blew in both windows as I drove a little faster than I should have on the icy roads. If a raccoon had decided to walk out in front of me it would have been nothing but a stain on my bumper. But I couldn’t drive fast enough. I couldn’t shake the anger and frustration that welled up inside of me of having my simple existence interrupted after I’d worked so damned hard to obtain obscurity. Fucking Tabby. She had been fucking Arturo while... I shoved that thought away because I didn’t want to deal with it. I was the one that lay down boundaries.

  Hadn’t I been fair with her? I treated her right. I’d been a good friend. Why in the hell did she feel she had to jump in bed with that creep? What was wrong with women and their love of abusive boyfriends? I’d been mean to girls in my lifetime, not cruel like Arturo, but coldhearted. One-night stands only to never pick up a call from their number again. Maybe it was Karma or some shit. Maybe Tabby was just broken and needy beyond repair. I wasn’t the one that could fix her. I found myself with a terminal case of immortality with a side effect of drinking blood. Hah. And vampires were supposed to be all fop and poise, prancing around in fine clothes and using words nobody’d spoken in decades. I was just me, and I didn’t fit the archetype. It still didn’t change a fucking thing.

  I walked into Pale Rider and interrupted some weird date thing Charlie was doing with his girlfriend. The place was closed down for the night so they had some candles lit and the jukebox playing lovey-dovey music. I grumbled and started for the stairs but Charlie caught me halfway there.