Authors: John Conroe
Gramps finds me on the front porch, responding to a garbled message of hysteria translated by Eric's mother. He looks me over and then sits next to me. We say nothing for a while, then the words flow and not long after, so do the tears. He takes me home, my bike in the back of his big red pickup.
The first thing I like to do when I go inside is say the thing’s name. I speak in a clear loud voice and I mock it. Like a cat unable to stop from chasing a string, Azamogathth comes to its name. Like a coward it comes from behind me and like I guessed that it would, it comes with Tatiana’s face. Or at least a pretty good imitation of it. But my Sight always shows me the reality and my left hand caught it like a Yankee fielder catches a pop fly. It struggled and cursed me, but I’m pretty smooth at this part of the job. I think this must be my one hundred and seventh cleansing, each just like the rest. I toss it up and think >
Kirby<
and my
giant
smoky, ha
wk-
winged friend snatches the nasty thing from the air and pops back to where
ever it is that he goes. The house stinks of
sulfur
and brimstone as I trot down the front steps and hand Malachi to Libi. “You’re gonna want to air it out. Smells like Hell’s Outhouse. But it’s gone and Malachi will keep anything else from bothering you.”
Carlton leads the family and the others in to check my claim, Peter giving me a high five as he heads in
. Gina just looks at me, her face unreadable
, before I turn away and head into the dark.
Chapter 5
The predicted cold front
had moved
in and the dark autumn sky swirled with bulbous gray clouds, the wind rushing alongside me, brushing the painted leaves of the small maples that lined the street. The air temperature had dropped a good ten degrees and I was glad for my fleece lined jacket and the thick cottony feel of my NYPD hoodie, as I hustled down the sidewalk. It was blustery and Halloween spooky, and I enjoyed it immensely. Fall is my favorite season, as I welcome the change from the wet tropical heat of August to the cool of September and October. I love warm clothes and heavy jackets, although I am usually happy to put them away come spring. And I'll admit that I like feeling the
mystic
veil between this life and the next thin appreciably as Halloween draws near.
The sensation of being watched was still with me, in fact stronger than before, almos
t palpable. Something or someone
was pacing me, and I had the
oddest feeling that I who it might be
. An extra gust of air brushed my right cheek, smelling of jasmine and lilac, and I turned to find Tatiana walking next to me. She glanced at me once, her blue eyes glinting in the low streetlight, before she turned to look ahead. A second rush of air on my left announced Lydia's arrival, smelling of rose and musk, her Cheshire cat grin bright in the dark. “Hello
ladies.” I greeted them, trying to project calm
. “Love the outfits.” They were both wearing skintight black leather catsuits that blended with the night but failed to hide their charms. Think Kate Beckinsale in
Underworld
, times two.
“Hiya Northern, nice night.” came from Lydia, her voice amused.
“Hello Christian.” Tatiana said, her accented voice wrapping around my name like smoke. Nobody calls me Christian, but the way she said it had physical weight, like a warm hand pressing on my chest.
Whatever smartass comment I was gonna make next flew right out of my head.
“Are you well? Your heartbeat sounds ...erratic.” Tanya asked, concern shadowing her voice.
Lydia choked back a laugh as I replied. “I'm fine. It's nothing.”
Just you, your voice and that damned catsuit.
Any annoyance I still felt from the night before was gone
, destroyed by her impossible presence
.
“To what do I owe the honor?” I asked, trying to center myself.
“You were at our house today. You were injured when you struggled with the ...thing. I wanted to make sure you were alright.” It was the longest speech I had heard Tanya make, and her Russian accent was much less noticeable than before. But what was she talking about? Injured? I turned to her and found her looking at me, apparently not needing to see where she was walking. Me, I need to keep eyes forward to walk uneven sidewalks at night, so I stopped, both vampires stopping instantly as well. I marveled at the reflexes that produced such an immediate reaction. “Er..what injury?” I asked, puzzled.
Tanya reached out and brushed my left cheek. I felt a slight sting, and touching it with my own hand found some small scrapes where my face had met the patio.
“This? It's just a scrape. I didn't even realize it was there. How could you even know about it?” I asked.
Lydia looked between Tanya and me, a small smile on her face.
Tanya answered shyly. “I could smell your blood. I was concerned. I asked Mr. Deckert about it, but he didn't seem to think you were hurt.” Lydia snorted at this final comment, like she was remembering something funny.
The amount of blood spilled was smaller than the drop I had pressed into her amulet, and she had noticed it in a house full of humans (and at least one dog). But her concern (which twisted something inside me) seemed excessive.
“Thank you for checking up on me, Tatiana. But I'm fine. I'm more concerned with how you are. Are you completely healed?”
“Tanya, you must call me Tanya. But yes! Your blood did a marvelous job!” She pulled her suit zipper to her stomach and bared a dangerous amount of creamy white skin. My face was instantly radiating at a thousand degrees Fahrenheit. Lydia almost collapsed in laughter.
“She's laughing at me, not you, Tanya.” I explained to her puzzled and slightly hurt expression. “And yes, you certainly look great!” setting off a second burst of uncontrolled mirth from the spiky
-
haired waitress (who was apparently, much more than a waitress). Tanya was quick though, a slow smile of understanding spread across her face as she took in my expression, tone, breathing and heart rate. Hell, I probably gave off pheromones that she could detect. I hadn't seen her smile before and its effect was just as powerful as her unzipped jacket. But something she had said
, finally penetrated my hormone-
adled brain.
“What did you mean about
my
blood? Wouldn't any blood have healed you?”
Lydia stopped laughing at this and was suddenly serious as she answered my question.
“That's a real good question, Northern. One we would like to understand as well. Normally, even Tanya, who heals the fastest of all of us, would need an enormous amount of blood to
repair
half that much damage. Yet she healed completely with only about a quart of your blood. You can bet that Galina is very interested in how that is possible.”
Suddenly, I had visions of long lines of injured vampires waiting to get a hit from a tap plugged into my chest, as my body shriveled and shrank, like a prune.
Tanya was fingering the arrowhead, drawing my attention back to her aforementioned gloriously healed torso. She started when she realized I was looking and began to take off the amulet.
“I must give this back, as you have destroyed the demon,” she said reluctantly. I stepped closer to her unzipped self and touched her hands to stop her from taking off the necklace.
“Tanya, I didn't lend it to you, I
gave
it to you. Plus I think you still very much need to keep it on.” She smiled again, stunning me. Lydia looked a little stunned too, like she had never seen Tatiana's smile before. Then she asked, “What do you mean by her still needing it?”
I shrugged,
“I don't think the Hellbourne will give up trying, not with all the effort they put into this attempt. I'm afraid you'll have to put up with my presence for the foreseeable future.”
Lydia frowned at this news, but Tanya lit up even brighter if that was possible. The soft purr of a well- tuned motor announced the arrival of a huge Mercedes stretch limo, pulling along side of us. The door opened and Vadim ghosted out, giving us a cursory glance, than scanning the darkness for threats. Galina leaned out of the open door and smiled at me like a cat smiles at a bird.
“Ah, Officer Gordon. I see the ladies have found you and in good health too. See, Tanya, he's fine. Chris..may I call you Chris?”
I nodded and she continued.
“ I wonder if I might have a few moments of your time?” she asked, indicating that I should step into the limo. I sighed, figuring that it was inevitable and walked over to the big car, my sexy escorts gliding along beside me. The inside was cavernous, capable of holding a small party. Nika was there also. I stood aside to let Tanya and Lydia in first, while eyeing Vadim, who was eyeing me. When I did slide in, the only obvious spot was next to Tanya. Somehow, upon sitting, there wasn't as much room as I had thought and she was suddenly pressed against my side, setting my heart pounding again. I briefly hoped that the vampires would attribute it to my fear, but Lydia's smile and Nika's knowing gaze said otherwise.
“For the second time in less than twenty-four hours, I find myself thanking you for protecting my daughter, in fact, my coven.” Galina began, her voice and face expressing gratitude, her eyes devoid of emotion. “You are really quite the most intere
sting person, human or vampire,
that we have come across in many years.” I felt the big car move powerfully forward, like gravity. A different gravity seemed to have pinned Tanya's shoulder, arm, hip, thigh and calf to mine. Coulda sworn the seat was bigger. She was warmer than I would have guessed.
“Did you know, Chris, that you share the same birth day, year, hour and even minute with my daughter? Also that you each had a life altering, traumatic experience on the exact same day, fifteen years ago.” Tanya stiffened next to me, while my mind tried to fathom the odds of our mutual birth...moment.
“You, of course, lost your whole family to an ax wielding stranger. Possibly a demon ridden one as you might say?”
My teeth clenched as I had a sudden image of myself, like an out of body experience, huddled in a cowardly heap on the floor of my brother's closet. I couldn't help but be aware that Nika was studying me like a bug.
“Tanya lost her nursemaid that same day. It left her absolutely speechless for fifteen years. Until last night. When you found her and saved her.”
Speechless? What could cause that? How had she lost her nursemaid? Why would she start talking now? I would have glanced at her but I could feel the emotion and tension radiating from her, and I sensed that she did not want me looking at her at that moment.
“I happen to hear you speaking with Lydia about the abnormally fast healing that Tanya achieved with your blood In fact, she is arguably stronger and faster today than she was yesterday. And most unsettling of all, you have an ability to see, sense, track and destroy dangerous entities that we, for all of our admitte
dly superior gifts, cannot
.”
I finally answered one of her points, if only to clarify. “Er...I don't destroy them. I don't think that is possible in this....realm or dimension. I just send them back.”
She nodded her head at this piece of information. “But you send them back quite ...forcibly. The video we watched from earlier today was fascinating. What was that dark form that appeared and snatched away the entity? It appeared again at the house back up the street, if I'm not mistaken.”
So they had been watching me.
“Ah, I just call it Kirby.” They all looked at me with blank stares. “As in the vacuum cleaner. I named him when I was twelve. It seemed to make sense at the time,” I explained.
Galina was nodding again.
“Yes, I imagine it has been difficult. There doesn't seem to be anyone else with your...talents, so to speak. You've had to make it up as you go, haven't you?”
You have no freakin
g
idea!
“In fact, you are just about as unique as Tanya. I'm uncertain of your understanding of vampires, Chris, but my daughter is in fact my actual daughter. The only known vampire to be born of two full vampires. She is completely unprecedented. As near as we can ascertain, she was conceived the night her father and I were Turned. She apparently remained in some sort of stasis for something on the order of two hundred and fifty years or so. The tiny fertilized egg finally started to develop nine months before she was born. About the time you were conceived. But at the risk of changing the topic rather suddenly, what did you mean about the demons still hunting Tanya?”
I tried to align my thoughts to answer, while reeling from the overload of information she had just dumped in my lap.
“Wel
l, the Hellbourne that was sent
was one of the most powerful that I've come across. Most demon kind
tend
s
to
avoid daylight, yet this one was able to fully cloa
k in the middle of the day. Sooo,
I can't imagine that this setback will stop them completely. I think I'm going to need to protect Tanya as long as I can. But we'll have to do some serious pl
anning for what you will do if
I'm no longer around.” I added, thoughtfully. Maybe I would have enough time to empower another couple amulets. Hmm. I suddenly became aware of total silence in the car. All five were staring at me with puzzled expressions, although Tanya's was slightly alarmed. “What?” I asked as I tried to think of what I had said.