The Scene (33 page)

Cyrus leaned back on his heels with Diego’s head held tightly in his forearms. The move caused the man in the middle to bow backward awkwardly. Cyrus moved his hands and placed them firmly under Diego’s chin. It looked as though he was trying to pull his head clean off. Mike was nearly unconscious now. Catching me in the corner of his eye
, he strained to look at me. His eyebrows pulled together and his eyes began to flutter closed. Diego squeezed tighter on his neck. He was going to kill him.

Diego’s chest was left exposed from the position Cyrus had forced him into. I made a rash decision then. Very carefully, I took aim on the scrawny little chest of that petite bastard. Once he was targeted, I took a deep solid breath in, and let it out through my nose. Shot up a prayer and pulled the fucking trigger. My ears rang instantly with the loud blast of my pistol. I could see the aftermath but it was like watching a movie on mute. Blood blasted from the hole in Diego’s chest splattering Mike’s face with red spots. Cyrus fell backward releasing his hold on skinny pricks chin. Mike rolled onto his side; mouth opening and closing like a fish. Cyrus’ mouth was open wide
, eyes squeezed shut. Diego, the idiot vampire, fell to his side limply. Like a push of a button, the sound returned.

I felt like I
’d missed something vital. Mike was gasping for air. On all fours now, he was crawling toward the broken wooden door. Cyrus was screaming and hollering. Diego lay there silent and bleeding. Pool cue in one hand, pistol in the other I stood in awe at the damage I had caused. Mike pulled Cyrus away from Philippe’s body and leaned him against an adjacent wall. Mike ripped Cyrus shirt open to reveal a clean little hole. I noticed only then the blood that covered his shirt. I had shot him.

Well shit
, I didn’t want to shoot him
now
; that was earlier.

             
“Oh shit, sorry. I was trying to shoot that fuck.” I pointed toward the dead asshole by the door.

             
“I’ll live. It just hurts like hell right now. You nailed him though. Good job.” His voice was feeble.

             
“Where did you guys go?” I asked through ragged breathing.

             
“We thought we found a back room to the left. There was no one in the main area when we walked down so we went through the door. The two of us ended up coming out in the alley out back. When we came back in, that asshole rushed us from nowhere.” Mike’s thoughts were scrambled as was his breathy voice.

             
“Did anyone check on Tatum?” They both just looked at me like I had introduced a brand new concept to the equation. I rolled my eyes and turned to make my way down stairs.

             
I was feet from the hole in the door when Diego/Philippe soared up from his spot on the ground. His tall thin frame thrust the both of us backward through the hole. Down the steps I tumbled, again. This time I was carrying the alien, vampire, tool with me. Our bodies crashed to the hard floor with little sound. We flipped and rolled like a human bowling ball, crashing into the stacks of five gallon buckets. They fell over like pins at the end of the lane. Thick, sticky, liquid splashed from the overturned buckets. Diego and I were dowsed with gallons of blood. The underground room was instantly filled with the smell of blood. Like a jar full of pennies. Or an old rusted tin can. 

When we finally skidded to a stop
, I was on top; just the way I like it. Miraculously, I held the cue the entire ride down. It had broken a bit, leaving only the splintered ends of about a foot of the polished wood. Without thinking, I plunged the jagged piece of wood into the hole I had made in his chest with my bullet. The sound was wet and sloppy; I don’t think I need to mention a descriptive simile. I wiggled the wood around digging it further into the gory hole I had created. He struggled at first but the struggling died down after a minute or so. Blood oozed from his mouth and other places onto the concrete. It mixed morbidly with the buckets of blood that had been spilled from the tipped over containers.

That’s going to leave a stain.

His breath fell ragged, and after a moment or two, it stopped. I took the liberty of slapping him across the face a few times to make sure he was good and dead. As far as I could tell, he was.

One more time for good measure.

              “Alright that’s enough.” I jumped at the sound of Mike’s voice.

             
“Thanks for the back up.” I climbed to my feet steadily for the first time in a while.

             
“It happened so fast. Before we knew it, you were through the hole and out of sight. I came down as fast as I could. Nice move with the make shift stake by the way.” He sat unsteadily on the bottom step.

             
“You should see the guy upstairs.” I walked away then and finally went to see my friend on the metal slab.

             
I walked cautiously toward her naked body. I heard Mike rustling around behind me.

             
“Hey, stay over there for a minute please.” He didn’t answer. He didn’t move any closer to me either so I assumed he understood.

             
Her skin was so pale she almost glowed. I got close enough to touch her skin. It was cool to the touch but not the cold you get from the truly dead. My stomach let up its tension just a smidge. I leaned my face over her nose and listened for breathing. I heard nothing. Shit. I turned my head and put my ear tight to her nose; eyes focused on her chest. Waiting for even the slightest rise and fall, I stared until I thought I was hallucinating movement. My heart jumped and I smiled. She was breathing. That was when she bit me.

             
Oh fuck!

CHAPTER 33

             
“Haha! Gotcha!” She had released her bite and I backed away swiftly, falling on my ass.

             
“You bitch! I almost called Mike to come stake you!” I said from my spot on the concrete.

             
She was laughing as she sat up. I recovered the sheet and handed it to her to cover herself with. My blood soaked hands left morose red stains on the stark white sheet.

             
“Thanks,” she said taking the stained sheet from my hands.

             
“You’re lucky I saved your ass. What the fuck were you thinking shacking up with someone like Malcolm? And then keeping it all from me! You made me feel like a fucking idiot. You and that bastard Cyrus. Now that this is all over, you’re both on my shit list.”

             
“I didn’t tell you because I was sworn to secrecy at first. I met him during a story last year. I had gone in undercover for an expose’ on underage bloodletting in the scene. The story never panned out but Malcolm and I ended up hooking up a few times. Well, maybe more than a few. But I knew you wouldn’t understand. Besides, it was just sex.” She spoke as though I should just forgive her and let it all go. Not a chance.

             
“What about Embrace? And Sandora? And fucking Cyrus for that matter?”

             
She looked at the ground. Refusing to meet my eyes she began talking.

             
“I knew all about the bloodroot.” I scoffed at her comment. “I also knew it was safe and fun. I knew we’d have to bloodlet when we met with Sandora. You would have freaked, so I didn’t tell you.” She looked at me in the eyes then. “I know Cyrus. I thought you’d love him. You had been so into your work this year, I thought you needed some fun. And what better way than to work and play.” She smiled. “I know you saw him leaving with a blonde. It was me.” I looked at her in shock. “It wasn’t like that. I drank too much and he took me home. I had gone to visit Malcolm after you and I met with him and I ended up not being able to drive myself home. He likes you, Dylan. Yes, he can be a complete ass, but I don’t think he ever betrayed you.” She knew the look I had on my face. She was there in high school when I was betrayed, purposefully. It was back then that I decided to never let anyone in. “This isn’t high school, Dylan. He’s not the hot jock that fucked you around. You don’t have to love, shit you don’t even have to
like
him. But don’t think you were an idiot for one second. If anyone betrayed your trust, it was
me
. And I am so sorry. I just wanted you to have fun.” She stopped then. Her apology was over. When it came to Tatum, I could either accept it and let it go, or continue to be pissed. It made no difference to her. She said sorry, that was it. I wasn’t going to get it again.

             
“I wish you would’ve said something. Maybe all this wouldn’t have happened.” It was my turn to look down. “You got kidnapped dude. I
killed
two people.” I laughed at the sound of my own squeaky voice. My body was beginning to shut down from the overload of shit I’d just put it through. She laughed too before she moved her way past me. The conversation was over. It would never be brought up again. Not if Tatum had anything to do with it.

             
“Oh shit. You weren’t kidding.” Without regard, she stepped over Philippe’s body like he was a bag of garbage left at the curb, tracking bloody footprints behind her. “Hey Mike.” She smiled sweetly.

             
“Hey, you alive?” he asked her.

             
“I’m not dead if that’s what you’re asking.” She looked at him as if he was the village idiot.

             
“I think he’s asking if you’re a vampire,” I said. She laughed loudly and walked past him up the stairs. “Can you call the police now?” Having about enough of this shit I made my way up the stairs.

             
Mike helped me walk Cyrus out the front door and away from the dead vampires. The four of us waited out front of Midnights Dream for the police to arrive. Tatum was naked wrapped in a sheet. Black bruises were beginning to form on Mike’s neck. Cyrus had been shot: by me. I had killed two vampires. It had been a hell of a night. I felt like I was in college again.

             
“I killed two people tonight, guys.” I said as I lit a smoke. Still covered with the blood of at least eight dead women. And one dead vampire.

             
“Well, technically you staked two vampires.” This from Mike.

             
“This is true. If we were in a TV show, they would’ve poofed into dust, and we’d have no bodies to explain. Damn reality.” I laughed through the smoke in my mouth at my witty sarcasm.

             
“You shot that guy, Dylan. In the fucking chest. And he springs from the floor like, well, like a damned vampire and throws you two down a flight of stairs. You shoved a piece of broken wood through his chest and only then does he die. You don’t find that a little odd?”

             
“It was a fucking stake through the heart, Michael. That would kill anyone. I had to dig that piece of wood around in his chest cavity to finalize the deal. I probably just missed the mark the first time around.” The three of them were staring a hole though me. “What?”

             
“Did one of them bite you?” Tatum asked.

             
“Oh shit, yeah. I forgot. He tore into me pretty good. Yeah, get this shit; they thought I was a vampire slayer tracking them to kill them off.” I was laughing; they weren’t. “And they thought I killed Regina.”

             
“So they didn’t do it?” Mike asked.

             
“Nope. Confessed to the others though; acted like I should have known all along. Looks like you have another homicide on your hands detective. And we still don’t know who took Reggie’s head,” I said, mind and body in the beginnings of shock.

             
“Dylan, was that the same Philippe you interviewed in the very beginning?” Tatum looked at me.

             
“Yes.” I was feeling a little sheepish.

             
“Holy shit. You knew that guy?” Mike was frustrated.

             
“Well, yeah. But how was I supposed to know he was killing people. Shit, I knew Sam too. So did Cyrus. There was no way in hell I could know he’d drained eight girls of their blood.” The three of them stared at me. Naked Tatum, bruised Mike, and bleeding Cyrus. Fucking sideshow freaks. “Philippe seemed like a douche. Told me he was two hundred something years old. He wore a fucking cape for crying out loud.” They may be freaks, but I was still the idiot covered in blood.

             
“He could have killed you then. He could have dragged you into that basement and did his thing with you,” Mike said passionately.

Thank you, captain obvious.

              “No. They didn’t want to drain her.” Everyone was staring at Tatum now. “Said a slayer had to be burned. That fat guy, Sam, he said he wanted to taste a slayer. But the skinny one wasn’t having any of it. They planned to burn your body on the train tracks. They were planning on draining me though.” She said this matter-of-factly.

             
“How’d they get you here in the first place?” My curiosity had been eating me alive.

             
“I was home, just before dawn. I had just gotten out of the shower. I came out of my bathroom and got rushed from behind. I elbowed the guy in the gut and went for my knife. When I turned to use it, there were two of them. One jumped on the bed and tackled me. They stuck me with a needle and I was out. I woke up here when he was lifting the sheet. I figured playing dead was the best idea. So I did. And we all lived.” She smiled smugly.

             
“Apparently, I’d been played for a fool by all three of those fucks. Sam was a big teddy bear. He was sweet and innocent and bullshitted me every step of the way. And Diego, played off being a Craigslist vampire freak, like he was going for an Oscar. Regina looked me in the eye on more than one occasion and lied to me. She pointed out three innocent dorks and blamed them for the murders of then seven women. I was a fucking idiot. And now, because of me, Cyrus has been shot. Tatum is standing there naked.” She shrugged like it didn’t faze her. “Mike was nearly choked out. I killed two people. Got my ass bit. And I’m sticky with various types of blood.” I huffed with frustration. Everyone was quiet for a few moments.

             
“So, do you think you’ll turn into a vampire now?” Mike piped in. He was pushing me to the point of no return.

             
“Jesus Mike, there are no fucking vampires!” I screamed in frustrated denial.

             
“Tell the two dead guys in there with stakes sticking out of their chests that.” Tatum added her two cents.

             
“You should really remove the head.” Cyrus spoke for the first time from his spot on the filthy sidewalk. All three heads turned to look at him. “The best things to remember about vampires are the two H’s. Head and heart. If you don’t nip the head, all you get is a pissed off vampire.”

             
Tatum, Mike and I stared at the Persian on the ground while the sirens wailed into earshot. There was a part of me that wanted to scream at them that there are no such things as vampires. The other was resisting the compulsion to charge back in there and hack their heads off. The deciding factor was which impulse was stronger.

             
Two corpses are hard enough to explain. Try explaining why they have no heads. It’s not as easy as it sounds.