by Joe Fowler
“They can’t hurt you at all. There’s nothing to be afraid of, I promise you.” Josh said. I put my arm around Rosalyn trying to give her strength. “If she shows up, I will ask her to leave until you guys are gone. Will that help?”
“Yes. Sorry, I know how stupid this must seem. I am one of the toughest beings on earth and I am afraid of something that can’t hurt me. I just can’t control it.” Rosalyn took a deep breath trying to regain her composure. She gave a nod to Josh and he led the way to the door and invited us into the house. That was one thing the movies got right, we had to be invited in. What the movies didn’t always get right is the part where we can compel a human to invite us in anyway.
“We stopped for hamburgers on the way. I guessed you would be hungry.” Alicia looked at us. “Vampires can’t eat regular food right?”
“No we can’t. We can drink any kind of liquids, but no regular food.” Rosalyn answered. I was hoping for a drink.
“We have beer and coke if you want.” Alicia was a sweet host. You could tell she really wanted us to feel at home.
“Beer for both of us, please.” Rosalyn was thirsty too.
The four werewolves were eating with gusto leaving Rosalyn and me to sit and sip our beer. I found myself looking around. The inside of the house was very comfortable looking. The furniture was stylish but comfortable. It looked like a nice warm home. As the eating slowed the talking began.
“What exactly are we looking for here? I have found vampires scattered all over town but never more than four at a time.” Josh started the conversation.
“In Jackson, they had taken over a warehouse. In Memphis, it was a toy company. I have no clue what kind of business they will have here. If I could find a vampire, I can play the new vampire in town role and find out where they are. That’s what we had to do in Memphis.” Rosalyn took a drink. “They are assigning vampires feeding grounds to avoid fighting amongst themselves. They have a feed but don’t kill rule, we can be grateful for that at least. They are convinced that they can integrate themselves into human society. It is all those touchy feely movies with nice caring vampires that have these groups convinced humans will accept them openly.”
“You say there were around a hundred and fifty in Jackson?” Josh asked.
“Yes. We found the warehouse by accident really. We fed on other vampires and were riding around the city when we crossed the scent of a huge amount of vamps. We stopped and went in. The leader of that group told us that there were around one hundred and fifty in Jackson alone. Anyway, we killed the hundred or so that was working at the warehouse that night and started the fire to hide the bodies. The following night we rode around looking for the rest. We found them gathering at a park. We tried to talk to them to explain how stupid going public was, but they wouldn’t listen. We killed them too.”
“One hundred killed by the two of you. I might have underestimated you both. Tell us why Memphis is going to be a problem.” Josh was still eating, but was coming up for air more often. I have never seen such appetites. Even the tiny ninety pound Alicia had eaten three whoppers with an order of fries for each.
“The toy company is in a huge three story building. It has doors all around and a lot of windows. There is no way that we could keep them from running once they saw that they couldn’t beat me.” Rosalyn finished her beer before continuing. “Besides, I don’t want Austin to be at risk again. He is like you in a way. He is far stronger and faster than a newborn should be. Still, he almost died at that warehouse. I barely got to him in time. Which is another problem, I am limited some because I will be so worried about protecting him.”
“I can understand that.” Josh looked at the women in his pack with so much love that it touched me. “With you, Seth, and me all there, the others can just be on door watch. They can surround the building and pick off any vamps that escape us.”
“That’s kind of what I had in mind too. I had thought of blocking the doors and setting fire to the building but if the fire department got there in time too many would survive. There wasn’t any way I could think of to be sure enough of them would die. So, I came here to see if this group could be handled by us. I had already planned on going back to Mobile and asking Seth for help with Memphis.” Alicia sat another beer in front of Rosalyn and me as Rosalyn finished talking. “Thanks, Alicia”
“So what we need to do first is find a vampire and see if he will tell us the business the vampires have taken over in Chattanooga. Then we can make our plans after.” Josh was through eating and looked ready for action.
“Exactly. Austin and I can continue to ride around the city stopping at bars and other likely haunts. Do you know of any place where they have been repeatedly?” Rosalyn asked. She looked ready for a fight too.
“No. Every vampire or group of vampires I have killed, have been in a different place than before. We can help you find the most likely bars though.” Josh motioned to Sarah and Crystal to get their attention. “You two go look on the computer for a list of bars and night clubs in the area.”
“The ones with the most people are the most likely. Small bars tend to have the same people every night and would be suspicious of any newcomers.” Rosalyn added. Sarah and Crystal went to see what they could find.
“They are a couple aren’t they? I don’t want to offend either way, but the way they look at each other leads me to think they are together.” Rosalyn stated. I wondered why she didn’t ask more quietly so they wouldn’t overhear. Then it hit me, werewolves had hearing as good as or better than ours. They would have heard a whisper from outside.
“Yes. Josh helped get them together.” Alicia was the one who answered. One look at Rosalyn’s confusion and Alicia elaborated. “He has visions. He got a vision of first one then the other and knew that they would like each other.”
“That makes more sense. What are his visions like? He told us some on the way over but he didn’t go into detail. Are the visions from his demon father?” Rosalyn was more interested in this than I expected. Then it hit me, she had found something new. After two thousand years there isn’t much she hasn’t seen before. Josh, with his demon half, was completely different from anything she had known.
“The visions happen when he touches a human. It doesn’t work on vampires or wolves. He sees what that person is trying to hide. It can be a crime committed, a sin, or just something really embarrassing. He hates it.” Alicia looked at Josh and smiled.
“I also hate it when y’all talk about me like I’m not in the same room.” Josh shook his head and looked at us. “Those three do that all the time. It drives me up the wall.”
I found myself laughing. Josh was a really likeable person. I could see how much he cared for his little family. I envied him for a moment. While I was thankful to have Rosalyn, I had to die to get close to her.
“Hey. Wouldn’t your find a thing flashes work for this?” Alicia asked Josh. I hoped they were going to explain because that made no sense to me.
“No, I have to be looking for someone or something specific. If I knew one of the vampires then I could find them. I don’t know the bars around here so I couldn’t look in and see if I could find one.” Josh said.
“You guys don’t go to bars?” Rosalyn asked.
“Josh and the girls aren’t old enough. I have to buy all the alcohol for us. The girls are nineteen and Josh is still eighteen.” Alicia explained. I hoped my jaw didn’t look too silly on the floor. He was only eighteen and was one of the most powerful beings on earth.
Sarah and Crystal came back with a list of local bars with directions to each one since we were not familiar with the area. The six of us discussed which places would be best to check first. I mostly watched and listened. We took Crystal’s phone with us so we could call and keep them informed. Also, if we found out that Chattanooga would be an easy takedown, we could call and have them meet us there.
We had luck on our first stop. There were three vampires, all male, two in a booth and one at
the bar. We headed for the bar and started talking to the vampire there. As soon as we told him we were new in town he took us to join with the other two in the booth.
“Where are you two from?” The vampire from the bar was asking. The one from the bar had a long spiky hairstyle while the other two had normal haircuts that would fit in anywhere. The two from the booth were the all business types while the spiky haired one was laughing and joking a lot.
“We were living in Hurley, Mississippi. That’s down in the southern part of the state. This huge werewolf was causing us problems though. We finally decided to just leave.” Rosalyn did most of our talking as usual. I was fine with that arrangement, I had never been much of a talker anyway.
“You came to the right place. There must be five hundred vampires in Chattanooga by now. We own three businesses and work them ourselves. Of course we do have to hire some humans to work during the daytime, but we make sure they don’t know too much yet.” Spiky hair was all too happy to talk.
“What do you mean ‘yet’? Are you planning on turning them?” Rosalyn had caught the slip up and was hoping this vampire would elaborate.
“Nope. We will be going public soon. We are going to tell the humans about vampires.” Spiky said easily enough. The other two vampires seemed to wish Spiky would shut up.
“Wow! Really! When is that going to happen?” Rosalyn continued the interrogation.
“The leaders haven’t decided yet. They are saying that it should be in the next couple of months, though.” Spiky took another drink and one of the booth vampires spoke up.
“Maybe we should take them to Silas and let him explain.” His booth buddy nodded in agreement. “We’ve all fed already, so we can take them to see Silas now.”
“Who is Silas?” Rosalyn looked relieved but needed to keep asking the questions. We had hoped they would try to ‘take’ us somewhere. That would make it easy to get them outside away from the humans without drawing any attention to ourselves.
“He runs the furniture store where we work. He is one of the leaders. He can fill you guys in on the details and help you get established in town somewhere.” Spiky got up from the booth and motioned for us to follow.
The five of us left the bar. They were parked near us so we had it easy. With a quick look around to make sure no humans could see, Rosalyn knocked Spiky hair guy upside the head. He fell unconscious as the other two turned on us. It wasn’t much of a fight. We each took one and fed quickly. We threw the bodies in the bed of my truck and put spiky haired in the front of the truck between Rosalyn and me. Once we were back on the road, Rosalyn called Josh to let him know we were on our way back to his house.
Josh was waiting on the porch when we pulled into his yard. Spiky hair vampire had woke up during the ride to Josh’s but saw his situation and did not struggle. We knew he was just biding his time. Sure enough when we got out at Josh’s house Spiky jerked his arm free and tried to run. Rosalyn appeared in front of him and caught him by the arm as he tried to swerve. She quickly got him back under control and led him to the porch. Josh was prepared. He had a rope ready and used it to tie our prisoner to one of the porch chairs.
“That didn’t take long.” Josh was smiling. “I wasn’t expecting you to catch one this easily. I thought it might even take days.”
“There were three at the first bar we went to. They said and did everything to make this easier for us. This one was talking up a storm and the other two suggested we go talk to their leader. I had a thought of going ahead and meeting the leader but I was hungry and knew Austin probably was too. So we fed on two of them, tore their heads off, and threw them in the back of the truck. This way is better. We can get more information before we move forward.” Rosalyn sat on the porch rail as she spoke.
“I agree. It is better to know what we are up against before you get too far into this. Did he say when they were going public?” Josh asked.
“He said it would be in the next couple of months. The bad news is that the vampires have three businesses here. We can’t hit three at once and if we hit one the others will be on alert. This is getting harder instead of easier. I hadn’t really appreciated how easy Jackson had been until now. Maybe you and Seth will have an idea. I don’t see a clear way of attack.”
“Wait, you were the ones that burned the warehouse in Jackson?” The spiky haired vampire looked furious. “Why would you betray your own kind?”
“I am trying to live. If you idiots go public then we are all going to die. The werewolves will be under attack soon after, so they are helping me stop you morons.” Rosalyn shook her head. “I haven’t lived this long to watch brainless ticks like you ruin it for me.”
“Silas is fifteen hundred years old. He will deal with you easily enough.” Spiky seemed really sure of his leader until he heard our laughter. “What are y’all laughing at? Two of the other leaders are well over a thousand years old too. There is even a three thousand year old who is supposed to be on our side in this decision to go public.”
“A three thousand year old vampire would be a problem if it were just me.” Rosalyn looked at Josh and said, “I doubt Seth would have a problem dealing with him though.”
“Seth can handle him, believe me. If I can’t on my own, then the two of us together could take him.” Josh sounded calm.
“I guess that’s true. Are you really that tough? If you trust me enough, I would like to spar with you one of these nights. It would be better to wait until Seth is here though. He can make sure we don’t get carried away and kill one another.” She sounded hopeful that Josh would agree to it.
“I think we could arrange that. I haven’t had a real fight since my demon father was beating the hell out of me. I am just glad Seth was there to handle him.” Josh looked like he would welcome the sparring too.
“As long as the two of you don’t get too serious and hurt each other.” I spoke up. “We all need to be at full strength for what is ahead of us.”
“Are you people insane? You think you can take a three thousand year old vampire?” Spiky didn’t understand.
“Rosalyn is twenty-four hundred years old, herself.” I informed him. As Spiky’s eyes got big I continued with, “Josh is half demon as well as an alpha werewolf. Seth, the werewolf that they were talking about, is a four hundred year old third generation pureblood. From what I understand, Seth is the baddest man on the planet. Believe me when I say that they can handle themselves.”
“I might as well tell you, I don’t look like the normal werewolf. When I turn I look more like a red eyed bigfoot. I don’t look anything like a wolf.” Josh was smiling.
“Really? I want to see it. It isn’t often I see something as different as you. After two millennia you start to get bored with most everything.” Rosalyn was clearly intrigued. “Maybe after we question this one? Will you show me then?”
“Sure. Let’s get the questioning done.” With that said, Josh and Rosalyn took up positions, her in front and him behind Spiky. “You can probably guess what comes next. We are going to ask you questions and you are going to answer them. If you tell us what we want to know, then we can sit here talking and drinking beer. If you try to avoid the questions, then you will feel pain. It is an easy choice. If your bosses are as powerful as you think then what you tell us won’t matter anyway. So you should tell us what we need to know and avoid the pain.”
“Ask away.” Spiky gritted his teeth but didn’t seem inclined to be tortured.
“What are the businesses the vampires are running in Chattanooga?” Rosalyn started off the questioning.
“Eragon’s Furniture World, Blaylock Warehouse and Distribution, and New Blood Electronics. Humans work the day shifts but the real work is done at night by us.” Spiky was cooperating at least.
“How many vampires are at each location?” Rosalyn asked.
“Usually between sixty and seventy at the furniture warehouse where we store other companies furniture and we make our own. The actual furniture store
stays empty until just before opening. From what I understand, there is between one hundred and one hundred thirty at each of the other two locations. I don’t know for sure since I have never been to either of them. Overall there must be close to five hundred vampires in the Chattanooga area now.” He looked up at Rosalyn and asked, “Where’s the beer you guys were talking about?”
“Austin, would you mind going to get us some beer? There should be plenty in the fridge.” Josh told me.
I went inside and headed for the kitchen. Alicia was walking that way with me. She and the two girls had been in the front room, apparently listening to what was happening on the porch. I couldn’t blame them for that. It must make them a bit uncomfortable with three vampires around. I had been hearing how tough Josh was, but they also knew how formidable Rosalyn was. They would have to be a little uneasy.
“Here you go.” Alicia was handing me the beer so I could arrange them well enough in my hands.
“Thank you.” I tried to make sure to be polite since Alicia had seemed to be a really sweet person so far. She smiled in answer and I took the beer to the porch.
“How much do you know about the three thousand year old vampire?” Josh asked after we had all opened and started on our beer. Rosalyn helped Spiky take his drink since his hands were tied.
“Not much. His name is Cyrano or Sylvanost or something like that.” Spiky said. Rosalyn stiffened noticeably.
“You mean Cyranos?” She looked at Spiky with alarm.
“Yes, that’s the name. I don’t know much about him, just some rumors. He is supposed to be one of the oldest vampires left. He came to town a few weeks ago. From what I hear, he doesn’t like the catch and release rules. I heard he kills every human he feeds from. He is supposedly from Greece or something.” Spiky motioned with his head for more beer. Rosalyn gave him some.
“Cyranos is more than three thousand years old. More like forty-five hundred. He is the meanest and most evil of our kind. If he is backing these idiots then it is so he will have an excuse to kill more humans. He may just be bored and is hoping that this will be entertaining. I had hoped he went to ground and forgotten to wake up.” Rosalyn was visibly shaking. I started to get uneasy myself.
