Authors: John Conroe
“Better. I’ve had it since I was a kid and it’s absorbed some power every time I have kicked Hellbourne ass. Which would be something like, oh about..thirty-seven times or so. Not counting exorcisms.” I answered, still studying the violet sphere. Yes I could definitely up its amperage.
“Why?” Tanya asked. I didn’t understand.
“Er, what?”
“Why do you give it to me?” Her eyes were still wide and
,
oddly,
there was something very vulnerable in them.
Vulnerable vampire? I tried to shake it off, but her eyes mesmerized me.
“Well, the demon that wants your blood will be back. If it is during the day tomorrow, I’ll probably be able to nail his ass. But this should protect you, if I’m not here. It will make you invisible to him and it will repel him as well. But I want to boost it if I can. I’ll feel better if it is ramped up a bit more.”
I hesitated. Galina looked at me expectantly and said, “So do it!”
Okay, that was definitely a command.
Ah shucks. Stop. Your profuse thanks are embarrassing me. It seems the rich all feel the same sense of entitlement, be they vampire or human.
Fucking rich people!
Nika snorted as I thought this and covered her mouth to hide a grin.
“Well, I’m gonna spill a drop of my own blood and I’m just wondering……?”
“Go ahead, we can
probably
control ourselves.” Galina said sardonically.
I nodded and grabbed my folding knife from the pile of pocket junk and flicked the blade open. After pooling my
aura
in my right hand, I pricked my trigger finger. I push power
out of my right hand and draw power
in with my left. The reason for this isn’t clear, but that’s
just
how it works. I squeezed a fat drop of blood onto the tip and then dabbed it onto the back of the arrowhead. “Ah, that needs to be against your skin, um like under your shirt.” I explained with all the composer of three year old. Tanya tucked it into her shirt, between her breasts, her eyes watching me the whole time.
The view momentarily snuffed out my feeble thoughts.
I wiped my finger on my pants and tried to ignore the way they all stared.
I rechecked the necklace.
The purple sphere was now twice as big as before and much denser in color. I don’t see auras like Reiki masters do. No different layers, just solid hues, sometimes with streaks of other colors.
“I don’t know what you people do during the daytime, whether you go to sleep or lie in coffins or whatever, but you two,” I poi
nted at Nika and Lydia,”
might want to hang close to her. It can probably protect all three of you. You can leave Arkady out by the door as bait,” I suggested, putting my knife in my pants pocket. A hiss sounded from where the big male vamp was spraying the blood covered wall and floor with some chemical cleaner.
With nothing else to do
I wrestled myself into the white Plasma long-sleeve tee shirt that Lydia had provided. It was a tight fit, but I immediately felt a little warmer.
“Officer Gordon, you are remarkably blasé ab
out this situation
. Most of your kind are scared witless by our presence, if in fact they live through the introduction. How is it that you aren’t?” Galina asked.
I snorted. “
You mean the vampire part?
Most humans haven’t been hunting Hellbourne since they were twelve either.
Actually I don’t think any other humans do what I do.
Compared
to demons
, you all aren’t that scary. Plus I’m too damn
tired at this point
to give a crap.”
They all went spooky still and blank faced. Ooops, wrong thing to say. I held my hands out in a placating gesture.
“Oh, you’re scary enough alright. Top predators and all. I’m sure that Lydia there could twist my head off before I got done blinking, but really what’s the worst you can do? Kill me? Torture me, then kill me? Big whup! Hell
bourne can trap or foul my soul, haul me to Hell.
”
Their faces reflected disbelief. Nika spoke first.
“You really aren’t afraid of dying, are you?”
It was more of a statement.
“You tell me mighty Kreskin,” I replied. “Hell, I’ve outlived my death by about fifteen years. Actually, I was on borrowed time from the moment of birth, twenty-three years ago. Well twenty-three in seven more days.
If I get there.
”
Vadim did the math first. “Halloween? You were born on Halloween?”
“Yeah, spooky isn’t it?”
They all looked at each other, except Tanya, who was giving me the cat stare again.
“Do you know the time of your birth?” Galina asked
.
What the hell did that have to do with anything?
They were
all
interested, kinda of like wolves circled up for the kill.
“Well, I’m told it was midnight. But I don’t really remember, being pretty young and all.” I answered. They were all silent, processing that piece of info
, or maybe deciding if my wiseass mouth was pissing them off
.
Arkady spoke suddenly from across the room: “Killing is not the worst. We could
Turn
you.”
“How is that worse? Let’s see,
if
the legends are true, I would be stronger, faster, tougher, and live a lot longer. The downside would be what, exactly?
Liquid diet?
”
“Soul is lost when Turned,” was his answer.
I stared at them dumbfounded. “My soul…lost? Why would my soul be lost? Yours aren’t!”
Silence. No one made a sound for at least fifteen seconds. It was the mind reader who spoke first.
“He believes we all still have souls,” she said.
“Yeah, because you do. I can see them.” I started putting the rest of my stuff away.
“You can see souls?” Tanya asked.
“Yes. Yours all look white to me. Humans usually are some shade of blue.”
“Let me get this right, you think you can see souls and you think you can see ours?” Galina asked.
“Yup.
I see all kinds of shit, some of which you apparently don’t.
How else can I see Hellbourne? They can only occupy and use bodies that are soul free. Meat shells.”
“What does the white mean?” Lydia interjected.
“I don’t know. Probably that you are a different species or something. You’re each slightly different. Tanya’s is wicked bright.”
I swigged down the last of my Gatorade.
Tanya looked troubled
. “White means evil!”
“What?
Since when did white mean evil?
Why would you think that? Black means evil. Oily, greasy, stomach turning
black. I don’t think you’re necessarily
evil, any more than wolves,
bears or tigers are evil. I’m not gonna lie, though. You’re all pretty damn
eerie though.”
Her expression was suddenly angry.
“You lie! You are a liar! You know we are evil!” she said.
To say I was taken aback was an understatement. Up until this moment I had assumed some sort of bond or connection to her. Which, when you think about it, was really stupid.
Mind numbing stupid.
The whole save, defend, heal thing. The rest of them I had no illusions about. But I had fooled myself into thinking that somehow we were friends. Idiot! Suddenly, I was just as angry; at her, at myself, at all the stupid vampires in the room.
My life sucked on a regular basis, now I was a liar? Fuck that!
“Righhht.” I set the empty bottle down. “Well, thanks for the clothes and Gatorade and shit. Unless you’re gonna eat me, I’m leaving.” I shouldered past Vadim and staggered through the ruined door, none of them moving to stop me. The club was jumping as I entered the main floor, the deep bass of the music pushing on my ribs.
I had to grab the doorframe to steady myself for a moment.
I looked for Pella and Henderson, but when I got to our table it was occupied by some black garbed, chain strewn Goths. My coat was still on the back of one of the chairs and I grabbed it with a quick “Excuse me, just getting my coat.” One said, “Dude, no prob.” They all looked at me oddly and one of the girls asked, “Do you work here?”
I could hear the disbelief in her voice and I realized that I was wearing the same tee shirt that the staff wore, big blood red Plasma spelled out diagonally across the torso. I was dressed the part, but my tan skin and lack of grace didn’t fit.
“Oh hell no!
Just wearing the colors.”
I turned away before she could answer and put on the jacket to avoid any more questions. “Your friends left with the girls they were hitting on.” Lydia was suddenly standing by the stairs.
“
Lucky them.
Did they pay the tab?” I asked. She shook her head.
“Bastards! How much?”
She shrugged it off, but I persisted. “How much?”
“One ten
, but it’s on the house
.”
Screw that! I wasn’t going to owe them anything.
I handed her three fifties from my money clip and left.
Chapter 2
I fumed the whole cab ride home. It was a little past eleven-thirty when I climbed the stairs to my second-floor apartment; still berating myself for thinking
this time might have been different
. Fifteen years of keeping myself distant from anyone but Gramps and I get all giddy over the first gorgeous female vampire I happen to save. Moron. Asshole.
When I got inside, I only paused long enough to drop three raw eggs into a glass of orange juice and swig it down Rocky style. I needed the iron and protein, but I had no energy left to cook. Couldn’t be any worse than a mouth full of vampire blood. After that , I crashed into bed, not even bothering to undress.
Something was making a banging sound. Banging by the door. Banging
on
the door. I staggered over and peered through the peephole. My two neighbors from across the hall, Paige and Kathy, were standing there. “Ah, hi Chris,” Paige greeted me when I got the locks undone and the door open.
I knew them enough to say hi in the hallway, but that was it.
“Hi, what’s up?” I didn’t know them very well but they had been very nice whenever I bumped into them. They didn’t speak for a moment, both taking in my attire, which I realized was the Plasma shirt and leather pants I had fallen asleep in.
“Do you work at Plasma?” asked Kathy, who was the taller of the two brunettes by about two inches. That made her about five nine or an inch shorter than me.
“No, these are borrowed. They ruined my clothes last night and they gave me these to get home in,” I explained.
“
Too bad!
You oughta keep ‘em,” she said, her roommate nodding in agreement.
“No, I can’t stand the place. I’ll be sending them back.” I stated.
“You didn’t like it? I heard it is the best club in the city.
Maybe we could all go sometime,
” Paige gushed. She was really cute, with short brown hair and brown eyes. She possessed a slim runner’s build; that looked great in the jeans and tees she seemed to favor. Kathy, was rail thin and pleasant looking, in a mousy kind of way, with curly brown hair and hazel eyes. They smelled like peaches and kiwi. Must be their shampoo. I shuddered to think of these two alone in the vampire den.
“I don’t think it’s a real safe place. But what’s up?” I brought the conversation back on point.
“Oh, we’re heading over to Chico’s for breakfast and thought you might like to come along?” Paige supplied.
My initial reflex was to decline, but now that I was up, my stomach was demanding immediate attention. In fact it growled right on cue.
We all laughed and after noting that it was only eight AM, I said, “Okay let me change real quick.”
“Oh you should leave the Plasma shirt on…” Paige said, but I had it off before she could complete the sentence.
“Or not.”
“I’ll just be a sec,” I said, backing from the doorway with my shirt off. I headed to the dresser, as the two followed me in.
“If you went like that, Chico
might
give
us breakfast.” Paige commented. Chico
w
as known to
prefer shirtless me
n to a shirtless wom
e
n.