by Joe Fowler
“Remember to be careful. We can’t let them know we are watching.” Josh was stating the obvious.
“Everyone watch until say two thirty or so. That will give us an idea of the night’s activities and time to be gone before the vampires leave in mass after work. I would advise not stopping anywhere unless it is really important. There are still going to be stray vampires around the city. Any questions?” Seth waited a moment before continuing. “Be safe and keep your phones on vibrate.”
Seth walked down the steps and headed to the Tahoe that was parked in Josh’s yard. Josh and his crew got into a Dodge Challenger. Rosalyn and I followed Jimmy and Thomas to a blue van. Jimmy took a look at the map getting a general sense of it before we drove off. Rosalyn was in the passenger seat up front. I sat in the seat behind the driver.
As we rode, I found my eyes locked on Rosalyn. Her beauty was still so shocking to me. I knew every perfect inch of her and I still could not look at her without losing my concentration. She was as mesmerizing now as she had been that first night. I was helpless when she turned her eyes on me.
I realized how stupid I had been during my life. I had avoided people and relationships because of how much people had disappointed me. I had grown tired of being lied to and seeing only the bad things that society offered. I had convinced myself that love didn’t really exist and trying to find it was a waste of time. I had love now. I could only wish that I had given people more of a chance.
When we neared the furniture store we did a quick check to make sure Spiky had told us the truth. It seemed empty enough, just the way he said it would be. We headed on to the warehouse that was a few miles away. All of us were being quiet now even though there wasn’t any need yet. The mischievous part of me wanted to shout ‘woohoo’ or something just to see how high they jumped. We were wound up a bit too tight.
The warehouse was your standard design. One small main door in front with large bay doors on the side for trucks to load and unload. We tried to drive around the side streets to see how the back of the building was set up but fences blocked our view. The small business to the unseen side of the warehouse was dark and obviously closed for the night.
“Drive past again. I will get out and look at the side and rear of the building on foot.” Rosalyn said. I didn’t like it but I could see it was the best option we had.
“Are you sure? What if they catch you?” Jimmy asked.
“I will be there and gone before they know anyone was near. Remember, I can run faster than Seth. Even if they do sense me, they won’t catch me.” Rosalyn sounded so sure that Jimmy went along with her plan.
Jimmy stopped just out of sight of the furniture building. Rosalyn got out of the van and was gone in a flash of movement, leaving her door open. She used the small business to hide her approach to the fence. She disappeared between the fence and small building briefly. She was back at the van in another flash. She got back into the van and motioned for Jimmy to drive. She waited until we were some distance away before she shut the door.
“The side only has one small door that looks unused. The back has three small doors at even intervals. The only way to that area is through the building or close to the sides. There wasn’t a break in the fence line on the side or in the back. There were several vampires there smoking and talking. They were being loud enough to not be able to hear me and my smell shouldn’t be prevalent enough for them to see that it wasn’t one of their own vampires.” She motioned for him to pull over. “Did you see a place that we could see what we needed without drawing attention to ourselves?”
“Yep. The street on the truck bay side. If we park on up a ways then we can see the bay doors and the front door. We will be able to see anyone entering or leaving the building from there.”
Jimmy turned around and headed back to a street further down. We would come at the warehouse without having to pass directly by it. He turned the lights off before we turned onto the street we would be watching from. We parked on the opposite side of the street behind a small company car for the business we were next to. The van was hidden in the darkness since there weren’t any streetlights near. Jimmy sunk low in his seat and Rosalyn came and sat with me. We couldn’t have hoped for much better than this.
We all tried to get comfortable since we would be here for quite a few hours. The first hour or so went by slowly. There was no traffic in or out of the warehouse on foot or by truck. The trucks started coming in around eleven o’clock and were backing in and pulling out regularly afterward. We started making a game of how many times it would take a truck to pull in correctly. It was a tight area so they were having some trouble getting their trailers lined up with the doors properly.
We kept up our watch through the boredom. The trucks had stopped by one o’clock so we had no distractions. The front door remained closed and no cars entered or left the parking lot. When two thirty finally rolled around, we backed out and left without passing directly by the warehouse. We relaxed a little on the way back to Josh’s house.
Seth was there when we returned but Josh hadn’t got back yet. We drank a few beer and sat on the porch while we waited. The Dodge Challenger pulled in about thirty minutes later. Josh’s group looked a little excited when they got out. I didn’t know what was going on yet but I didn’t think it could be good.
“Sarah bring me a beer would you?” Josh asked as they walked up on the porch. He then turned to Seth. “We were late because we stopped for gas and ran into four vampires at the gas station. They were out for blood and wanted mine really badly.”
“Did anyone see you kill them?” Seth asked. He was clearly worried.
“Yes. The cashier saw enough. I spent some time giving him a speech about vampires and werewolves. He seemed more excited than scared after that. He swore to destroy the tapes from the cameras at the pumps, but that has me very worried. I wished I had been able to call Rosalyn to come and compel him to forget. I still want to go back and let her wipe his memory.” He looked at Rosalyn and asked her. “Would you mind? It won’t do us any good to stop these groups of vampires if that cashier decides to become famous.”
“Let’s go. This is too important not to.” She got up and Josh and I rose with her. We went to Josh’s Challenger and hauled ass back to the store. We entered the store and looked around for the cashier. After a few moments he came out from the back room.
“Whoa, you came back.” He looked really scared. Rosalyn walked up to him and locked eyes with him.
“Have you told anyone about what you saw?” She asked first.
“Yes. I called a friend. He wants to post the security feed on youtube.” He answered promptly in a monotone voice.
“Have you sent him the feed yet?”
“No. It is downloading to the computer now. It will be a few minutes before I can send it.” He replied.
“You need to stop the download and destroy the feed however you need to. You will not leave any evidence of vampire or werewolf. You will tell your friend that you were joking. You will remember that you were bored and wanted to play a prank. You will not remember seeing anything exciting or unusual. Do you understand?” Rosalyn had him under complete control from the looks of it.
“I understand.” The monotone answers continued.
“Tell me what you need to do.”
“I will stop the download and destroy the feed. I will make sure that there is no evidence of vampires or werewolves. Once that is done I will call my friend and tell him that is was all a prank. I will not remember seeing those vampires get killed.” He stopped talking but still could not move or break eye contact with Rosalyn.
“Good. Now go behind the register and sell us some beer.” Rosalyn turned to us and smiled. It was done. “We can always use more beer. You guys grab a couple of cases.”
“As soon as we walk out the door, get started on your assignment.” Rosalyn gave that one last command before we left.
“Great job! It’s too bad we can’t do that. It must
come in really handy.” Josh said as we got into the car.
“It really does. We would have to kill when we feed if we couldn’t compel them to forget.” Rosalyn explained. “You might want to hurry. Austin and I don’t have too much time before sunrise.”
“Sure thing.” Josh seemed very happy to drive fast. If I had this car, then I would speed everywhere I went.
We made it back with time to spare. Seth decided to wait for the planning part since most were tired and Rosalyn and I were about to be forced into the basement. We had one last beer each before we headed down for sleep.
Chapter 9
The next night started with sex. Just a quick, get the job done affair. It hit the spot though. I didn’t know if it would always be this way but starting out each day having sex was a great idea to me. That I was with the most beautiful woman imaginable was a bonus. The fact that I was in love with her was now undeniable.
We made our way upstairs and took turns in the shower. When we were through we headed out to the porch where most of the wolves were. Josh and Seth were on the porch with Alicia and Anna. The others were out for a run as they call it. We took a seat with them.
“Have any decisions been made?” Rosalyn asked. Having to sleep all day was keeping us out of the loop.
“Nothing definite. We’ve narrowed down the time for the attacks to happen. At each site, the trucks are through by one o’clock. We attack at one thirty at all four places. I called some other wolf packs and told them what was happening. They are going to Memphis. They will coordinate with us so all four buildings are attacked at the same time. I just hope they can get along well enough to stay focused.” Seth filled us in. “If I had to guess, I would say it will be at least three days before we are ready to go.”
“You two should go get your things from the hotel. There’s no reason for you to be paying for a room and taking a chance on a maid entering during the day.” Alicia suggested. Personally, I was glad it was her that said it. As much as I liked Seth and Josh, if one of them had said the same thing it would have sounded like they were trying to keep an eye on us. Like they didn’t trust us. Alicia was so sweet you would never believe there to be a darker motive.
“We can do that. What you think Austin? Ready for a ride?” Rosalyn was smiling when she said it. I didn’t know what she was thinking but it looked like it was going to be fun. At least I hoped so.
“Sure.” We headed for the truck.
We rode in silence most of the way. I was starting to think she just wanted to be away from the wolves for a while. I guess it would be extremely weird for her to have been in such close contact with them for this long. My life had been weird since I saw her in my backyard. Sleeping in the basement of a werewolf’s house wasn’t that big of a deal to me.
“I needed to get away from them for a while. I know how lucky we are to have their help, but it is nerve racking to be around them. I am used to being indestructible. Now, I am basically living with two werewolves that are more powerful than me. What’s worse is that we might have to face a vampire that could be even tougher than those two. I haven’t had to doubt myself in a very long time. It makes me uncomfortable.” Rosalyn sounded so sad. It didn’t seem to be a big deal to me.
“Those two werewolves are really good people. They won’t harm you. Cyranos will have all three of you to deal with. Even he can’t be that powerful. I understand you aren’t used to being vulnerable, but it isn’t such a bad thing. Everyone else feels that way a lot of the time. It’s just a part of life. Just try to relax.” I didn’t know if my words sunk in. She still seemed sad and a little distant.
We didn’t talk anymore until we were in the hotel room. I took down the blanket from the window while she packed her clothes. I decided to let her be the one to break the silence. I couldn’t really sympathize since I had never felt overly powerful. Even since being turned and having killed so many vampires, I was still nothing compared to Rosalyn. Technically I am a very powerful being now, but I never based my life on something like that. I hoped she could accept being around Seth and Josh at least a little longer.
“I know I’m being stupid about all of this. It has just been so long since I had to be careful about such things.” She said this quietly. Like she was ashamed for feeling that way. I racked my brain trying to figure out how to fix it.
“You shouldn’t let it bother you. How can you control how you feel when it is something so new to you? Hopefully after all of this is over with, you can have another twenty-four hundred years of being the top of the food chain.” I didn’t know if it would help but it was the best I could come up with.
“You’re right. I just need to suck it up until this is over with. Thanks for putting up with my quirks.” Rosalyn sounded like she was becoming determined not to show any more weakness. That wasn’t what I had in mind, but if it got her through this sadness she was feeling then it would be a good thing.
“If anything, I wish you had more quirks. You’ve been pretty much perfect since I met you.” I admitted.
She didn’t say anything she just kissed me. When the kiss broke I looked down into her eyes and for a moment I felt like maybe she loved me too. I had never been in too serious of a relationship. This was all very new to me.
We grabbed our bags and headed for the truck. The ride back was quiet. I had really come to enjoy the wind rushing in through the windows. It was one of those weirdly peaceful things. Rosalyn seemed to be in a better mood and that would always make me more at ease. That ride back to Josh’s was an oddly moving experience for me.
Almost all of the wolves were back on the porch when we pulled up. As we walked toward the house, I had to put up with the usual remarks about the state of my truck. They were laughing at it pretty hard. I just smiled and ignored them. I liked my truck.
“Any problems?” Josh asked.
“Nope. Everything went smoothly. You two look like you’re having a lazy night. Have y’all even moved since we left?” Rosalyn joked.
“Don’t plan on moving unless I have to.” Seth was laughing.
“You need a lazy night sometimes.” Josh threw in. “Why don’t y’all grab a beer and be lazy with us?”
“Sounds good to me.” Rosalyn said. She took my bag from me. “Have a seat, I will grab us a beer on the way back.”
“Austin, they are saying you are surprising for a newborn. How strong are you?” Jimmy asked. He said it good naturedly so I didn’t see a problem with it.
“According to Rosalyn, I could probably take a thousand year old vampire. I know the ones I have killed so far were all very easy.” I figured that would be explanation enough. I hoped he wouldn’t want a demonstration.
“First Josh, now you. The rest of us are starting to feel bad.” Jimmy was laughing when he said it. “First time out and y’all are stronger than most of us will ever be. Did Josh tell you about the first night he turned? He ended up fighting a huge bear. He beat the crap out of that bear too.”
“No. That must have been some fight. Even now, I see a bear and I’m running.” I said it with a laugh. Jimmy was laughing and nodding as if to say he would run too.
“You guys need some more stories.” Josh was shaking his head. Rosalyn came out and sat beside me.
“I know, tell us about the Jackson vampires. That sounds like a hell of a story and it might be useful.” One of the female vampires said. I think her name was Cynthia.
“Yes. That sounds promising.” Jimmy sounded like he wanted to hear it. Rosalyn looked at me and shrugged.
“Well okay then. We had been riding with the windows down and had smelled a huge concentration of vampires. We stopped at the warehouse where it was coming from. As we approached the door, a vampire opened it and showed us in. He led us through the main area where we were shocked to see vampires everywhere. It was hard to tell how many there were cause everyone was moving around. Anyway, he led us into an office in the back of the warehouse where we talked to the leader. He told us what they w
ere planning. That was the last thing he did too. Rosalyn had went around the desk and took his head before he could even move to defend himself. We left the office and all hell broke loose. I have this survival type knife.” I reached behind me and took it out so they would see what it looked like. “I pulled it and was fighting for my life. They were coming at me four and five at a time. Rosalyn was death itself. She was killing them faster than I could have imagined. I don’t know how many I killed but the bodies had started piling up around me pretty good. I was facing three vamps when a fourth hit me from the side. The other three didn’t hesitate. They started kicking and stomping until I got knocked out. I just knew I was a goner. I woke up as Rosalyn was finishing off the last of them. She had seen them take me down and she stopped them before they had the chance to kill me.”
“Wow. How many were there?” Cynthia asked.
“The leader had told us that there were one hundred and forty or so in Jackson. We killed about a hundred that night at the warehouse. We burned the warehouse to hide the rotting bodies. The next night we rode around to see if we could find the other forty. We got lucky and found them at a park. We killed them easily.” I finished to nods of approval.
“So you are a hell of a newborn then. Rosalyn sounds like she is on Josh’s and Seth’s level. I’m sure glad you two are on our side.” Jimmy said and several others agreed.
“Believe me, we are the ones who are grateful. It was just the two of us trying to stop all these groups by ourselves when we first found out. Once I saw what we were facing in Memphis I had planned on trying to find Seth again. I figured any wolf that could put a scare into me would be good to have on my side when facing these kinds of numbers.” Rosalyn said. She sounded like she had overcome her earlier anxiety. “Have you guys ever seen so many vampires in one place before?”
“There were over a hundred at the cult house where we helped Josh. Our pack killed maybe forty or fifty of them. Seth and Josh killed that many or more in a few seconds that night. That was a hell of a fight. We lost one of ours but it was as much a human’s fault as a vampire’s. A human shot him through the heart and a few vampires finished him before he could heal.” Jimmy was visibly upset over the loss.
