'Sure. Your sword's in the boot.'
SEVENTY-SIX
Reece sat on the stairs, smoking despite the pain. He'd done all he could.
Mira sat beside him. 'He's gone.'
'You're not.'
'I — I'm fragile.' Her breath gusted hot and fetid against his ear, his cheek. 'Reece, you're bleeding.'
'It's not for you.' He forced the words out, clinging to them as his vision swam. Light headed. His cigarette tasted of dung and burning leaves, but he dragged it in. No point quitting now.
'I could heal—'
He shook his head, just once.
She put her arm around his shoulders. She was as cold as he felt.
'How long you been compos mentis?' he asked.
'A few hours. Tran gave me sips of his blood. Called it research; trying to use a blood link to understand bedlam. But I think he really just liked the idea of having his blood in me.'
She rubbed her face against Reece's cheek, breathed in deeply; her lips dry against the pulse in the side of his throat.
Her breast pressed against his arm. A fang threatened to pierce his flesh. He held his breath, waiting, but she leaned back, rubbed her face, forced her shoulders back, smiled a chilling grin.
'He was foolish to let me taste him. There's nothing quite like the news you're about to be made an example of to cut through the cacophony. I stole Vater's idea, the same one he used on Melpomene, and gave Tran more research material than he could handle. It was quite cathartic.'
'You killed the others in the ward, I take it.'
'Bedlam builds a thirst, Reece.' She rubbed her wrist, where the blood tattoos had shrivelled into ugly welts. Only his and Matheson's remained, twin pulsing scars.
'Welcome back.'
'They killed Vater, you know. It was in Tran's blood. Campbell and the others, they tore him down like hyenas on a lame wildebeest. I think, at the end, he was glad.'
He blew smoke away from her, hearing himself wheeze with the effort of talking. 'The Needle. A coup.'
'Two in the one night. Do you know who won?'
'Find out... when those cars get here.'
The sirens were louder, now; the wind had risen, frigid air gusting against him, and clouds hanging low and lit by lightning, growling with drumrolls of thunder that shook the windows.
Would the sirens reach him in time? Would they care?
Mira pulled her knees up and hugged herself around them, as though feeling the chill. The death of her father — her vampiric father — would have rocked her, as well as the loss of her two blood-linked servants, Vee and Felicity. It was a wonder she could walk, let alone talk.
'Where do you think the grease monkey will go?' she asked.
'South, prob'ly. The Japanese... at the cemetery... on the island... Rodan's. Prob'ly hopin' to get Melpo cured there somehow.'
He slumped, the words having taken it all out of him. Could barely hold his ciggie. It loomed large, a red sun flaring in the dark.
She squeezed his arm, the pressure coming at a great distance. 'He has an over-developed sense of loyalty, that boy. It's an admirable trait.'
They sat quietly then, Reece considering whether she'd just thanked him for saving her life. Surely she couldn't want to go after Matheson? The kid could've killed them. Put them both out of their misery. Maybe.
'Nice view of 'Bane from here,' she said, pointedly not looking at him.
He smiled at her nickname for the city. It had proven accurate. 'It is.'
'Nice, at night.'
'Better by daylight.'
She sounded, not so much disappointed, as resigned, when she said, 'But there's so much of it, Reece.'
'Depends on your perspective.' He coughed, wetly, tried to ignore the scarlet on his fingers, on his cigarette.
'I should leave before the police get here.'
'Shame you can't drive.' His fingers, numb, groped for the Monaro's keys but failed to find them. He'd never got to drive it, and that filled him with an incredible weight of regret.
'I'll wait till you've finished your cigarette,' she said, holding him upright. 'I've got time.'
And then the storm broke, rain crashing down hard and dark and cold like the end of the world.
EPILOGUE
Kevin drove south in one of Maximilian's SUVs, given to him by the Needle. In the centre console was pepper spray, a Taser and a Staker. Under the floor of the boot were firearms of various calibres. He wore a handgun in a shoulder holster and had another strapped to his ankle, a dagger sheathed on his left forearm. He hoped he wouldn't need any of it, but five months in post-revolution Brisbane had taught him you could never be too careful.
He pulled over to check the GPS. This was the place. He was early. He'd passed an imposing set of gates guarded by men in penguin suits; they were out of sight on the other side of a slight rise. He moved the car onto a wide section of gravel shoulder next to the property's iron fence from where he could see the manor through a thin line of scrub.
The manor was of stone, with a tower that spoke to Kevin of armed guards and attack dogs but was probably just a nice spot to take in the view.
And what a view it would be. The building sat, surrounded by bare grape vines, on the crest of a hill, lights blazing like a cruise liner against the dark backdrop of the Blue Mountains. Sydney lay sprawled across the eastern horizon, erasing the stars with its glow. The winter chill crept through the windshield, the cold having come down with the night.
Yoshi had told him to be here and here he was. Armed to the teeth. As nervous as hell.
Kevin had all but given up hope that Yoshi's mate could bring Melpomene out of bedlam. Everyone had been so sure that only Danica or Mira could do it. Danica was dead, and Mira, well, for all he knew, she and Hunter could be dead by now, too, although he suspected she wasn't — that was something he reckoned he'd feel, in the blood.
The sound of an approaching engine made him sit up, reach for the gun on the seat next to him. A glow of headlights suggested a car coming his way, but they dimmed on the other side of the rise, and an SUV beetled up the drive, eventually parking in an area of the lawn already crowded with cars.
Party time.
He waited, the clock ticking down toward the rendezvous time like the fuse on a bomb. Finally, a car left the house. It came over the rise. He flashed his lights. It pulled over. Kevin stepped out, pistol gripped under his coat.
The vague shapes of two people showed palely behind the windscreen.
Yoshi got out from behind the wheel, slick hair pulled back, and wearing a suit that jarred Kevin. He had never thought of the man as a corporate lackey.
'I didn't bring your bike,' Kevin told him, although that would've been evident.
'I've got another,' Yoshi said, dismissing the comment, and flashed a smile. 'And someone to see you.'
He went around to open the passenger door, but the passenger was already out.
Melpomene.
'Hi,' she said.
She wore a low-cut dress, clinging around the hips. She pecked Yoshi on the cheek and walked over to Kevin, stepping gingerly on the gravel road in her heels.
'All better then,' he said, Mr Obvious striking again.
She gave a catwalk twirl, hem rippling around her ankles. 'Clean bill of health, thanks to the Strigoi.'
'Mira?' He looked around, half expecting to see her lurking in the shadows.
'Long gone,' Yoshi told him. 'She said if anyone asked, to say she'd gone walkabout.'
'Weird, huh?' Mel drew sombre. 'Do you know what happened to Blake?'
'I hoped you might, him being your bludger and all.'
'I feel him, but there's no contact.'
He answered with a nod that he hoped conveyed sympathy.
'So, how are things back in 'Bane?' she asked.
''Bane?' He knew someone, or knew someone who knew someone, who called Brissie that. The thought made him frown, a half-remembered dream with a sense of lingering importance.
He told them how the Needle had taken a lot of pleasure in showing him the tapes from the council meeting. How Treasurer Tony Campbell and his minions had come stomping in only to find the Needle sitting in the head chair, the meeting truly stacked. By the time the smoke had cleared, there'd been plenty of empty chairs for the filling.
The green-uniformed VSS had sided with the Needle, much to Campbell's fatal surprise. There was footage of the Needle sliding a folder across the table to the Marshall — she was the one who'd put Campbell down; rolling him onto his back so he could watch her put two rounds through his head.
'Running some casino now,' Kevin said.
'And what about you?' Mel asked.
He'd been waiting for a phone call; he'd hoped Kala, but it'd been Yoshi who'd rung. Not that he told them that; just stuck with the simple fact that he'd been doing odd jobs for the Needle as he'd set up his new regime.
'What kind of jobs?' Yoshi asked.
'Mechanic,' he mumbled.
'Mechanic? With cars or what?'
Kevin shrugged, then added, 'The Needle wants me to, um, find Blake.'
Mel nodded. 'Ah. So it's not just my good looks.'
'Your personality as well,' he said, and was rewarded with a lift of the lips.
'Well, I still appreciate you coming all this way. Is there a plan?'
'I can take you wherever you want to go. No rush.'
'Good. After being... preoccupied for so long, I really feel like painting the town red.'
He baulked as he tried to work out her meaning, that sense of a haunting dream hitting him again.
She took his hand. 'Metaphorically, Kevin. Metaphorically.'
He shrugged off a feeling of unease. For whatever reason, Mira had been here and healed Mel and then left.
A peace offering? Or another game? It didn't matter.
Mel was with him and she was fine. Together, they would make a good team.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS
The story of Kevin Matheson was always a road trip, extending from the Queensland outback to the coast and the capital city of Brisbane. That journey has changed significantly, spanning more than a decade and multiple iterations, culminating in the publishing of Blood and Dust in 2012 as a digital-only book. But that story began and ended in the outback: Kevin's journey was only half done.
So I am indebted to Clan Destine Press and publisher Lindy Cameron for backing this duology in both paperback and digital formats, and for giving me the opportunity to work with editor Dmetri Kakmi on The Big Smoke.
I'm also thankful to the staff of Xoum and my agent Selwa Anthony for their support of Blood and Dust and allowing CDP to slip into the driver's seat.
Along the way, the story that became the duology benefited from the feedback and guidance of numerous writing groups and writing buddies: these friends we make are the true milestones of the writing journey.
I also owe a debt to my dice-rolling mates from the Rockhampton days who provided creative sparks for the original story; those sparks flicker still within these pages.
Finally, I thank my wife and fellow writer Kirstyn McDermott for her enduring support and faith.
Vampires
in the
Sunburnt Country
Vols 1 & 2
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First published in Australia 2015
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Copyright © Jason Nahrung 2015
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National Library of Australia Cataloguing-In-Publication data:
Nahrung, Jason
The Big Smoke
Vampires in the Sunburnt Country 2
ISBN 978-0-9942619-5-3
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