by Craig Zerf
Bastian had moved into the apartment with Em. At the same time, so had Tagareg who had taken to following Emily around like a six foot six, three hundred pound puppy. He had appointed himself as her bodyguard and he took his new vocation deadly seriously, insisting that everyone treated Em with respect...or else.
It was the morning after their first hit on the vampire club and Emily was still hugely upset over killing the boy, Simon. She didn’t say anything but both Bastian and Tag could tell that the extermination had cost her dearly.
Bastian sat down at the kitchen table opposite Em, shook a cigarette out of his pack, lit and inhaled. ‘It was a mercy killing,’ he said softly. ‘He would have died anyway. Or turned. Or worse, he could have become a Grinder. A mindless animal, living forever under the yoke of the blood suckers.’
‘He was just a kid,’ whispered Em. ‘Looking to fit in. Playing games. Damn, he didn’t deserve to die.’ Tag brought over a mug of tea and handed it to her. She smiled. ‘Thanks Tag. You’re a good man.’
Tag shook his head. ‘No. If I’d killed that kid it wouldn’t have bothered me none. Things like that upset good folk. Me, it’s just a task, nothing more. You want more sugar in that?’
Em shook her head and forced some of the over-sweetened tea down. For some reason Tag thought that the more sugar he put into a cup of tea, the nicer it was. Initially Em had told him that she liked her tea without milk and just a dash of honey, but he had laughed out loud, convinced that she was teasing him.
‘Yeah,’ he had said. ‘Imagine drinking something like that. You don’t worry, girly,’ he had continued. ‘Tag makes a decent cup of tea.’
And he had proceeded to bring her a mug of milky, tea-flavored syrup.
And Emily simply didn’t have the heart to correct him. So now she drank milky, sweet tea.
‘Look, Em,’ said Bastian. ‘It’s bad killing an innocent. But the moment you fraternize with the blood suckers, you lose your innocence. It’s going to happen again and you have to harden your soul. Put it behind you. These are the tough decisions that we’re going to have to make. Over and over again.’
‘Yeah,’ added Tag. ‘If they don’t wanna be dead then they better not play with the monsters.’
‘I’ll be fine,’ promised Em. ‘Especially after a mug of Tag’s excellent tea.’
Tag beamed so widely that it looked as though he was going to swallow both of his ears.
‘We need to discuss our modus operandi,’ said Bastian. ‘Last night worked but it was messy and noisy. I had to pull in a lot of favors and spend a lot of money to cover things up. Luckily I’ve still got access to the Foundation’s funds so money is no object but we simply cannot carry on just machine gunning Vampire nests. Sooner or later the coppers are going to come down hard and we don’t want that.’
‘But that’s always been our way,’ argued Tag. ‘We hit our enemies hard and fast and messy. Send out a message. Don’t mess with the boys from back-of-the-yard.’
‘Well that’s going to stop,’ said Bastian. ‘This isn’t some petty gang war. It’s about the continuation of the human species.
So from now on we go in quieter. I’ll organize some silencers for the MAC-10 sub machine guns and also for the Glock pistols. We’re going to have to lose the AK’s and the shotguns. Stealth is going to be our watchword from now on.’
‘I still think that we should involve William and Sylvian,’ suggested Em. ‘And we need to find Nathan.’
Bastian shook his head. ‘Not gonna happen. Firstly, if Nathan is hiding, we will never find him until he wants to be found. And, secondly, regarding your mates, maybe if it was just me it would be a go, but the Yardies don’t work with monsters.’
‘They’re not monsters,’ argued Emily. ‘William’s real nice and Sylvian has saved my life twice.’
‘To us they all monsters,’ said Tagareg. ‘Vamps, werewolves, zombies, shapeshifters. They’re things that you scare children with to make them behave. Monsters. Don’t matter if they good or if they bad, they all non-human so they be monsters to us.’
‘What about Bastian and me?’ Asked Em. ‘Shadowhunters. Aren’t we non-human monsters?’
Tag laughed. ‘No ways, girly,’ he said. ‘You dudes is enhanced humans. You all good with us.’
