Dead Surround - The Julia Poe Vampire Chronicles (16 page)

Sainvire’s gaze flickered and met hers. His fathomless silver eyes, holding memories that only Poe shared, disturbed her. She focused on the vertical line under his nose that met his upper lip. Many automatically assumed that the scar was a hare lip, but they were wrong. It was from tiny mortar fire shrapnel. Being an idealist had a price.

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That’s why I liked you, Sainvire. You’re
damaged like me.

“You look really good,” he said with a nod. “I heard that you’ve been eating well and training like the devil, kicking trees every day.”

“Passionada told me you had spies look in on me.”

“Of course. Sister Ann and Goss would haunt me if I didn’t.”

“There’s no such thing as ghosts. Only vampires.”

He cracked a smile that disturbed Poe to the core and frowned.

Who am I kidding? I love this vampire. That’s
the more reason to head back home.

“I need to go home,” she blurted. “I don’t appreciate you having me kidnapped and roughed up.

I don’t want to be here. There are too many people here, and I’m not, I’m not used to them anymore,”

she paused, breathing deeply. “And I need to save some of my parents’ things before the old neighborhood gets destroyed.”

“I’m sorry, Poe, but you can’t go back there,” he said, patting the dog’s head once more before straightening out and looming over Poe. His startling gray eyes bothered her. “I wanted you safe, and I’m sorry if it was an unpleasant trip. The dogs were an accident. Passionada couldn’t control them.”

“Remember
Superman 2
?”

“Vaguely,” answered the vampire with a look of confusion. “What’s that got to—?”

“Superman ditched Lois Lane right after the kinky lava lamps and fortress of solitude sex romps,”

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she said while raising an eyebrow. “You never cared these past years. Why now all of a sudden?”

“Believe me, Julia,” he said. “I had to fight tooth and nail not to leave the cattle we rescued to follow you to West L.A. I’ve never wanted to retire and be with someone so badly.”

Poe’s lips trembled.
It didn’t take you long to
find someone to replace me, did it?
“You’re telling me this two years too late, Sainvire. You don’t know the pain I went through retrieving Penny with vampires scouring the entire city. You left me alone!”

Her dog had been recuperating in her underground bunker in Little Tokyo, a stone’s throw away from vampire lairs. Poe, with all the damage to her body, had risked death to rescue Penny despite the odds against her.

“I asked you to stay with me,” he said somberly.

“You said no.”

“You could have hog-tied me if you wanted to,”

she said almost inaudibly. “You’d rather be with your people, Sainvire. That’s just the way you are.”

Before she could say anything more, he raised a hand to stop her accusations. “Our caravans have to move every twenty days to keep Trench and Newbitt off our scent. It’s damn hard on all of us, even the vampires. In the beginning four hundred of us moved together, but that took a lot of space and resources.

We were ripe for conflict and disorganization, especially when the cattle could barely walk. We’ve divided the group to give us a fighting chance to survive. Many of us have been picked off over the months by amateur bounty hunters.

“It’s a hard life, so hard that even the most loyal choose to sell us out for a permanent home and a 140

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handful of cattle,” he said. His face hardened. “As you can see, our numbers have dwindled from the days of Downtown. This life isn’t exactly easy. But I’d rather see you live in this environment than be tortured and killed in West L.A.”

“I’m an adult and not some stuttering little girl anymore,” she declared. Her nostrils flared. The tip of her nose and upper lips were beaded with sweat.

“Even you can’t tell me what to do. I was never a blood cow or one of your people. If I choose to live alone, then that’s how it’s going to be.”
And do you
really expect me live with you, to see you with your
woman everyday?

“Megan wants you here to see her give birth safely. If you can stay another week after that, I’ll make sure you’re taken home safely if I have to fly you all the way there myself. But if your home is gone, you can choose to live here with me or another safe place of your choice.”

“This whole thing is about Megan’s pregnancy?”

she asked incredulously. Her red-haired friend used to be in love with Sainvire who happened to be her great-uncle. “Is my neighborhood really in trouble, or did you make that up?”

“They will eviscerate the Sawtelle neighborhood right up to the Los Angeles-Santa Monica city boundaries. Kawana assured me of that,” he explained. Kawana was one of Trench’s cops and Sainvire’s loyal spy. She was black but was rescued from the drudgery of being a janitor because of her unwavering beauty. She also had the strength of a hundred men. “The fire you set created great interest, trickling up the ranks and eventually reaching the ears of Downtown players like Trench and Nesbitt.

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But, yes, part of this has to do with Megan wanting you near her. She’s been wracked by nightmares since conceiving. Joseph and I aren’t enough protection for her. She specifically wants you to protect her child.”

Poe couldn’t speak. She could rant endlessly about the brutish selfishness of Megan or how easily influenced Sainvire was when it came to his last remaining kin. Despite her need to return to her childhood home, Poe felt in her gut that staying there was the right thing to do.

“I’ll stay until the birth,” she said. Her brown eyes challenged his gray. “After that, don’t try to contact me again. I’m through with all of you.”

142

“I’M NOT SUCKING UP anymore,” Poe told Joseph who looked as carefree as he did the last time she had seen him. He, Morales, and a half-dozen vampires returned to Gilroy with a bang, their dodgy looking police chopper landing haphazardly on the barn roof.

By the time the much nicked helicopter nose-dived and spun before finally eating the ground, a gaping hole on the roof was left and debris showered those asleep below. The pilot apparently had learned his flight skills from flight simulator games. Luckily no one was seriously injured. Rufus, the fly man, was the halfdead who had eaten her left earlobe for revenge. She had ripped out his ear in a sham fight Joseph threw to gauge her fighting skills two years ago.

Joseph sat in the kitchen snapping green beans in halves. His ponytail was immaculate. Who would have thought he was a vampire? Morales, always dressed for a date, lounged on the seat across from him and peeled shells off of boiled eggs. The smoldering ex-real estate agent with bow legs and solid upper body strength listened to Poe with rapt attention.

“Whatever I bring, be it game or firewood, everyone harrumphs and gives me the evil eye. They 143

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think I owe them meat and work for getting Jorge killed.”

“They’re afraid of you,” Joseph shrugged. His chiseled face looked neutral. “You were never cattle.

And some vamps in this camp still haven’t forgotten that you killed their friends in a fit of rage. I mean, you even shot me in the balls!”

Poe reddened. She remembered the day she had mixed up an address and ended up going to the shady side of Downtown Los Angeles warehouses where ancient undead anted up humans for poker. She had shot up Sainvire and Joseph and killed five good vamps when she saw them again.

“And for someone as puny as you, you sure kicked some vampire butt and not to mention rescued a changeful of ex-cattle,” added Morales, as handsome and charming as ever. “That’s humiliating to some.”

“I saved your hide a couple times, Morales. Do you hate me?”

“Nope. I love you!” he said. He kissed his fingers as if admiring a gourmet meal. “I’ve always said so, and I always will.”

“You still have that cheesy Vegas tongue of yours, I see,” said Poe. “But you know, you’d have a fighting chance if it weren’t for your grody cologne.”

She waved at the air under her nose. “As it is, I can only be in your company ten minutes or else I’ll get a migraine. So anyway, I better be off on my run. Oh, Joseph. If your woman pees, send Sainvire to pluck me quick and deposit me to her bedside.”

“Will do, sis,” Joseph grinned. “And correction.

It’s not pee, but ‘break water.’ Amniotic fluid to be exact.”

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“Whatever,” Poe said and headed outside. She detested sounding ignorant, but she’d relied on movies, comic books, and music for education.

It had been four days since she’d had a talk with Sainvire. If it weren’t for Joseph and Morales coming back, she would have gone batty. A very plump Megan had given her some nice Adidas sweats and encouraged her to go running. And she was ever so glad to listen to her friend.

Poe tried to phase out people in general when she was about the grounds. She focused on her own breathing and the condition of Penny who always seemed to tail her once she left the farmhouse where dogs were barred. It was easier that way. She followed the highway then looped back after a couple of miles. For a finale she lashed out at a stumpy oak tree across the road from the farmhouse and used it as a kicking bag.

No matter how her running schedule varied, she always encountered Michelle running in the opposite direction, tank top and short shorts showing off her unmarred, densely muscled body. That day was no different. The girl with the curlicue hair and navel piercing squinted her hazel eyes at Poe.

“That girl keeps dogging me,” Poe gritted, and she refocused her energy on abusing the tree with her shins and forearms. She and her dog were joined by Chops who still limped. The pig would undoubtedly have followed Poe’s jogging route had she been a hundred percent.

She’d see Michelle sparring with a sixty-year-old ex-boxer in the morning and practicing judo with a few former cattle in the afternoon.
No wonder she
acts so tough
.
People who take a martial arts course
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or two suddenly believe they’re ready to kick Jet Li’s
butt.

“I’ve seen the judo club doing Tae Bo in the barn,” Poe said under her breath and shook her head.

“How embarrassing is that, Penny? Billy Blanks as a fitness guru? Sounds like a porn star name to me.”

On the way back to the farmhouse, Poe came upon a familiar figure she hadn’t seen since arriving in garlic land.

“Hey, Maple!” Poe waved and jogged to the middle-aged vampire standing with a bowl of porridge in her hand. “I’ve been looking for you, but nobody seemed to know where you were. Or at least they didn’t want to tell me.”

“Hello, Poe,” Maple smiled. “Sorry about that.

I’ve been busy this past week.”

“No problem,” Poe said. She wiped the sweat off her nose with a sleeve. She had overactive sweat glands on the very tip of the proboscis. “Yeah, I sort of wanted to see a familiar face, I guess. I was meaning to ask you about Perla, too. I know she’s busy being a scientist and all. I’ve been wondering since I got here if she still wears pajamas seven days a week.”

Maple kept up her smile, but her composure was tight at best. “Ah well. If you’d like to see her, you can follow me to that Winnebago over there.” Half a dozen RVs could be seen parked about the farm grounds.

“Perla hasn’t been herself, Poe. You can only stay for a minute.”

“Sure. I just wanna say hello,” Poe said nervously without knowing why. The plump scientist was one Sainvire’s invaluable knights. She was a 146

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grand woman who had treated Poe with kindness during her stay at the Los Angeles Central Library where Plasmacore had been researched and produced.

She ascended the set of stairs that led to a door.

With a catch in her throat, the girl turned the knob and entered. Softly tinted floral wallpaper decked the narrow interior. In the corner opposite the lace curtained window was a couch where her old friend sat.

“Hello, Perla,” Poe greeted, walking toward the woman wearing Mr. Potato Head pajamas. “I see you’re still wearing neat PJs.”

The Mexican American scientist with meticulously brushed hair did not stir. Vacant eyes looked out the window. No smile touched her normally energetic face. For the longest time Poe stared at her.

“M-Maple? What—” stammered Poe.

“She was bitten six months ago during a raid,”

Maple explained calmly. “She’s become cattle.”

“I’m sorry,” apologized Poe. Her usually steady hands trembled. Overcome by melancholy as clinging as fly paper, she began to cry. Silently. However hard she tried Poe could not stop herself.

“It’s alright, Poe,” said Maple whose brow was lined with worry. “We’ll have her back by early next year.”

Instead of consoling Maple, Poe needed cheering up of her own. The lover and tender nurse to Perla gave Poe a reassuring hug that made the girl cry harder. Perhaps it was the pressure of the past week, but she simply couldn’t stop herself.

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“I’m s-sorry, M-Maple,” Poe managed to say. “I d-don’t want to upset her, so I’ll just go.” With one last forlorn hug, the girl left the Winnebago.

She hadn’t taken five steps when Maclemar crossed her path.

“What’s wrong, Poe?”

“N-nuthin! Outta my way!” she said, embarrassed by her irrepressible crying.

“Did anyone do anything to you?” he asked. His green eyes looked stormy.

“L-leave me alone, Maclemar,” Poe cried, and she pushed him away from her. She saw faces turn their way, agitating her further. “I swear I’ll d-drop you if you don’t shove off.”

Maclemar, who’d been keeping busy servicing cars, trucks, and buses the past week, rested his grimy hand on her arm in concern. He was like an annoying pest asking a crying kid what was wrong.

Of course constant egging would make a kid bawl louder and longer. That was the last straw for Poe who didn’t like being the center of attraction for ex-cattle with mouths agape.