by Kat Cotton
“Okay, here’s what I’m going to do,” I said. “I’m going to research and find out if there’s anything at all we can do to defeat this guy without using Kisho. Because, between you and me, I don’t believe that even if Kisho feeds and even if he agrees to fight the guy, he has a chance in hell of winning.”
“You do that. Meanwhile, I’ll trust in him.”
“Use him, more like.”
Hell, Kisho walked into the room. Nic and I locked glances. Had he heard any of that? Jeez, I hoped not. I couldn’t bear it if he had. We had to be more careful. After all, Kisho did have vampire hearing.
“Coffee, anyone?”
I stood up. “I think I need to get some work done.”
“Me too,” said Nic. “And I really should do some training. I’ve been getting lazy. You probably should too, Clem Starr.”
Nic pointed at my thighs.
They weren’t fat. They were muscular. And I trained plenty.
“Later. I’ve got things to do.”
I went to my room and got online. Since I’d researched almost everything I could about the Vampire King, I doubted I’d find anything new. Then a thought hit me. I’d have to swallow my awkward embarrassment and go back down to talk to Kisho.
“Hey, Kisho, maybe I will have a coffee.”
I followed him into the kitchen and sat on the counter while he made it.
“You know Nic hates that,” he said. “He thinks it’s really unhygienic.”
I shrugged. “But biting someone’s neck is totally okay? I mean, you don’t know where that neck’s been. Does he at least sterilize it first?”
Hellhound came into the kitchen and sniffed around the floor for dropped food.
“We’re running out of coffee,” Kisho said. “Are the guys getting that?”
“I dunno. I didn’t hear what Nic ordered. Hey, Kisho, your father, the Vampire King. Is he known by any other names? Surely he isn’t just called the Vampire King all the time? And what about before he became King? He must have an actual name.”
“Vidor Kirsch.”
“Ah, same initials. Can you write it down for me?”
He wrote it down with a few alternate spellings. “He’s so old that he’s used a bunch of variations.” Kisho wrote those down too.
“Is that your surname too?” I asked. “Kisho Kirsch, that’s a damn cool name.”
“Nope. I always used my mother’s name.”
Most of the vamps only went by first names or even nicknames, since their surnames were a connection to their human life. It was pretty common for them to change names every couple of decades, too. The undead needed to avoid bringing attention to their undeadness.
“Why do you want to know?” Kisho asked.
I sipped my coffee. It was damn good coffee.
“I realized most of the research we’ve done was for the Vampire King, but there might be info under his other names.”
Kisho leaned back against the counter beside me. His body almost touching mine.
“It’s possible, but we’ve done a lot of research, Nic and I, and nothing has ever come up. The prophesy scroll was the only thing we’ve ever found that went beyond the basics.”
“But, sure, if he’s this crazy, evil destructive force, there’d be something. Any villain worth worrying about has a trail of legends behind them.”
“Yep, but he likes to clean up his messes. Either no one is left alive, or they’re thralled into forgetting. He’s not out for glory or for kudos in his evilness. He doesn’t want to draw attention to himself. Only now, he’s sick of living in the shadows.”
We both knew there was more to it than that. More than being sick of living in the shadows, he wanted Kisho dead.
I leaned my head on Kisho’s shoulder. I never felt comfortable with anyone else in the world like I did with Kisho.
“Where did he live? When you lived with him? That might be helpful in tracking him down.”
“Like, his tastes in real estate? Well, he won’t be living in an Airbnb.” Kisho laughed. “He likes the traditional vampire life. Old draughty castles. We moved around Europe a bit. There’s no shortage of abandoned castles there.”
“Sure won’t find any here, though.”
“That’s true. He’s not much for comfort, either. He thinks it makes you weak. He only has a few lackeys he lets close to him, like a royal court. He always wanted me to feed. I never understood why until I read that prophesy. Why would he have wanted me to feed and become strong enough to kill him? That didn’t make sense. But now I know.”
He covered his face.
“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to,” I said.
I put my arm around him. Poor Kisho. Maybe I shouldn’t have mentioned anything, rather than have him relive those memories.
“He’d steal children and keep them penned up. If they proved they could fight, he’d train them. Then, when they got older, he’d turn them so they’d fight for him. He used those kids as his own private army.”
I didn’t want to ask what had happened to the others. The ones who couldn’t fight.
“He’d also bring in girls. Lots of girls. Either his lackeys rounded them up, or other vampires would bring them as tributes. A lot of vampires want to get on the good side of the Vampire King. Not just vampires, either. Sometimes humans wanted to be in his good graces. The vampires would feed on those girls in front of me, with him pushing me to join in. It was horrific. He’d call me weak and pathetic for not feeding. I hated it, but I’d be forced to watch.”
I rubbed his neck. I wanted to hold him tight until all those memories stopped hurting. He should never have had to go through that.
“That’s why I can’t feed. The thought of it makes me sick to my stomach. They didn't just feed from their necks, either, but all over. Mauling them and tearing them apart. He starved me, thinking if I never fed any other way, I’d have no other choice. Before I reached puberty, I survived on human food. Then I got older and I needed the blood. I craved it. I craved it so strongly, but I couldn’t be like them. Those poor girls, screaming and begging for their lives. That got them no sympathy. Those men just enjoyed it all the more. Great orgies of blood and death.”
I put my arm around him. I wanted to know the logistics. Kisho had grown from a baby to puberty, but somewhere along the way, he’d stopped maturing.
This wasn’t the time to ask.
“I did disgusting things. During the day, while his pack slept, I’d creep down to the feeding room. There’d be blood left on the floor after their feeding. Dried into the filthy stones. I’d get down on my hands and knees, lapping at that blood like a dog, or I’d scrap at it with my nails. Anything I could do other than actually feed.”
He pulled away from me. I reached out to him, but he wouldn’t even meet my eyes.
“You did what you had to do to survive,” I said. “Surely that’s much more noble than killing?”
“Maybe, but it never felt like that. I asked him once if we could feed without killing, and he told me that was impossible. I believed him. I only found out when I met Nic that my father had lied to me.”
I’d never heard about how he’d met Nic, and that was something I wanted to know. One day, I’d find out.
“Then, suddenly, he’d be really kind to me. Like a real father. He’d bring me presents, like books, then want to discuss them with me. Sometimes, the kindness seemed crueler than anything else, because I never knew how long it would last.”
Before I could do any more to reassure him, the pack arrived back with food.
“Did you get coffee?” I asked.
“Sure did.”
They unloaded the boxes of food from the van. I hoped one of those groupies knew how to cook, because I sure didn’t.
“We’ve got information,” said Luis. “I think we need to gather everyone.”
“I’ll get Nic,” Kisho said.
Luis looked grim. I hoped it wasn’t bad news.
Whil
e I was waiting, I went to the basement. The four girls played some Wii game. It looked like fun. Why didn’t I hang out with them instead of the pack?
“Any of you girls know how to cook?” I asked.
“We have food?” one of them said. “Thank goodness. We’ve been surviving on this.” She pointed at the snack food boxes on the table in front of them.
“I know how to cook,” one of the others said. “I’m an awesome cook. Do we have real food?”
“If you mean things like vegetables and that kind of healthy stuff, yeah.”
“Sweet. I can make a casserole.” She grinned.
“What’s your name?” I asked.
“Francine.”
“Fine, Francine. I’ll come get you at dinner time.”
I left them to their game and went back upstairs.
The pack had all arranged themselves in the living area. I squeezed onto the sofa next to Kisho.
“We got some information while we were out. From the little guy,” Luis said. “There’s a place in the city, in one of the laneways. He said it’s where all the homeless kids have been gathering at night. They all meet up to protect each other while they sleep.”
Luis ran his hand through his hair. We waited for him to keep talking.
“Tonight, the Vampire King and his pack are going to attack. They want to feed on those juicy little kids.”
“But, surely, street kids wouldn’t be that juicy,” Nic said.
He’d totally missed the point.
“He said they’ve been eating well, raiding all the shops that have closed down. Anyway, that’s not important. The important thing is that we have to save those kids. The mayor has that safe house program. We could take them there.”
“Or we could just call the mayor and get him to do it. It’s not our problem.” Nic didn’t seem very eager. “How do we know that guy is even telling the truth?”
“Timon wouldn’t lie. He’s dodgy as hell, but he’s generally honest,” I said. “But yeah, why is it our problem? This is the mayor’s thing.”
“The Vampire King is attacking tonight,” Luis said. “And we have about an hour before sunset. The mayor will never get his troops mobilized in time. Come on, Nic. We get in before the Vampire King strikes and get out. It’s not a lot of danger.”
Kisho shifted in his seat. “We have to do it. We can’t leave those kids to die. That would be a terrible thing to do. Think about how you’ll sleep if you leave those kids to that kind of fate.”
Nic stretched his arms over his head. “I’ll sleep just fine. There are billions of kids in danger in this world. We can’t save them all.”
But Nic and Andre exchanged glances. Lately, Nic and the rest of the pack had been pretty keen to please Kisho. An upset vampire doesn’t want to feed, even at the best of times. Me, I just kept Kisho happy because it made me happy.
“Please, Nic. You don’t know what he’s like.”
“You’re sure the Vampire King won’t attack until later?” Nic shot Kisho one of his indulgent smiles. The kind that said you’re in my debt now.
“That’s what the little guy said. Around midnight. We can have those kids cleared out by then,” Luis said.
Nic nodded. “Okay, we’ll do it. Luis, you take the van. Kisho, we’ll take the car. We’ll need enough room for all those kids.”
Chapter 8: Laneway
“This is the spot?” Nic asked when we arrived.
Kisho parked the car, and we got out to meet up with the others.
“Down the laneway a little, past the dumpsters,” Kisho said.
Nic wrinkled his nose, but we walked down the cobblestone streets. I could see why his nose had wrinkled. The garbage in this part of town hadn’t been collected for a long time. I bet there were rats around. I stuck close to Kisho. He had super hearing and, with his fear of rats, he’d be first out of here at any sign.
The laneway got darker and filled with creepy shadows as we walked farther down.
My heart was pounding. By the time we got to the end, there was only a sliver of moonlight illuminating the place. That was okay for vampires, but I couldn’t see in the dark, and those cobblestones didn’t make walking easy.
Weird shapes filled the space at the end of the laneway. As my eyes adjusted, I picked out cardboard boxes and blankets strung up like tents.
The place looked empty, but suddenly a bunch of kids jumped up out of nowhere. A couple of them looked like they wanted to fight; the rest looked ready to run. We had them blocked in, though.
“Hey, kids, don’t freak out. We’re here to rescue you,” Luis said.
“Yeah, right,” said one scrawny kid with a mop of dirty blond hair. “An old guy like you coming here to rescue us? That’s not fishy at all. We know what you want, you dirty old man.”
“No, no. It’s not like that at all.” Luis blushed.
The kid had jumped up on one of the dumpsters. Another kid, even smaller, ran up and kicked Luis on the shin.
“Dirty old man,” he repeated.
We hadn’t counted on these kids being so resistant. What could we do? Catch them and drag them into the van? We had to win their trust, but I had no concept of how to do that. We’d all just assumed we’d get here, load the kids up and take them to the safe house. I sure wasn’t good with kids.
A little girl in a raggedy dress walked over to Nic and took his hand. She looked up at him, grinning.
Wow, Nic had a girlfriend.
He squatted down so he was on her level.
“Don’t be afraid. There are bad men coming, but we’ll take you away before they get here.”
The little girl smiled and got that look in her eyes that people got when Nic smiled at them. That might work on the little girl, but some of these kids were a lot tougher. I wasn’t sure Nic’s charm would work on them.
“How do we know you’re not the bad men?” the blond kid asked.
He had a point. If I were a street urchin, I’d be asking the same question. There were a lot of bad people in this world, and they had no reason to trust a pack of vampires.
“Listen, kid,” I said. “He might be a bit of a pain in the butt, but he’s nothing compared to the bastard who’s coming for you. You can believe us or not, but if you stay here, you won’t last the night out. Surely you know what’s happening in this town. We’re your only hope.”
He threw a rock at me. Oww! It grazed my ear, and, from the look of him, if he’d wanted, he’d have hit me fair in the head.
Damn kid. He could stay here and die if he was going to be like that. But those other kids — some of them were trembling, their eyes wide with fear. We had to save them. Especially knowing what Kisho had told me.
“If you kids don’t want to be saved, we’ll just leave you here,” Jeb said. He made like he intended to walk away.
We couldn’t do that, though. Now that we’d started this, we couldn’t really leave these kids behind, not even that evil blond one.
I looked at Nic. He shrugged. He had no ideas, either. Forcing them to come with us would freak the kids out, and they’d probably run. We needed to convince them.
Hell, Nic was the motivational speaker. He should be motivating these kids.
Then Kisho stepped forward. He could deal with the stone-throwing and the shin-kicking.
“Kids, this man, he’s my father, and he’s a terrible person. He hurt me when I was your age. I don’t want him doing that to you.” Kisho’s big brown eyes were watering. He looked about to cry, but he had the kids’ attention.
“My dad hurt me too,” the blond kid said.
“You should be able to trust your own father, right?” Kisho said. He did that shy smile with his head ducked.
The total sincerity in his words worked better than anything else.
“Yeah, you should,” the blond kid said.
“My dad hurt me too,” the little girl said. “So I ran away. When I grow up, I’ll go back and kill him.” She moved from holding Nic’s hand
to hugging his legs. “Then we’ll get married.”
A few of the kids moved closer to Kisho too. He’d really gained their trust so easily.
“We’re going to take you somewhere safe,” he said. He spoke softly, but all the kids listened.
“Your house?” the little girl asked Nic.
“Not my house, but a nice place. The mayor will look after you, and he’s a really swell guy.”
The girl pouted.
“But I’ll come visit you.”
That made her smile.
“How many kids are here?” I asked the bratty blond kid. “And don’t even think of throwing another rock at me, or I’ll give you a beating.”
“Yeah, bring it on, lady.”
He put his fists up. I shot him my most evil grin. He gave me an evil, toothy grin back. The kid didn’t look so bad when he smiled, but he could do with a good bath.
“Usually about ten or twelve. It depends. Some kids sleep in the park or other places some nights.” The kid pulled his oversized flannel shirt around him.
“Is everyone here?”
He nodded.
“You’re not going to do anything weird?” he asked.
“Not unless you throw more rocks at me, because that is so not cool.”
He jumped down from the dumpster. Good. I didn’t want to spend any more time than necessary in this alley. It’d only gotten darker while we were standing around talking. The smell and the rats were bad enough. The threat of the Vampire King coming made it even worse.
“Aren’t you scared of rats?” I asked him.
“Nope. Are you?”
“Of course not.” I didn’t want to admit it, but I hated rats. The thought of them freaked me out. I guessed if I had no option but sleeping on the streets, I’d pretty soon get over that.
“Okay,” said Nic. “If you want to be safe, come with us.”
“We’ll trust you, but do one weird thing and I’ll shank the bitch.”
I’d be keeping a close eye on that kid until we got him safe with the mayor. Shank me, indeed.
