“Feeders. Every vampire has at least one or two somewhere, just to feed from. The feeder usually gets screwed too, sex runs with vampirism, so they get a double high. If a vampire is real careful, he can have a feeder, and she might not even know it. Vampires are just literally leeches on humanity.”
“So how come they don’t rule us? Why has there never been a vampire army? Vampire wars?”
“That is a superb question, Lyman. I like you.” Dave smiled into the rear-view mirror. “The one thing that stops that happening… vampires, because of their helplessness for the bloodlust, can’t stand too much of their own company. Once a vampire community or group gets too big, they end up feeding on themselves; they can’t help it. Their own blood is so much thicker than ours, contains so many natural highs for them that they can’t resist. Even here in recent times, so many vampire communities have literally eaten themselves to death in hours.”
“So why don’t we hear about them in the papers? On TV?”
“But, Lyman, my boy, we do. What about the cults who suddenly decide to commit mass suicide?”
“All of them?”
“Not all we hear about were vampires. But many were. They didn’t drink ‘Kool Aid’ then die, they drank each other to death.”
I sat for a while.
“Helsings?”
“Yes, Lyman?”
“Why are we called ‘Helsings’.”
“Now that would be a direct homage to Bram Stoker!”
We all laughed.
It turns out my first assignment was easy; watch the ‘seven’ at school. Take notes on their whereabouts, their contacts, anything interesting. Having ‘watching cheerleaders’ as your assignment could have been worse, I can tell you. I went to school, did the work, went through the motions. On Tuesday evening, I got a huge surprise.
Mom and Dad caught me as I got in from snogging Mary-Christine. They made a big fuss about not having much money at my birthday, but they blindfolded me and sat me on the couch for five minutes while Dad went outside.
Then, just a minute later, Mom pulled me to my feet, and dragged me reluctantly to the door, then pulled me outside.
She dragged off the blindfold, and dad was standing next to his new car, with a stupid smile on his face. It was smaller, and not Dad’s color at all; a metallic blue.
Then the penny dropped; it had been a long day.
“Mine?” I tentatively tested the water.
Mom nodded.
I jumped so high, I hit my fingertips on the porch ceiling. “Mine!”
I ran to the car and hugged dad, then, back up to the porch and hugged both mom and dad together.
My eyes took in this piece of engineering; a Volkswagen Jetta. Not new, but it was still shiny.
“It’s not your usual fun-ride, but we went for safety, not for speed.” Dad said as I got inside.
“I don’t care!” I shouted as I sat in the driver’s seat. Dad dangled the keys at the window.
“I got a bonus at work.” Dad said. I looked up. They were both looking over the window ledge, smiling like Cheshire cats. “And a promotion; Dave Muscat’s got me working in R & D.”
I looked at him.
“Yup, kiddo. Maybe your friendship with Mary-Christine did the trick.”
“Do you care?”
“Hell, no. Just don’t fall out.” Dad grinned.
“Or get her pregnant.” Mom added, albeit grinning.
“Can I drive it?”
Dad stepped away from the car, and the coast was clear.
I waved. “See ya!”
I carefully drove it round to Mary-Christine’s.
Dave gave it the once over. “Nice car.” He said. “And it solves a problem for us over the next few weeks.”
“It does?”
“Sure. Since you’re now joining the fold, so to speak, we have one thing to bring you up to date on.”
“What’s that?”
“Well, it’s not exactly a ‘that’, it’s more like a ‘them’.”
The Muscat family had the same silly cheesy grins that I had just driven away from.
“Well, a Helsing has to have two qualities. He has to have the balls to take a vampire down, and we never know that till the actual moment. He also has to have the skills.”
“I’m going to Helsing School?” I joined the grin.
“Kinda.” Dave said. “You and Mary are going to join my gym and my gun club, and you’re going to learn Karate.
I didn’t have a muscle in my body. I also didn’t have a clue about guns.
Crap.
But it did bring the Buffy thing back into my mind.
~ ~ ~
For the second time that night, Alan came out of nowhere and surprised me. Vampires are awesome at sneaking up- even on other vampires. Jackson hadn’t seen him coming either.
Moving super-fast, Alan snatched me away, “What the hell are you playing at, dickwad?”
Jackson did this quick-step maneuver and next thing I knew he was standing between me and Alan. Confession: although I was officially on Alan’s side and wanted to go with him- it was totally cool to have two guys fighting over me.
“Haven’t you fucked her up enough?” Jackson said to Alan, snarling like a pit bull with rabies.
“Why don’t you butt out? What happens between me and my girlfriend is none of your business!”
I was tingling all over at that point. Alan had just called me his effin’ girlfriend! OMG! I tried my best to get around my bodyguard (and go kiss my boyfriend) but Jackson was way faster than me. Just like one of those martial arts guys from the Matrix, he totally blocked my move.
“C’mon!” I whined (I really, really wanted that kiss).
Alan grinned all triumphant, “See? She wants to come with me, dude. Sorry if your feelings are hurt; school’s about to start- maybe you can get your own girlfriend then.”
Girlfriend! He totally said it again!
Then Jackson got all huffy and lawyerly like, “Sorry to break it to you, ‘dude’” (the way he said “dude” was totally condescending) “but Mandy’s part of the Cole family now, which makes her my new sister…”
Kinda burst my bubble to hear that Jackson thought of me as his sister. For a minute there I thought he might be totally in to me. Y’know… battling for my affections and whatnot. But, I guess sister was nice too.
“Family loyalty overrides your little infatuation,” Jackson said like the closing argument of a trial (I watched a lot of Law & Order), “and that means she’s heading home with me. Now get the fuck out of my way, douche bag.”
Alan looked really mad then. I guess there was really something to that vampire family-bond thing. For a second I thought he was going to do his usual turn-and-run. But, he didn’t…
It all happened so fast it’s mostly a blur.
Alan lunged at Jackson. He was all vampire at that moment; fangs and hissing. I was scared s-h-i-t-less. Not Jackson, though. They were two titans in an all-out clash.
Vampires don’t fight like regular people- with the throwing punches and whatnot. It’s way more violent than that. Those two tore up the freaking street.
Human eyes wouldn’t have been able to catch the commotion. Even my super-duper vision had a hard time tracking them. So, I’ll describe it this way: It would be like you’re standing there, looking at your car- it’s all bright n’ shiny, no scratches. Then you blink. By the time your eyes open again the car is totally caved in on itself, all the windows are busted and the alarm is WHAAAAA’ing big time.
The entire freaking street was that car.
Some of the pavement got kicked up and Broker Street started to look like a gravel quarry. Limbs were breaking off of trees. One house lost an awning over the porch; another house’s chimney went tumbling down like a brick avalanche. A fire hydrant burst into a zillion pieces and a huge, foamy volcano erupted from the pipes.
By the time it was finished humans were out of their houses, looking freaked and terrified
and pissed all at the same time. And I was just as freaked, terrified and pissed as any of them. While they were all inspecting the damage to their property, I was scouring the block for signs of the crazy-ass boys who caused all of it.
Seriously- they were nowhere on Broker Street. By the time I turned the corner, I was panicking. I mean- what? Did they like spontaneously combust or something?
No. It was much worse.
I found them at the edge of this field, no lights. They were just two figures looking like black ink-stains over the ground. One was moving very slowly; the other not at all. Jackson pushed himself up. Alan stayed down. His body was contorted in a weird arrangement; he looked like a jigsaw puzzle that’d been put together wrong.
“You fucking killed him?” I screamed and lunged at Jackson.
I must have hit him pretty hard cause he tumbled back a few steps; or maybe he was just worn out from the hand-to-hand combat. Either way, he did nothing to retaliate. Just kind of gave me that cold, superior stare I’d come to know so well.
“That’s nothing,” he told me, “a few broken bones isn’t going to keep him down for very long.”
Before he ever got the sentence out, I’d already dropped to my knees and was cradling Alan’s limp head in my lap. It looked like his neck was broken. And he wasn’t breathing. Was that supposed to be the vampire equivalent to “a few broken bones”?
“Let’s get out of here, Mandy….”
I barely heard what Jackson was saying.
Next thing I knew he pulled me to my feet, growling as he spoke, “C’mon. This is done. We’re going… we gotta bolt before the humans find us.”
I was throwing feeble little punches wherever I could land one and making my body iron-board –stiff to make it harder for him to drag me away. Not that it did me any good.
“I’m not going anywhere with you!”
Humans were coming around the corner. I could smell them before they were within ear or eye shot. There was at least one dog with them; and I knew the thing had sniffed us out. It was whining and trotting up fast.
With me still in hand, Jackson took off in all out sprint. Within minutes, we were clear across town, standing in the center of an industrial park.
I was going off by this time, “How could you just leave Alan there?”
Jackson had to grab my wrists to keep me from swatting him.
“Would you stop fucking worrying about that prick for ten seconds? I should’ve staked him while I had the fucking chance! He’ll be up and moving again before the humans can dial 9-1-1. We have much bigger fucking problems right now, Mandy!”
His hold on me was as good as iron handcuffs; I struggled but couldn’t get free.
“Like what?”
“Like the fact that Alan McCartney and his gang now know with one-hundred percent certainty that the Coles are not their ally; the whole family’s jugular is exposed here, Mandy. If the Blanche vampires decide to turn on us- which they will- then our little household can’t survive. In case you haven’t noticed… that now includes you!”
Jackson unclenched the grip he had on my wrists. I practically fell on my butt.
“That’s where you’re wrong. I’m not part of your pathetic little vampire family!”
He took a step at me, “you ungrateful little bitch…”
I thought he might hurt me for real then. But for once, I was the faster vampire. My legs beat like hummingbird wings. I got away.
Chapter 7. Buffing It All Up.
The month of September went past like a spinning top on acid. Mary-Christine was by my side every hour we weren’t in class. I was even getting talked about; in class, at lunch. I could actually hear the buzz of the gossip. It was awesome.
From the boy who’d never thrown a punch, turned out I had some muscle after all, and I already knew that Mary was a pocket battleship. The karate teacher was so pleased by our progress in the first month, she even moved us up a class skipping the first belt. Although I’d never hit anyone, we seemed to be not only good at it, but actually enjoyed it.
I looked at myself in the mirror every night, but to my complete dismay, I never seemed to bulk up; no muscle gain.
Guns? On that first night at the range, doing the “gun safety” class, I wasn’t totally happy with the idea, but when we hit the actual range, and got to fire the guns, I have to say that it was fun. By our fourth week, we were swapping guns across the range, getting used to six shooters and automatic, Glocks and Walthers, Colts and Keltecs.
In the gym we hit every circuit the trainer could throw at us, free weights, machines, weight lifting, it was awesome. I had been a nerd for years, and now all the stuff that I’d considered ‘corny’ I was enjoying the heck out of.
And every night mom would give me an orange juice with a big spoonful of grey powder mixed up in it.
‘Recover’ was the brand name; an energy supplement. Seems that Dave had given it to her.
And every morning I would take another. I’m not saying the stuff was like a drug high, but even after gym the night before, I still had the energy for school the next day.
Of course, my car was essential to both classes, as the Muscats always seemed to be busy and it gave us a real private place to do our making out in. Things were heading nicely into October, then Dave told me that they had a plan in place for one of the families in town.
It was time for the two of us to step up into the big league.
That night, Mary-Christine and I were summoned to the basement.
Turns out the Muscats had a false wall, and a secret door, hidden room; everything. Inside was a wealth of stuff. Three walls had shelving, blankets, clothes, equipment, guns, and two walls of food and water. On the free wall was a felt pegboard like the cops used.
It was covered with the pictures of three people, and one was Dorothy Squires.
“We have been given a target family, passed down by the higher-ups.” Dave began.
“We have superiors?” I asked.
I didn’t know we have superiors. The idea that Helsings had a secret hierarchy was, in one way, off-putting and strange; in another kind of exciting.
Dave looked surprised at my outburst, then went back to the board. “You probably recognize the younger one.”
“Yup, it’s Dorothy.” I said under my breath. “We’ve to kill Dorothy?” I was suddenly appalled. It didn’t matter how far I’d gone, I wanted to leave, run outside, and throw up.
It had immediately become very personal.
David ignored me again, and began to give details of the mother and father. They weren’t her real mother and father of course, but that didn’t make it any less gory. Vampires from the seventies, both of them. They had probably killed hundreds of people, but it was difficult to feel anything against them. It was all a bit distant.
I was in over my head, and there was nothing I could do about it. I listened to Dave instructing us what to do but all I seen was Dorothy’s face.
My baby, Mary-Christine, was rapt. Her profile with her mouth slightly open was heavenly, but chilling at the same time. She was watching her father intensely.
“So with our friends, the organization will take care of her mom and dad. That’s the difficult part. From what we can gather, Dorothy is a convert of less than a year, so she should be able to be tricked. With your knowledge of the area, and your personal friendship, Dorothy becomes your problem.” Dave looked at me.
Oh crap. I even had to kill her.
“But we have a hands-free plan for your first take down, Lyman. We wouldn’t ask you to actually get your hands dirty. You will have a specially rigged car, the back seat will have a bunch of boxes in it. You guys will offer her a lift. Mary-Christine, when she accepts, you will climb in the back, with the excuse that you’re smaller. When she sits on the front seat, and buckles her seat belt, she’ll get a hundred sharp steel rods propelled into her heart.”
“So, not my car then?”
“Oh, no! We have a special one
. Specially tinted windows will keep you from any cameras. We’ve used it before. It’s one of our special weapons.”
I was sitting in the Muscat’s basement, rapidly becoming an anti-vampire ninja, talking blasé about ‘secret weapons’, and now it seemed I had my first assignment. I felt like a mix of James bond and that ‘dark-haired version of Brad Pitt’ guy in the Helsing movie who’s name I couldn’t remember.
I was to lure Dorothy into the car, then fire splinters of steel through her body. It just didn’t seem right. I mean, Dorothy had tits, and here was I going to waste them.
I had no time to think much about it. The operation was set for the next day. Dorothy was picked up from school by her parents at lunchtime. Tomorrow, her parents were going to be ‘delayed’, and Mary-Christine and I were to be her pickup.
Strangely, although I had a lot on my mind, I fell asleep instantly. When I woke up the next morning, my sleep had been free of dreams. I ate my corn flakes, drank my orange juice, and went to school as normal. At lunchtime, we skipped the cafeteria, and I left school with Mary-Christine. Following our instructions to the letter, we drove to an old warehouse where we exchanged the car. The new one was a small Chevrolet, tinted windows, it was cool.
But no matter how nice it was, I could not shake the idea that this was the car Dorothy would die in.
I expected the jitters. I expected the sweats. It turned out it was harder than I thought; nothing. I was in complete control.
With Mary-Christine in the front seat, I drove back to school. True to the timetable, there on the curb stood Dorothy Squires, looking from left to right, appearing a little agitated.
I lowered the passenger window, and pulled up right beside her. Mary-Christine called out. “Dorothy? Do you need a ride?”
Our stopping didn’t seem to calm her any; if anything she seemed more jumpy. I leant over Mary-Christine, and shouted out the window. “Dorothy? It’s Lyman!”
On recognizing me, she reluctantly walked over to the car, and crouched down. “Mom should be here by now. She’s late, and she’s not answering her cell.”
“Hey, we can give you a ride.” I said. “We’ve got time.” Dorothy looked passed Mary-Christine to the mess in the back.
Vampire High School (Book 1: Gregor Academy) Page 9
