by P. S. Power
“Hello?” The voice sounded tired or drugged, mushy sounding, like a person that had recently had dental work done. Young, a teen male by the sound, but younger than the college age people she'd gotten used to lately. She almost froze, but managed to keep talking after a moment, before the person had say hello again.
“Hi! This may sound strange, but I'm trying to find where my friend Don has gotten to? This was the only number I didn't recognize on his phone so I called it, I hope that's OK?” She knew she sounded uncertain, hoping that Chris could give her a hint as to what the situation was.
Over the phone a single breath wheezed a little, “Yeah, hey, um, let me see if I can find him. We're at the hospital and they only let so many people back here at once. I'll ask my mom...”
A discussion started on the other end of the phone and after a few moments a woman's voice spoke, sounding confused.
“Hello, who am I speaking to?”
Kate explained who she was, how she'd gotten the number and that she needed to check up on Don, because he'd left work early and was supposed to help some other people get home.
The voice, Don and apparently Chris's mom asked her to wait. She heard sounds of movement and walking. About two minutes later Don's voice came over the phone.
“Kate! I'm so sorry for leaving you hanging like that... Look, there's been a thing here and, well, my dad kind of tried to kill my brother, Chris. Some kind of a fight over a girl at school that followed him home, and some kids threw rocks through the window or something. When my dad started whipping him with a belt, Chris apparently told him to fuck off, so he switched to an ax handle or something. I don't have all the details, but it's not a good situation. Chris is awake now, but he's been beaten up pretty bad. Arms and legs broken, teeth missing, he sounds almost normal though, for all that. Tough kid in his own way...”
Don just tapered off, embarrassed and angry she could tell, because a tendril of thought hit her from him, coming through the wall of the room.
Nodding to herself, she answered quietly, in case anyone on his side could hear her, “That would explain why Hilda put a hit out on your father... I've called them back, but if you want, we can send them out again.”
Don snorted, sounding amused.
“He's gone, Kate. He took off and just vanished. I doubt that the police will ever find him. I don't know what to do. My mom and brother, I mean, my mom doesn't even have a job and the hospital bills...”
Kate blinked and felt her mouth open, then closed it before she laughed, the situation not being funny at all.
“Don... You have money. You earned more today than I can do the math on. Don't let that bother you. No, getting your family to safety needs to come first. I can heal Chris, and we need to have the real team on this, not us b-team kids... Wait there. I'm coming...”
She hung up the phone and tried to focus as calmly and deeply as she could, sitting on the edge of Don's bed. When she had the single thought as clearly framed as possible, she cast it out, willing the message to find its target. A thick, heavy blue line moved out from her seeking Zack, she hoped it would at least, not knowing his location at all.
Zack.
Her message only said that there was an emergency, and they needed him and Claire. Now.
She walked to the living room not knowing if Zack had even heard her, or if he'd come, even if he did. She shook her head and revised that. Of course he'd come, if he'd heard it. Had he heard it? Had they gone so far away she couldn't get in touch with him at all? She could see that being a good idea if they didn't want to be bothered, but they were due home soon anyway.
Not knowing what else to do, she called Frozen YoGurt, looking for Keane, since he was Claire's second in command. He apparently knew all about the problem already and had contacted people in Wisconsin. Vampires, to go and stand watch over the boy and his mother, so that Don could come back and feed his people at Zack's house. She thanked him and hung up, not really knowing what to do next. When she turned around half a dozen Vampires stood there, watching her intently.
Nikki put her arms up in front of her and droned, “Feed us....” In a funny sounding voice, dropping her arms she continued.
“Seriously, we're starving here. Is anyone coming to feed us or do we need to fend for ourselves tonight? Why don't you try it? The worst you could do is waste our time, when we'd be waiting for Don to show up anyway.” She lifted her shirt up and bent back, pushing her flat stomach out toward Kate a little.
“Pleease?”
She started to explain how she couldn't do it, how Don could, but that an emergency kept him away right now. If they could get him there...
She held up a single finger on her right hand and closed her eyes.
Reaching out to Don this time, she sent him a single thought, asking him to generate energy. She did it a couple times and tried to add in what exactly she had planned, knowing he could get a lot more info than she could this way. Telepathically or whatever it was they were doing. Then, she used her own natural talent, harvesting energy, and cast a line to him, through which she took in what he was gathering, at least it felt like it to her, and after a few minutes, she began to orgasm. Hard. She put her hand on Nikki's stomach and pushed the energy into her, the way she would have if she had a child to feed. Nikki bucked and rocked in place, but held on, it took about ten minutes, but after taking a step back the brunette Vampire grinned at her eyes big, a sterling blue color.
“That is... So much more fun than when Zack does it!” She pushed Blake into place for his turn. The guys had a problem, in that part of the situation got very messy for them, but a change of underwear beat starving, according to Blake. Kate wondered why they didn't produce saliva, but they did produce semen? No one had an answer for her, it was just a mystery of Vampire evolution apparently.
David just opened his pants and grabbed a tissue, so he didn't have to change. It would have been way too bold a move if Zack had been there, but Kate didn't care. To her it just made the whole thing that much more interesting. Betty went next, since her appointment as a head of state had bumped her up the queue a lot. She mentioned that she technically should have gone first, but since this was a novel situation she allowed Nikki, Blake and David to have first go.
No one hit her or laughed at her. In fact everyone looked a bit embarrassed and mumbled apologies. More Vampire politics? Kate had to wonder how they ever got anything done. As a race though, they had a long time to develop such convoluted habits and less need to get along than Alede, who didn't kill their rivals did, in a way.
Betty repeated what Nikki had done almost exactly, writhing and crying out, sounding like she was having a wonderful time.
Rebeca came up next, looking nervous, but still pulled her shirt open, more today than she'd seen her do in the past, David noticed and started to say something, but caught a swift elbow from Nikki, getting him to remain silent. She just stood there, unmoving. After a few minutes, Kate asked if she was getting anything at all.
“Yes... It's like, a regular feeding from Zack. Not as fast as Don has been, but nice. Maybe a bit slower than Zack? I'm getting the energy just fine though... Thanks!”
The other two Vampires, a woman named Samantha, who looked about forty, but in a good looking way and a boy that looked about fifteen and went by the unlikely name Hawk both had a similar reaction to it as Rebeca had. A good feeding, but not orgasmic.
Blake, used to noticing things from the computer games he played, got it first.
“They haven't had that sex upgrade thing from Zack yet! Rebeca didn't want it and the others are too new, older than Betty, but they didn't start out friends with Zack, so this is the first big trip out for them. No trips out, no way to earn special perks. So, no sex thing yet.” He tilted his head at them and winked.
“Do good here tonight and it could lead to a whole lot of good things fast though.”
Nikki hugged her and asked if she'd be doing the feeding regularly, because this would be wort
h lining up for early. Kate shook her head and explained how Don had actually done it, sitting outside his brother's hospital room in Wisconsin, with her passing the energy to them.
“It got filtered through a succubus first though, so I guess if you can feel it, it has a certain... flavor?”
Hawk looked up at her, and thanked her. Then came over and gave her a hug.
“I don't have anything to pay you with, but, if you want me to go and beat up that guy's dad, I will. I need transportation though. He sounds like a real... Piece of work.” He'd censored himself, which got a brief nod from Nikki.
Nikki, being the lead Vampire there looked at them, then dug out her cell phone and tossed it to the youngest. “Hawk, could you please call Keane and fill him in on the situation here as accurately as you can without adding unneeded details? That would be great.” She didn't make it sound like a command and apparently didn't need to, since the boy had started dialing before she'd even finished making her request.
Everything started happening all at once, so she managed it as best she could, working her way back to the mall with Betty and the boy Vampire in tow, since she told Nikki that she'd like to keep the beat down by a teenager on tap, just in case it became needed. Even though she really just found the boy cute, like a puppy. Samantha, who turned out to be his actual mother, his Human mom, looked nervous, but calmed down when David put his arm around her and said that Hawk would be as safe with Betty and Kate as if he was locked in an underground vault. Probably safer.
At the mall, before they even got out of Something Wonderful, Britney descended on them, actually knocking over one of the basket displays as she passed. It had bottles of scented oils and candles in it, but luckily nothing broke. The boy took a defensive posture and pushed the others behind him, ready to defend them, which caused the blonde Alede girl to stop and dimple her cheeks at him for a second. No one mocked him, because a hot blond bombshell running at you suddenly in their world really could be a serious threat. Most wouldn't have seen it that way, but it was the right reflex to have. In this case, not needed, maybe, but thinking that Brit wasn't a dangerous person would be foolish for anyone.
He dropped his head, clearly feeling dumb when everyone else continued acting normally. Kate shook her head, but Britney was the one that spoke, her eyes regarding the boy with something approaching admiration.
“That's what body guards do though, isn't it? I mean, if you don't react at all, your client's dead before you move. Especially with things as highly charged as they are right now. You're guarding two heads of state, you couldn't know that a third was going to come jogging up! Thanks for not killing me before we could explain though. I'll be more careful in the future.”
When the girl turned to Kate she could see just the smallest differences in how the lines of energy traveled in the girl. Externally they were identical, but the energy was smoother in this one, calmer. After a moment, she got that this girl wasn't Britney at all.
“Is there a situation... Blaine?” She asked, carefully.
The blonde shook her head and looked at the others for a second.
“Yeah. You know about Don and his brother?” This came out as if testing the waters, rather than a simple question about what she knew or didn't know. “Well, it seems that wires have gotten crossed and that, well, it seems that the Vampire leader, a guy named Luthor, ordered the man tracked down. We don't know what they intend to do with him yet, but Keane just called and Vaun, some boss Vampire guy, is coming here right now to explain... He needs pick up from Houston. Do you know how to get there? Everyone else is gone right now...”
Kate nodded and walked with them to Frozen YoGurt, since that was the Vampire embassy and she was surrounded by Vampires right now. Jelly never said anything, but they still seemed to make her more than a little nervous, though Hawk might put her at ease. Looking like a slightly plump average boy, that should be named Scott or Kevin, not Hawk. Even if he could rip her arm off, he didn't look like a threat. Maybe she'd see if they wanted to hook up later? Or at least be friends, since Jelly might have silly Human like ideas that the boy looking too young meant he should be off limits for sex.
The yogurt place gleamed, as it always did. They made actual food here, but you couldn't tell, unless you went behind the counter. Everything was fresh. The toppings and frozen yogurt made every day, or even on demand for the less common things. Behind the counter Keane wore the uniform of the place, nice street clothes and a pure white apron that had the store's logo on the front. He even had a little name tag that said he was the assistant manager. He may have been over two hundred years old, Kate mused, but the guy didn't look twenty-five and could really fill out an apron.
Keane explained the need for the pick up again and winked at the boy, seeing that he'd been invited along. He didn't ask why, probably assuming it was just to get him out of the house.
Kate went through the store to where the node room was in the back, much smaller in space here than Candles and More across the way, most of the space going to Claire's office. The floor was a red brick tile, like the walk way out front. Unlike the wood flooring at the candle store. The walls were nice enough, a clean white that held a few framed pictures of mountain scenes. It was pleasant, but slightly more commercial in feel somehow that what she was used to seeing.
Centering herself, Kate looked through the line. To her surprise, it actually worked right, and saw the node room where Vaun stood alone, waiting for, if not her, then someone, to come and get him. As she readied to step in the line, Hawk grabbed her arm.
“I should go with you, you know, as a bodyguard.” He told her sounding serious. Everyone in the room laughed, except Blaine who moved in front of the boy, a lot closer than would be normal for Vampire society and asked him what he'd do if it turned out that Vaun, a very old and very powerful being, wanted to attack and kill Kate?
The boy looked back at him, shrugged and said, “Die, probably. I'd try to buy her enough time to get out of there though. Look, I know I'm not superman and that everyone in this room could probably kick my butt without thinking about it, but I'm not an ambassador or leader or anything like that. I'm the only one here that's expendable right now.”
Kate looked at him and considered the reality of the situation. Even a baby Vampire in a small body could bench press an economy car, run faster than most vehicles on the road could drive and take about a thousand times more punishment than she could without dying. The slightly chubby looking boy might lose in a fight against killers and assassins, but he'd do better than she would against them alone.
“It's not my call, since Keane is the only one here in your direct chain of command, if we're counting Betty as a head of state today. I'm all for it though. Plus, it's no less safe for me to take him than not, I think. Not for me at least.”
Keane seemed amused by the idea, but let the boy go with her. Checking the node again, as Zack told them to do each time no matter what, she took them both through to Houston. The instant she entered the room, the doors burst open and four manlike figures moved into the room, nearly faster than she could see. The boy pushed her back, hard, and dove toward the nearest two as she translated away, back to Underwood.
“Fuck! There really was an attack. We have to get people and go back and try to help Hawk and Vaun. I think Vaun was being attacked too...” She grabbed for her phone when the tiny silver cell in Keane's hand went off.
The good looking Vampire held up his hand as if to silence them.
“They killed the attackers,” he spoke slowly and carefully, trying to make sure he didn't miscommunicate anything. “Your guard is fine, Kaitlyn. So is Vaun, just minor wounds. You can go get them now, if you're still willing?”
It took her a minute to calm down and all the control she could muster, but she got them and brought both back with her, nearly falling to the ground, gasping for air when she returned. Hawk took her arm, concerned, until she managed to catch her breath enough to tell him it was just the stra
in of taking two people at once.
“Zack assures me that I'll get better at it as long as I practice regularly” She gasped, trying to smile and not go all the way down to the floor, even if it did look kind of inviting at the moment. Nice and flat, clean too, she noticed.
After a minute she stood and tried not to show how winded she still felt, seeing that she looked better, Vaun covered what happened from his perspective. How the instant the door went Hawk moved at them, grabbing one and baffling the other that moved toward her as best he could.
The boy added that by baffle, Vaun meant him making weak little kicking motions at the second one's knees like a spaz, which got a stately nod from Vaun.
“Indeed, but you bought enough time for your protected to escape unharmed, and then aided me in subduing them. You did well. Now, let me finish the tale.”
Vaun then quickly summed things up, indicating how he had, with Hawk's aid as mentioned, subdued three within moments by killing them and captured the last one, the one that the boy held onto, in fact. That one would be questioned and a full accounting would be delivered to them as soon as possible.
“Now, on to other business. The new Line-Walker, Donald Karver's father is being sought, after nearly killing his younger son. We wish to assure you all, both the National Body of the Walkers and our own local people here that all pains are being taken to leave the man alive. We do not seek to interject our own justice, merely to be of aid. This order came down from the top levels, but I think that it's quite reasonable given the circumstances.” He bowed to them and stood waiting for a reply.
