Tainted Love

by Livell James

  I feel like I have been walking for miles down dark and dingy alleyways. Sex-crazed maniacs are on every corner, and noises poured from the darkness where vampires were feeding. Finally, I can see what looks like my parents’ lair just a few feet ahead.

  I can't believe I found it coming from the direction I did. I guess my instincts must have kicked in because I honestly had no idea where I was going or how I even got here.

  I walk up to the door, which looks like a huge concrete stone covered in black paint, the color and texture of tar. A small window covered in bars centers it. I suppose the window is small to keep others out. I have no clue as to the purpose of the bars. Maybe it’s just for looks. Thank God, I don't have to live down here. Reaching my arm up, I fit my hand between the bars and knock as hard as I can on the window. I know hitting on the concrete will accomplish nothing except break my knuckles, because it’s soundproof.

  After beating on the window for five minutes, my dad finally answers the door all six-foot-five inches of him. His long, stringy black hair is always flipped perfectly to the right side of his head. He has broad shoulders, and the darkest set of brown eyes. He still looks as young as he did the day he was turned, seventy-five years ago. Mother pops up behind him, so tiny in comparison. She is barely five feet tall, with short red hair and haunting blue eyes. I was born a year before my father turned her and claimed her as his mate. My fifteen-year-old brother Jonah pops out for a brief moment to say ‘hi,’ before he ran back to his room.

  “Haley, why are you beating the door down? Is someone after you? Have you lost your mind? Are you okay? I thought we told you never to come down here alone,” Dad fired off his questions in rapid, worried succession.

  “Yes, Dad, I am okay. Losing my mind is an understatement, but I’m not technically alone. I have these damn voices that keep haunting me and will not shut the hell up. They say you know who they are and why I have to protect their son. I found the guy, but I think I may have really freaked him out when I showed up at his job and told him I was talking to his parents. Now that I think back on it, I would have been pretty freaked out, as well. I just really didn't know what to do, so that was my first thought. Guess it wasn't the best idea I've ever had.”

  I paused to take a breath.

  “So here I am, hoping you and Mom might have some answers. These voices tell me their names are Dillion and Tonya Johnson, and I have to protect their son Austin. That’s all they keep saying, over and over. They also tell me that I don't have much time.”

  "Haley these people you speak of are, well, they were hunters. They hunted and killed evil, rogue vampires and shifters. They maybe even murdered a witch or two. I have heard they got run off the road by those Thompson boys. The investigators wrote it up as driving while intoxicated and said Dillion lost control, running the vehicle off the road. I’m pretty sure the story rings true with these brothers running them off the road.”

  “They were never a threat to those of us who stayed lowkey and brought our humans back here to feed. They always hunted down those who stalked humans like prey and feasted upon them until they were lifeless, or the ones who broke the code. Now, I don't know much about their son, Austin, as they always tried to keep him protected. As far as I know, he never knew what they did when they went out at night. I can tell you that Austin comes from a long line of hunters on his father's side. If I had to bet, those damn Thompson boys will be after him soon. Austin has no idea how much trouble he’s in and the shit storm that’s headed for him."

  "Damn, Angelus, slow down and take a breath," Mom huffs. “How the hell can she take all this in with you talking so fast? Come in, Haley, and close the dang door."

  "Oh, Celina, why do you always think no one understands me?" Dad replies.

  “Mom, I totally understood every word he said. What I am not understanding, is why am I the one who has to help this guy?”

  “Of course you understood him Haley, you were babbling just like him before he cut you off and started talking without catching his breath,” Mom jokes.

  "Haley, Celina, this is no laughing matter! This kid could be dead already, for all we know. He needs to be very careful and keep an eye out for trouble at all times. The brothers will not give up until they have what they want. Find him and try to convince him to come here. We will need to take this to Drake and the other Elders.”

  Drake is the eldest vampire in our coven. His sister, Eva, is next in line and then their brother Jareth.

  “They will let us know what you need to do to protect and help Austin. I wish I had more answers for you, but I have never had to deal with anything like this. Sure, I have fought many fights, but not with the hunters of the hunters,” Dad says in a stern voice.

  “Okay, I’ll head back to the store and hope he’s still there.”

  "Please be careful, dear, and keep your eyes on everything around you at all times," Mom says, worry in her voice.

  I left then, walking again for what seems like more miles than before, and then I finally reach the street. I look at my phone and notice three missed calls. Why is Stacy calling me so many times? I guess I should call her back. Damn! What is up with this song? Her ringtone is “Tainted Love.”

  “Hello!!” A guy’s voice answers impatiently.

  “Um, hello. I was trying to call Stacy, who is this?”

  “It’s Austin, who is this? Oh, never mind I see your name on the caller ID. Haley, we have been trying to get in touch with you for hours. Two guys showed up at my job looking like they just rolled out of a special agent movie. Stacy says they’re some kind of killers who hunt the hunters. Well, I’m not a hunter and have no idea why I am being hunted. And how can you talk to my parents? Did you know Stacy is a vampire? Are you a vampire, Haley? What the hell is going on?”

  “Austin, it’s too much to explain over the phone. I will need you to come to me, and I’ll explain everything then. Where are you?”

  “I’m with Stacy, and we’re hiding out in a parking garage on Travis Street.”

  While Austin proceeds to tell me where they are, it just dawned on me that I left my car back at the market.

  “Austin, I’m sending you my location. I’m close by, over on Market Street. You guys come pick me up and take me back to Jones’s Market to pick up my car. After that, you and I have to go on a trip to meet my parents,” I explained.

  “Meet your parents! Why do I have to meet your parents? We aren’t dating, Haley!” Austin says, sounding more freaked out.

  “Austin, I can’t explain right now. You have to trust me, and I will fill you in on everything once I’m in the car with you.”

  “That’s the same thing Stacy keeps saying over and over! I have to trust the two of you and should really listen to what you have to say. I’m willing to do so, but you must know how crazy and weird all this is to me. I’m just a homeless kid trying to find my way in life. Now, you all spring this shit on me with vampires, hunters, and tunnels—” Austin continued to rattle.

  "You have to just stay calm, and everything will work out. Right now, I need you to give Stacy my location. I’m kind of just standing here, talking, when you guys could have already been here by now.”

  Austin begins to speak again as I hang up the phone and push it back into my pocket. I know it was a smartass thing to do, but I need to tell him everything in person because so much can be lost in translation on the phone.

  Turning to face the street, I bumped into some guy walking past. “Excuse you! You should really watch where you’re going,” he says.

  Once he touches me, I can hear the voice of someone around him. “Tell him to stop!”

  “Stop!” I yelled at the stranger in the seconds before he almost steps out in front of a car speeding down Market street, straight through the traffic light which was red.

  “Guess you should be watching where you are going, sir,” I say with a slight smirk on my face.

  The car comes to a screeching halt and then turns around to come ba
ck toward us. Damn it! It was Stacy. Why the hell is she speeding and not paying attention to the light? She pulls into the parking space right in front of where I’m standing and rolls the window down. I look around trying to find the stranger, but it’s like he just disappeared. I don’t see him anywhere.

  “Oh my God, did I really almost hit that guy? I was just more focused on looking for you and totally didn’t see the stop light,” Stacy blurts out.

  “Yes, you did Stacy. Thankfully, he had spirits with him yelling for me to stop him,” I tell her as I climb into the back seat of her car.

  "Thank God you were there. I don't know what I would have done if I would have hit him," Stacy replies, looking terrified.

  “Just promise you're going to pay more attention with me in the car.”

  “Hurry Haley!” the voice of Austin’s dad chimes in.

  Wow. I had forgotten how beautiful this girl was until I turned around to look in the back seat. Looking her dead in the eyes, again, she makes the hair on my arms stand with a tingle. Those amazing cold blue eyes and that beautiful blonde hair, and she doesn't have the hoodie on hiding her perfect facial features anymore. Okay damn it, I’m staring at her, but it is again as if she has me in a trance. Stop staring Austin! Just speak slowly. I can hardly control myself—I’m feeling a little excitement in other places that I know are not appropriate at the moment. Okay, time to get it under control.

  “So, um Haley, right?” I say with a slight smirk, or maybe it’s a cheesy ass grin.

  “Yes, it’s Haley. You really should know that by now. “

  Oh, now she has jokes.

  “So, tell me, Haley, why am I being chased down by the rabid vampires? Speaking of which, I don't think it’s a good idea to go back to the market for your car right now. I’m sure they are still around there looking for me. Maybe we can get Stacy to take us where we need to go, and we can come back for your car later.”

  "I don't think they will still be around there. I’m sure they think you ran by now and are scoping the city. We need to get my car, Austin, and find a way back into the tunnels without being seen. Stacy, do you mind taking us back to the market?" Haley asks.

  Stacy, of course, agrees to drop us off, being the nice person that she is.

  As we are pulling around to the parking lot, I see that the back-passenger side window has been broken out of my car. Great this is all I need. I have to sleep in this damn car, and I already can't run the heat for worrying about carbon dioxide poisoning. Now I have a busted window! Damn, I sound grumpy.

  All the papers from my glovebox are scattered on the floorboard, not that I had much in there anyway. It’s just that my mom's rings were in there, and they aren’t there anymore. My clothes are all over the parking lot.

  “I know we don’t need to spend a lot of time here, Haley, but I have to get my car secured somehow. It’s everything I own, which isn’t a damn thing really, but what’s valuable to me is inside this car.”

  I pick all of the papers up and notice that my birth certificate is also missing from the stack.

  “Oh my God Austin, I am almost betting that the brothers took your birth certificate. Why they would need it, I’m not sure. They know the rings are of value to you. They most likely took them, knowing you would come after them. I hope you have your identification and Social Security card on you," Stacy chimes in.

  Haley grabs me by the right arm and spins me so I am facing her.

  "We have to hurry because we don't have much time. I know you want to secure your car, and you’re worried about a lot of things right now. But Austin, we have very little time to waste and your parents’ voices are getting fainter every time they speak to me. Your dad has been telling me over and over for the last two hours that we’re running out of time.”

  “I can hardly hear your mom's voice at all anymore. ‘Protect him’ is all I get from her. When we get back to the tunnels and they know you are safe I could lose them forever. Sometimes, once they know their business is finished in this life, they will move on to the next peacefully, knowing that they didn't leave any unfinished business. I cannot imagine how crazy hard all this is for you to understand or even grasp all in one day. Stacy, do you know of any place that we can park his car out of the weather for a few days?” Haley finishes.

  I finish picking up my things and put them into the trunk of the car with what other little belongings I have left.

  "I have a friend who has a garage that his folks owned. He’s been using it for his shop since he moved back here from New Orleans. I can call him and see if we can leave it there," Stacy replies.

  Stacy makes the call, and her friend Rob says it’s okay to leave my car there for a few days, or until I can return to pick it up. I take it he’s also a daywalker from what I could hear of the conversation Stacy had with him on the phone. She filled him in on what was happening and the reason for me leaving my car.

  We all get into our cars and drive a few blocks before pulling into Rob's place on the corner of Abel Street. The building looks like a service station from the 1950’s that has been forgotten all too soon. The roll-up door is rusted and a fringe of what looks like the rope that is used to pull it down to close, hangs from the left side of the opening. The gas pumps are still here but are no longer in use. I don't think anyone has used them since the nineties from the looks of it. The whole place is covered in rust and peeling white paint. There’s a sign barely hanging onto the building that says Jackson's Auto Service.

  As soon as we get out of the car, we are met by this guy who is at least six feet two. He is dressed in coveralls with a long scraggly beard, and crazy looking brown hair all over the place, as if on purpose. His eyes are so dark you can hardly see his pupils, and his arms are huge.

  He takes the towel out of his back pocket to wipe the grease from his hands before he reaches out to shake mine. He clutches my hand in a vice-grip. I try to grasp his back with the same force, but I know I have nowhere near the strength of this man.

  "Hi, the name is Rob, Rob Jackson," he says with a husky, smoky tone to his voice.

  “Austin. Nice to meet you Rob, and thank you for letting me leave my car here for a few days until we get all this crazy mess figured out.”

  "No problem at all, anything for a friend of Stacy's. It’s nice to meet you too. I see you have a window broken out. That definitely looks like something those smart-ass Thompson boys would do. They are cowards, and they never fight alone. Two of the three are always together. The third one is too busy being a bloodsucker of the streetwalkers. The thing is, when you see them all together, shit is about to go down. I will look into the price of replacing this window for you. Now, I suspect you and Haley need to get going before those cats catch up with you," Rob says with a creepy as look in his eyes.

  “Yes, I suspect you’re right, we do need to get moving. We have to find an entry point to get back into the tunnels and to my parents’ lair,” Haley says to Rob.

  “Now it’s really getting ridiculous, did you just say your parents’ lair?”

  "Yes, Austin. That’s what they call their home, but much unlike the lairs in stories you have read or heard of. This is like a normal home, like you and I live in. The tunnels under the city are filled with the lairs—I mean homes—of many vampires. I can assure you that you are in more danger walking the streets above the city than you will be in the tunnels," she says.

  “So, you don’t live in the lair with the vampires?” I ask her.

  “No, I live in an apartment in Greenwood. Now get in and let’s go!”

  Getting into the passenger side of her car, I lean in and my arm brushes hers. It was like static electricity when we touched. Her eyes seemed as if they were getting even bluer, if that’s even possible. She closes her door and turns the radio up with the song “Tainted Love” blasting in the speakers. It wasn’t the older version from the 1960’s, but the Marilyn Manson one which is so much better.

  “I swear every damn where I go this so
ng is playing, and it’s driving me crazy, it's like the song is following me," Haley says.

  “Haley, so you hear my parent voices. This is their song. They always said their love was tainted and sung it to each other all of the time. It’s them who are playing the song every time you are around music. I have no idea why, unless they want to prove to me that it’s them you are talking to. But I never knew why they always said their love was tainted. They just laughed it off, as if it were a joke. I supposed I should have questioned that more growing up.”

  “Austin, listen carefully, and please do not interrupt before I am finished," Haley says, as she looks at me with those damn eyes while pulling away from the garage onto the street.

  Starting the car, I wonder how I’m going to solve any of this. Why do I get this tingling feeling when I am around this guy? Just brushing his arm, a slight bit feels as if I have been shocked. I could feel a fire building behind my eyes. When I looked in the mirror, I had never seen my eyes that color blue before. Well, they were always blue, but this was electric blue. Playing it off, I turn the knob for the radio to play. That damn song “Tainted Love” again! Austin then explains to me that it was his parents’ song and that’s why I hear it everywhere I go. I guess that would explain this piece of the puzzle. Pulling onto the street, I decided to just let it out, no holds barred, balls to the wall, and tell him.

  “Austin, listen carefully. I know it's far out there, and crazy shit is happening. You are only just beginning to see and hear crazy. Okay, so here goes. Your parents were night hunters, and very well-known ones. They always got the vampire, were, or whatever else they were hunting at the time. However, from what my dad says, they only chased rogue vampires and others who did not live by the code.”

  “A code? There is a code?” he questions.

  “Yes. Now let me finish. Your parents did not just run their car off the road while drinking on a rainy night. My dad said he has heard stories in the Other World that they were pushed off the road by a rogue vampire. The Thompson brothers.”