by James Brock
‘Whoa, you’re gonna have to pee like a racehorse in a few minutes,” Ty was suddenly in the doorway of the bathroom, more of those cat like moves of his. I managed a shrug, felt like shit and felt my nuts tighten with him there looking at me.
“How’s Ash?” I said as I hooked the robe from the back of the door and wrapped it around me. I made a little “turn around” gesture which Ty amazingly responded to. When he had his back to me I shucked out of the wet underwear. I wanted to get into a long hot shower but had to get an update on Ash first.
“Not good. I thought feeding would help. It did some but he is fucked up and out of it. He needs to REALLY feed, Carter.”
This wasn’t good and I needed to see for myself.
“Well you can’t just yank a server out of dinner and say hey we need some blood,” I mused. “Just use me. He fed off of you before turning you,” No hesitation here. I loved Ash.
“He’d kill me. Literally. I’m not even gonna tell him how close I was to, well, what we were doing when he fell on us,” the tall vamp finished the last part in nearly a whisper.
I was touched, concerned and a little bit scared at the same time. I’d never heard Ty use a voice like that. “We don’t have any other choice, Ty,” On the bed Ash moaned and writhed, the wings had fully retracted into his back, the opening holes sealed over but red and purple bruises covered his shoulders, the muscles on his arms seemed to throb on their own-his fingers clenched open and closed as we looked down at his form. It was full dark, the hours until daybreak might as well have been an eternity.
“What do you think happened.”
“Something got him. Look.”
I shuddered involuntarily as Ty pointed to a single ugly puncture wound on Ash’s neck. Slipping an arm around my shoulder he pulled me in tight. If something could take Ash down it was either big or strong or both.
“Don’t worry,” he said with a bravery I knew was fake but I loved him for it, “I won’t let anything get you.” I didn’t like the way he said “thing” instead of “one” but decided that could wait to be explored. There was a whole world of shadows behind the everyday world we could see.
“So?” I asked as a question. I knew without asking that all of the blood supply I had brought on board was gone by then, and I knew Ty needed to feed, too. I didn’t need to ask if he had saved any for himself. The answer to that was a clear and resounding “No”.Every drop had gone down Ash’s mouth.
Lifting his other arm Ty pointed out the floor to ceiling windows painted over with a special non reflective surface that blocked all light from the cabin interior.
“I saw lights when we were down on the deck. Means we aren’t far from one of the islands.”
“You can’t just go snatch a tourist off the beach!” I said in horror. Despite the dire situation we were in I was not about to be party to just any old monster shenanigans.
“There are villages or small towns. They have jails. I promise to only take the worst of the worst,” Ty said with a sigh and an eye roll at my human reaction as he moved his arm from my shoulder. Yeah I still had issues with some of this stuff after all this time but I certainly didn’t want to be part of the judgment call Ty was going to be doing.
“It’s a lot of water and we are on a moving ship. Can you make it, Aquaman?”
“We’ll find out,” Ty said, his eyes locked down onto Ash and ignoring my poor attempt at humor with the insertion of a popular icon. Well he couldn’t FLY and although there was a huge pool at their house and our huge pool at Lavender Hill the most I had ever seen him do was lose a shoe and sock to trail a foot in the water.
We stepped out onto the large balcony, the warm wind caressing our skin again but it in no way was the same kind of fun, sexy back ground ambiance the last time we were together on a deck. Far off in the distance in the inky darkness we could see a series of tiny twinkling lights running along a shoreline. Ty stripped off the suit he was wearing. I hated that I felt myself aroused by the time he reached his X2ist underwear, lean body outlined in the light of the full moon.
“Um, won’t you stand out a little if someone see’s you parading down the street in just a wet pair of underwear?” I would have happily tried to go along for that little show but needed to stay with Ash.
“I’ll snag some clothes somewhere,” he said with a smile, reaching out to stroke his long index finger against the side of my face. “If I’m not back before dawn I guess I should tell you that you look like him.”
I was lost for a moment then realized he was talking about me. And the guy he was referring to was his guy, the one stoned to death that long long night ago.
“I loved him,” he was looking out over the horizon, “and I never wanted to love you because of that.” With that he turned and kissed me, softly, on the lips then made a leap straight up off the deck, his body launching out over the rail and into the darkness before I could say anything. He didn’t give me a chance to say anything, my heart was clutching as I melted into a puddle of tears and heard a splash far below.
Chapter Eight
Some nights go on forever. The one I was in the middle of there on the ship with Ash writhing and moaning on the bed certainly was. I did have things to do, mainly making calls cancelling meetings with the “food poisoning” excuse for Ash. In the middle of my busy work and worry I was busy processing that Ty had just confessed his love for me. Well, kinda. Didn’t you think so? And, yeah, always with the And, a monster of un known source and origin was wandering the ship. Or shambling, slinking or skulking.
So while the hours were droning on there still was a lot going on. Including that long, long pee Ty had predicted. I was still pretty dried out and drinking water like crazy, room service found some Gatorade and had it delivered, which helped. The dehydration at least. The beverage does nothing to help with monster horror or the low grade TERROR at possibly losing Ash, at possibly being in love with a centuries old vampire and at the possibility that the very expensive D & G jacket I’d been trapped in the lifeboat with could never be cleaned properly.
The fact was that there was an unknown monster of undetermined, well, monsterness, was wandering the ship and all I could do was watch Ash grow paler and make calls asking that he be accused from meetings at this international conference to HELP people because his tummy hurt.
So I finished the calls, arranged new speakers, re arranged evening meeting, cancelled cocktail appointments and all the while kept a sharp ear out of a thump or two on the balcony signaling the return of Ty and the very special take out he was bringing. All the while trying not to concern myself with the moral dilemma of taking a life to save a life. Or death, as this case may have been.
After a long hot shower I was starved (could only imagine what the vamps must feel when they needed to feed), room service delivered an eyes-are-bigger-than-your-stomach meal I made quick time of. Dressing finally I was at least feeling better, and my spirit lifted even more when I decided to get Ash into his sleep chamber and was able to move him. He was still heavy, just not the leaden weight from the night before. The bruising was fading and he didn’t seem as restless as he had been. Arranging him carefully I and started pacing the floor. I didn’t know what I would do if Ty didn’t come back. I mean I am clever and I would figure it out but, well, I wanted Ty to be my teammate. I’d lost Cole, the first guy I’d started to have feelings for in a long time, and now was digging the idea of couple hood with Ty. Which, let’s face it, had a boatload of complications we would need to figure out but I was up for the challenge.
Thankfully Ty did come back. I didn’t check the time but felt my heart rise up out of my stomach when the balcony door smoothly slid open, Ty, water dripping everywhere, poked his head through the billowing curtains and indicating with a nod of his head I should go to my room.
Which I happily did, not wanting to know what was going on in the other room.
Sometime later there was a tap on the door; I opened it to find a now drier Ty. Cros
sing to the sleep chamber for Ash I saw that while he was looking better he was still not back to his normal state of being. The bruising was gone, a trace of red on one corner of his left lower lip the only indication that anything had happened in the time I had been away.
“Convicts. Bad guys,” Ty said from behind me, “I tossed the skins.”
“I don’t care if it were a virgin and the local Priest,” I said as I threw my arms around him. Hugging me back Ty slid his hand up and down my back as our hips ground together. Just as I turned my face up toward his, expecting (and yes, wanting) that real kiss from him, Ty whispered;
“He talked some.”
Kiss forgotten I pulled back.
“It’s her. She’s making another move.”
A shudder wracked my body. He didn’t need to tell me who “she” was. Ash had told me of some of the times Sally had gone rouge and they did not sound fun. “Please allow me to introduce myself, I’m a man of wealth and taste…” Mick Jagger sings in Sympathy for the Devil. A truer introduction to her pure evil self I could not imagine. Even before being turned all those centuries ago the Roman woman had been power hungry, but lots of people are. But once turned by a then young ‘pire himself Ash found himself spending more and more time cleaning up the messes she made. When Nero fiddled there is every indication that she was out setting fire to the city. The plagues of the middle centuries put her in court circles all through Europe, Ash keeping one foot ahead of her mayhem. By the days of the American Revolution and his escape to the new world she had settled into a routine of taking what she wanted, when she wanted it-eventually following him to the colonies. From then on she had made a steady nuisance of herself; lover of Benedict Arnold, best friend of Tokyo Rose; Watergate brought her into the modern world as close friend to Martha Mitchell during Watergate and now despite her going ahead with meetings and acting at her level of normal was again ready for action.
“He doesn’t know what she has come up with but she was able to nearly destroy him. He says he’s going to take her out but I’m going after her myself.”
Despite how far she had come politics were NOT Sally’s strong point; force, muscle and her teeth were her weapons of choice. For years she had longed for not just the power Ash wielded, not only for himself but through Connor, but the respect as well. She knew taking him down in a physical way was the only way to clear the path for what she wanted. I could tell Ty was steaming, madder than even I had ever seen him.
“It’s getting late. I need to get secure,” he whispered, squeezing me again.
It felt good.
We settled him under the bed in my suite, chosen because it had no windows and a rubber gasket sealed the doorway all around. I lay down on the floor, Ty poking a finger out from under the dust cover for me to hold. I knew he was scared when that happened.
“Tell me about him,” I asked, planning to leave the room before dawn broke and he went down. I had no interest in thinking about what the next few hours would hold for me because if Ty was scared of what she was doing I was downright horrified and knew I needed to act on my own as the vamps would never let me take action unless I went a little rogue myself.
“He was funny, and smart and brave,” Ty began, his voice low, “if I could go back now I’d tear all of their heads off!” I stroked his finger slowly, which had the calming effect I hoped for.
“He was so beautiful,” there was a pause before he continued, a pause long enough I thought he had gone out. “His father was our minister, evil fuck. I don’t know how Johnny stood living under the same roof with him. We’d grown up together, and that summer we came to know each other as we washed at the river.” The timber of his voice softened as Ty slipped back into the more formal way of speaking he had grown up with. I imagined the two of them, lithe and sexy, men facing marriage, marriages they could not face being forced to live in after discovering each other’s secret desire as they played in the cool, clear water.
“We were friends, lovers and soul mates,” tears were slipping down my cheek as he talked. “Then they caught us,”
“Don’t talk about that, not now,” I said in a low, calm voice. “Just good stuff.”
After another long pause Ty told me about his friend, his funny, good friend. I held his finger as long as I could before he pulled it back in under and into the darkness and we both slept.
I don’t know how long I had been stretched out on the floor, my body still reeling and in recovery from what it had been through, when I woke with a start. I was fully dressed already but made a fast stop in the bathroom to brush my teeth and freshen up. I wasn’t quite certain how I was going to go about this but before the vamps woke I wanted her dead once and for all. She had never gone so far as to hurt anyone that I knew of but to go after Ash, of all beings, meant she needed to be stopped. I had a stake of wood, a cross of pure silver and a razor sharp buck knife strapped to me. Yeah, I kept me some defense, Ash and Ty both knew and approved. We all just hoped I’d never have to try any of the items on them. I’d like to say I had nerves of steel as well but that was not the case, my mouth kept going cotton dry-hell I didn’t even know if the chosen weapons would work but if I had any chance she was not going to be among the living by the time my friends woke. Funny how after all that time snarling and spitting at each other I now counted Ty as a friend. Guess some of that “tale as old as time” stuff had come true in real life.
As for the weapons; I knew the stake was meant to go through the heart, the knife was to slash her nasty head off and I hoped the cross would at least keep her at bay. Get me; college degree (so what if it’s nearly in basket weaving, sheepskin is sheepskin), enough dough to never have to work; handsome, built and out hunting a vampire mid day on a cruise ship.
Even Uncle would have looked askance at this turn of events.
Lotsa places for a vampire queen to be on a luxury cruise liner but I doubted that she wouldbe anywhere as mundane as the boiler room. The open decks were out of course, as well as the wheelhouse (windows!), and, well, anywhere on the hull or outside of the ship of course. I first went to the small non denominational chapel, mumbled a non denominational prayer over a handful of bullets (could it HURT?) then reloaded and made my way to the front desk, where I had spent a great deal of time working with the staff while preparing meeting schedules and itineraries, I was given access to the computer log of stateroom assignments and began going through it. The task, it turned out, was easier than I could have imagined. The former Governor had managed to attach herself to another of the sponsors to attend the conference. Her cabin was one deck below Ash’s.
While other cruisers were at seminars to help the poorest of the poor, sunning on deck, catching up on long meant to read books I was planning to break into a cabin and kill an already dead woman. If killing was what one did to a centuries old monster.
I managed a pass key card at the front desk, actually an easy task for me. I just asked for one and they gave it to me. See, being the face of Connor has bennies. Just wish they were more along the line of backrubs from a European footballer and bags of precious stones rather than a credit card size square of plastic which might lead to me death.
Well it had to be considered. While she and I had no beef I had certainly never been comfortable around her even with Ash to protect me. She was one of the very few creatures of the night I had met who caused me to pebble up with goose flesh every time we were together. Oh I had probably met plenty of other things worse than her back when I would go bar crawling with buddies in New York but most of them were human. Sally gave off a creepy vibe I think I would have picked up on even if I hadn’t known her orientation. From the wide, phony smile plastered on her lips to the staged accent she creeped me out nearly as much as Ty used to. The main difference between them was that I had never been afraid of Ty while she scared me to the core.
But this was not the time to let that show. It was all chin-up and bravado as I made my way down the long corridor’s, stopping only wh
en I reached the door to her cabin. Drawing a deep breath I decided to knock first, not expecting a response although I figured she would need to have someone like ME around to do some of the day to day heavy lifting work of being a vampire. Which is why I had that small pistol strapped to my ankle in a holster. I certainly didn’t want to kill anyone (living, anyone that is) but would use a certain amount of force TBD.
So imagine my surprise when after a light tap on the door, card key in my hand and at the ready, it was flung open, revealing a cheery light filled suite. The doorway to that happy inviting looking place was filled with none other than my gal pal from the south, Miss Laura Sue, whose beaming grin was as bright as the Caribbean sun flooding in over the carpet. My heart sank. I should have known she would be on guard and not out sunning by the pool. As Sally’s aide she had to be three steps ahead mentally and with my lack of sleep she was miles ahead of me.
“Carter! SO good to see you! Come in!” she squealed while leaning forward and grabbing me around the neck, literally pulling me into the room. I couldn’t imagine a sentence the bubbly young woman would utter that she couldn’t end with an exclamation point;
“Your daddy just died! Oh that is just so sad! Let me get you some sweet tea!”
“A comet is gonna slam into us and end the world! Well there goes that picnic we had planned for tomorrow!”
“Goodness but you bitin’ my neck and suckin’ all the blood outa me stung!”
Southern charm at its finest.
“Well just git your cute little bee-hind in here right now Mister!” I was already in the suite, the door slammed shut behind me when as this was uttered.
“I don’t think I’m in the right pla…,” I was stuttering as Laura let go of my neck, kissed my cheek then skipped (yes, SKIPPED) the few jaunty steps to the bed and when she turned around she was pointing a gun at me.
A small, shiny, easy to identify GUN. Not a parasol or fan. Not a plate of freshly baked sugar cookies. A fucking gun.
