The Cure

by Loren Schechter

  The elevator whirred to a stop. The door opened.

  “Empty,” said Soo.

  “Don’t get on!” someone shouted.

  Kathy looked back. Baton in hand, a male vampire sprinted toward them. The girls jumped into the elevator. Soo pressed a button and the doors were almost closed when a baton was thrust between them. Kathy shrieked. The baton hand pushed further in and the doors parted. Kathy swung the hammer down full force on the vampire’s wrist. Bones cracked. The vampire yelped, his face contorted, and the baton hit the floor with a thud. He stuck his foot inside the door, glanced at Soo, petite and weaponless, her body turned sideways, then glared at the hammer in Kathy’s hand. She felt his gaze crawl up her body to her neck. As he bared his fangs in a triumphant smile, Soo drew a knee up to her waist and kicked forward, snapping the ball of her foot against his kneecap. He screamed and started to fall into the elevator, but Kathy thrust the rake into his face and shoved hard. He toppled sideways, back onto the carpet.

  Kathy dropped the rake. With a trembling hand, she pressed the button marked 1, then the door-close button. The doors seemed to close in slow motion. She last glimpsed the vampire sitting on his backside, using the thumb of his good hand to press buttons on his cell phone.

  “Oh, God.” she said. Bile rose in her throat as the elevator jerked, then descended with a soft whine. “I feel sick.”

  “We must find Mr. Vendetta,” said Soo. “Bunny needs help.”

  Kathy hunched her shoulders against a chill. Not as much as I do, she thought. They all want my blood.

  24

  Bon Voyage

  Aware that Soo, a much faster runner, was letting her lead, Kathy sprinted through the lobby of the funeral home toward Tranquility Chapel. Mr. Swillman was standing in front of the closed double door.

  “Is Lionel okay?” Kathy gasped, stopping in front of him.

  Swillman’s face was pink, his features scrunched with anger. “Can you get them out of there? We have less than thirty minutes to get rid of all of you and get this place ready for a funeral.”

  Soo cocked her head. “I hear Lionel playing. It’s Vivaldi’s Winter again.”

  “Who gives a crap?” Swillman pointed toward the door. “Mr. Capodente gave them one hour in there and they’ve already gone fifteen minutes over. Now Vendetta says he won’t leave until the kid plays the piece perfectly. He threatened to kill me if I interrupt again. Can you get them out of there?”

  “Satanic Legion vampires attacked us upstairs,” said Kathy, still breathing hard. “They didn’t come through here?”

  “Attacked you? Here? That’s ridiculous. This business is owned by vampires and protected by vampires. Where do you think the Illinois chapters of the Legion send their monthly sacrifices?”

  “We almost became their May sacrifice,” Kathy told him. “We have to interrupt Mr. Vendetta.”

  “Good! Better you than me. Remind him he agreed to one hour. We can’t afford to have our human mourners see vampires. It would kill our business.”

  Opening the door, Kathy was met by a dazzling rush of high-pitched notes from Lionel’s violin underlined by Vendetta repeating “bmp, bmp, bmp” as if he were a double bass in love with one note. She gestured Soo to follow her and hurried down the carpeted aisle that separated two ranks of padded folding chairs. Classical music had never appealed to her, but she’d always marveled at how her friend’s fingers were so nimble, his bow hand so precise, as to produce musical magic from a wooden box. Now he stood before a wall of gold curtains, flanked by two floral display columns of Grecian design. His violin case sat on a low table long enough to support a casket.

  “Forte ora! Strong now!” Vendetta shouted from one of the cushioned armchairs in the first row. Without turning from his protégé, he hissed “Do not interrupt” before returning to “bmp, bmp, bmp.”

  “Bunny is being killed upstairs,” said Kathy.

  “Terminated,” Soo corrected.

  “So? Bmp, bmp, bmp… Buono,” he called to Lionel.

  “By the Satanic Legion,” said Kathy.

  Lionel’s eyes flickered, but his hands did not falter. The music swelled.

  Vendetta’s expression turned grim. “How many?”

  “I don’t know.”

  “At least six,” said Soo.

  Kathy nodded. “Maybe more by now.”

  “We are betrayed.” Vendetta rose to his feet. His hand cut a horizontal slice of air. “Sufficiente!”

  Lionel stopped playing. “The Legion’s here?” His voice quavered.

  “Pack up,” said Vendetta. “We must save the violin.” He stooped to pick up the threadbare pack at his feet and placed it on his chair.

  “We have to save Bunny,” Kathy insisted.

  “Do we?” Vendetta took twin daggers of black oak from his backpack. “Before you two interrupted Lionel’s lesson, I received a text message from Bunny. By now, she has either survived or been terminated by another wave of Legionnaires. Either way, others may soon come for us.” He glanced at Lionel, who was securing the violin in its case. “You children will be a handicap in this kind of fight.”

  “I can fight,” said Soo. “I move even faster as a vampire.”

  “Your job is to protect Kathy. At least one will come for her blood when I am occupied with the others.” He handed a dagger to each girl. “Be careful, they’re sharp. And don’t stay right behind me. If I jump back, I don’t want to be impaled on my own weapon.”

  “What about a weapon for Lionel?” asked Kathy.

  “He is an artist, not a fighter.” Baring his fangs, the hit man clenched both fists. “It pains me what I must do. Lionel!”

  Carrying the violin case, Lionel came to his teacher. Kathy saw the concern on her friend’s face, the question in his eyes.

  “You have talent and have done well, son, but you must practice and practice. Especially the Vivaldi and Tartini. Unfortunately, I must send you home to do that.”

  “Home?” Lionel looked stunned.

  “I gave my word to protect Kathy. She is essential to our mission. I can no longer guarantee her safety, much less the violin’s and your own. Your family lives here in Chicago — go to them.”

  Lionel’s face lit up. “Really?”

  Oh, my God. Kathy’s free hand flew to her chest. He’s sending Lionel home? Will he do that for Hector and me?

  “Consider it a working vacation.” Vendetta took a wallet from his pocket. “I will return if and when I can.”

  Lionel’s smile was displaced by a frown. “But my lessons – ”

  The vampire handed him several twenty-dollar bills. “That should be enough for a cab. If I do not return within a week, seek out the First Violinist of the Chicago Symphony and show him the violin. He may recognize it; in any case, he’ll ask where you got such an expensive violin.”

  “He’ll think I stole it,” said Lionel.

  “Tell him it was a gift from your teacher. And that your teacher asks whether he’s still playing The Devil’s Trill like he’s twisting the tail of Tartini’s cat. When he asks about me, say you will tell him more only after you’ve had an audition at the Chicago School for the Arts. He will arrange it.”

  “How do you know?” asked Kathy.

  “Like you, he was always curious. One of my better students. He owes me.”

  “You – you taught other students?” Lionel’s voice verged on a squeak.

  Vendetta shrugged. “I had the time. Which we don’t have now. Come!” He quickly slipped into the straps of his backpack and strode toward the door. Flinging it open, he bared his fangs and snarled.

  Swillman jumped away, his hands rising in surrender. “Sorry, I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to be rude, but we have a wake scheduled. We can’t afford to have vampires visible to our guests.”

  “Go tell Frank I want to see him right now. Otherwise, I’ll stand at the door and invite your guests to leave their blood in the coatroom.”

  “Oh, Jesus,” moaned Swill
man as he scuttled away.

  “Soo, Kathy, stay here,” said Vendetta. “I will see Lionel to a taxi.”

  Lionel’s eyes bulged, his mouth fell open. He clasped the violin case tightly against his chest.

  He can’t believe Vendetta’s letting him go. “Lionel!” Kathy moved forward to hug him. “Put down the violin case for a minute, will you?” Will I ever see him again? He was like a good brother, easy to talk with, always there when she needed him. She recalled him crying as he played at Conrad’s death, and breathless and freezing out on the mountain, where his strategy had saved her life.

  Careful to keep Vendetta’s knife pointed away, she enveloped him in a hug. “I’m going to miss you,” she said. “I’m glad you’re going home, but jealous, too. I’ll try to keep in touch.”

  Lionel’s grip on her strengthened. “You better. I wish I could take you girls home with me.”

  “I doubt your mother would welcome me,” said Soo. “Give me a turn with him, Kathy.”

  Kathy kissed Lionel’s cheek, then released him. “Careful, Soo, ‘turn’ has become a four-letter word for us warmbloods.” She smiled and blinked back tears.

  Tentatively, Lionel opened his arms to accept Soo’s embrace. “This is a little weird. I’ve never hugged a vampire before.”

  “I know,” said Soo. “Before I met you, I’d never hugged a black man.”

  They both giggled. And clung to each other.

  Misty-eyed, Kathy looked on. Hector won’t get a chance to say good-bye.

  “Enough! We have to go.” Vendetta jerked his head to signal Lionel to move.

  Soo whispered something into Lionel’s ear, then let go of him.

  Lionel nodded. “I know you’ll get that cure.” He picked up his violin.

  “We love you,” said Kathy.

  Lionel swallowed hard. “You two are awesome. When you see Hector, tell him I said he’s ‘the man’, now and forever and — and come to my concerts!” As he followed Vendetta out the door, he was beaming.

  Kathy felt an ache in her chest. “I’m glad he’s going home, but I’ll really miss him.”

  “I wish I could be less jealous,” said Soo.

  “It’s okay. My God, if I lost my mother, my whole family, my country and any chance of a normal life, I’d probably be a raving maniac. I don’t know how you keep moving on without going berserk, much less staying so unflappable and polite.”

  Soo grimaced. “I flap inside every minute of every day. But it’s not right to inflict my pain on those who did me no injury. So I keep telling myself what I told you when we escaped from the school, the same thing I whispered to Lionel now – ‘your spirit cannot be broken.’”

  “I wish it were as true for me as it is for you,” said Kathy. “When my spirit gets injured, I run away.”

  “Yet you are here.”

  “For now. I was petrified when they came after us upstairs. I don’t know how much more of this I can take.”

  “I have faith in you,” said Soo. “Have faith in yourself.”

  Vendetta came through the door rubbing his eyes. “Light’s too bright out there,” he muttered. “Ah, here come our hosts.”

  Trailed by an obviously reluctant Swillman, Frank came hurrying across the entry hall. Without his fedora, his head looked like a bowling ball with two little brown holes that were eyes.

  “Joey, what’s this?” he said from a safe distance. “There’s no need for the kids to have knives.”

  “My girls were attacked.” Vendetta’s head tilted an inch toward them. “What sort of place are you running here?”

  “It’s a peaceful business, Joey. I don’t want any trouble. While you’re a guest in my house, nobody messes with you. But you can’t stay down here. We have warmbloods coming. We can’t afford to be seen.”

  “My girls were attacked,” Vendetta repeated.

  “No, no. They just got in the way. They wouldn’t have been hurt. It was the big babe they were after.”

  “A Legionnaire targeted us in particular,” said Kathy.

  Frank showed them his empty palms. “What do I know? Maybe one got carried away by your lily-white neck or your crackerjack corpuscles. It happens. Some A-positive girls are hot for a little bleed and feed. The point is, you girls aren’t hurt and Joey was free to give his music lesson. So now I just want to run my business. How about we leave Swillman here to do that, and the rest of us go upstairs to iron this out.”

  Vendetta drew in his lips. He rubbed his forehead. “Mi scusi. I think you mistake the nature of these girls. True they weren’t hurt physically, but they were threatened and scared – and now I feel they’re being insulted. You owe them an apology.”

  He’s missing the point. “Bunny was beaten and probably killed,” said Kathy.

  Vendetta shrugged. “I’ve no doubt she planned to kill me before she sank her fangs into you.” He spoke as if explaining things to a child. “After going through the trauma of being turned, we vampires have very little sympathy for others. And Bunny has an especially annoying personality.” His expression hardened as he turned to the Funeral Director. “So how about that apology?”

  Frank rolled his eyes. “Girls, I apologize for whatever harm or insult you experienced at Bon Voyage.” He looked at Vendetta. “How’s that?”

  “Generous.” Vendetta put his hand out for the dagger Kathy held. “Please return my weapon….Thank you.” He tucked it into a belt loop and turned to Soo. “And the other one, please. Then we can be done here.”

  “But he terminated Bunny!” said Soo.

  Vendetta put a restraining hand on her shoulder. “It was strictly business. Right, Frank?” He gently pried the dagger from Soo’s hand.

  “That’s right. The Legion had a BOLO out on the Bunny babe. It described her and who she’d be traveling with.”

  “What’s a BOLO?” asked Kathy.

  “It’s a ‘be on the lookout’ alert,” said Vendetta, fastening the second dagger to his belt. “No doubt our own Dr. Baneful posted it to Satanic Legion chapters and establishments across the country. Okay, Frank, lead the way to the crematory.”

  Frank turned to walk back across the entry hall.

  “Excuse me!” Swillman seemed intent on making his body smaller. “If you don’t mind, I have work to do setting things up here in Serenity.”

  “Then go,” said Vendetta, already striding after Frank

  Kathy ran to catch up to the hit man. “It may be a trap,” she whispered.

  “No need to whisper,” said Vendetta. “Frank hears you. And he knows what he did.”

  Kathy saw Frank’s back stiffen. “What did he do?” she asked.

  “When we showed up here, Frank notified the local chapter of the Satanic Legion. Right, Frank?”

  Frank looked over his shoulder. “The Legion sends me a lot of product. I do a favor for them, they do a favor for me. It’s good business. But I told them they were to keep their hands off you and your student – and the girls — I did mention the girls.” He kept talking as he led them into the casket room. “You take on Joey Vendetta without an army, you end up in one of these. I said we’d get that Bunny up here somehow. I just wanted her gone fast and quietly.”

  Kathy’s stomach knotted. “You cremated her?”

  “What’s done is done,” said Vendetta as they entered the room displaying urns. “Let’s collect your things. That SUV back yet, Frank?”

  “It’s coming.”

  “I’ll bet you own that fancy Lexus in the parking lot.”

  “You like it?”

  Vendetta took a step forward. “Yes. So I’m going to borrow it.”

  “What?”

  “It’s good business. You do me a favor, I do you a favor. We can’t wait for the SUV. It may come with your guys, or come with an army.” Vendetta held out his hand. “The keys?”

  “Joey, I’m insulted. This is like robbery.”

  “It’s a loan. If I don’t return it, you can report it stolen to the Legion. I
doubt you’ll want to meet with the police.” Vendetta wiggled his fingers in a “give me” gesture.

  Frank extracted the keys from his pocket. “I won’t forget this.”

  “I want you to remember. Maybe it will help you treat your guests better. Now if you don’t mind, let’s go get the girls’ things.”

  With an angry shake of his head, Frank turned and stalked off toward the crematory viewing room. Kathy and Soo followed, dreading what they’d find. Vendetta brought up the rear.

  “Jesus,” said Frank, moving into the viewing room to let the others enter. “She must’ve put up a hell of a fight.”

  Kathy’s jaw dropped. The viewing room looked like a tornado had whipped through it. Vampire bodies lay on the carpet and were sprawled over broken chairs. One beige drape had been pulled down on the floor and the picture window was a cobweb of glass. Clad in ripped jeans rather than red coveralls, Bunny’s body was easy to spot. Kathy ran over to the drape upon which Bunny lay face up. Her jersey looked shredded. Her face and hands were swollen and had angry purple bruises. Kathy sank to her knees. She pressed her fingers into Bunny’s cold neck.

  “Tell me I’m dead,” muttered Bunny, opening her eyes.

  Kathy almost fell over backwards.

  “She survived!” Soo shouted.

  Bunny groaned as she sat up. “Yeah. Thanks to Kathy.” She offered Kathy a thumb up. “When you shouted, you drew their attention and one left me to get you. I was able to drag the biggest guy down and put your knife into him. After that, it got easier. They were bruisers, but they weren’t professionals, they didn’t stay focused.” Scrambling to her feet, she spoke to Vendetta. “You certainly took long enough.”

  Standing just inside the doorway, the hit man shrugged. “Once I knew you were okay, Frank and I had to come to an understanding.”

  Frank’s eyes darted from Vendetta to Bunny and back again.

  “You knew she survived?” asked Soo.

  Kathy shook her head. “How? When?”

  “I told you she texted me.”

  “That’s great.” Frank’s enthusiasm sounded hollow. “I’m glad. I thought – ”