Tomorrow's Dead: The Julia Poe Vampire Chronicles (14 page)

Michelle ran to the truck.  “Shit, I thought I was going to miss your sendoff!”  She
kissed Poe and Percy on the cheek while she slammed a wet one on Maclemar’s very attractive
mouth.

Instead of feeling angry, Poe laughed.  “He’s cute, isn’t he?”

“Sure is.  He wouldn’t sleep with me though I tried several times to entice him.”

“He’s an idiot,” said Poe.

“You said it, sister!”  She winked at both at them.  “See you real soon.”

“Yeah.  December,” said Maclemar.

While listening to Poe and Percy make plans for a new home on the island, Maclemar
drove on the Santa Monica Freeway that had been cleared by Trench.  Poe thought about
her burnt cabin and lost some of her pep. 

They reached the San Pedro Pier and began loading the boat with Poe’s belongings,
Maclemar’s tools, and Percy’s small bag.  Once the animals were safely boarded, Maclemar
revved up his boat, The Chameleon, and beckoned Percy to the helm. 

“See that spot there ahead?”

“Yes,” answered Percy quietly.  “The smudge.”

“Head for it.  If you need a break, let me know.  Okay?”

Percy turned to Poe for her approval.  “Go ahead,” said Poe.  She hugged Maclemar’s
waist tightly.  “He’s going to teach us a lot of useful things.  Enjoy.”

Maclemar kissed Poe’s small cold nose and embraced her.  “My darling, how much I love
you!”

“Mahal kita, mister.” 

Their first month on Catalina Island was the happiest the three companions had ever
been.  Poe was especially thankful for the company.  In the uninhabited town of Avalon,
Percy chose a lovely six-bedroom yellow house with a private boating dock and beach. 
The child born of a slave mother walked around the first week as if she was in a dream. 
She lived with two of her favorite people whose laughter rang with the wind as they
put the house in order. 

She turned away whenever Poe and Maclemar snuck kisses, sometimes feeling bothersome
and like a third wheel.  But Percy’s hero Poe and her partner Maclemar genuinely seemed
happy to have her on the island.  They gave her first dibs to the room of her choice. 
She picked the upstairs bedroom overlooking the water for two reasons.  The bedroom
afforded privacy to the couple whom she’d heard discussing the merits of sleeping
downstairs as the best defense against unwanted company.  The second reason was the
beautiful view her three bay windows afforded her which would surely erase nightmares
of evil vampires and long-tongued baby vamps that left her sweating and shivering
at night.

The three woke up early to hike, watch bison eating for hours, and track foxes in
the mud.  Maclemar took his girls fishing and cooked three meals a day with a satisfied
smirk on his face.  Penny had a long ways to go until her ribs healed, and Chops,
who was allowed in the house, granted his feet were wiped clean, munched on all things
edible on the island.

One day Maclemar learned that Percy only knew of the year of her birth but not much
else.  He whipped up sticky toffee pudding while Poe took the girl and Chops hiking
in the hills.  She was to have a special celebration.  When the two companions came
home, the house smelled of sweets and seafood spaghetti.

Maclemar came out with the pudding decorated with 10 lit candles and broke into the
happy birthday song.  Poe sang along, too, in her out-of-tune voice. 

“You got to make a wish before you blow the candles, love.”

Percy closed her eyes then extinguished the candles in one blow.  “I don’t understand. 
I don’t know when I was born.”

“Well let’s just say that starting today, November 8
th
will be your official birthday.  We’ll celebrate the date every year, okay?” explained
Poe.

Percy hugged her new family and dug in her favorite spaghetti recipe.  The sticky
toffee pudding was so delicious she almost cried.

“Thanks, guys, for taking me in.  You don’t know how much this means to me.”

Poe and Maclemar kissed her goodnight.  “You’re our family now,” said Maclemar. 

“Yeah.  You’re ours, and we’re yours,” said Poe.

“I don’t feel right sometimes about how happy I am,” Poe told Maclemar after they’d
made love for a second time that evening.  “Our friends are going through perilous
days Downtown, but I don’t seem to care when I’m here with you.  Out of sight, out
of mind.”

Maclemar tweaked her sweaty nose.  The young woman only seemed to sweat on the tip
of her nose.  “I think of the kids, but I left behind a mighty good flock of teachers
before we left.  I just hope that Sainvire will succeed in his vision for Los Angeles
of people and vampires co-existing without violence.”

Poe chewed on her full, many-a-kissed lips and thought of Sainvire.  She wished him
well but was sure that choosing Maclemar was the best decision she’d ever made.  “Yeah. 
I hope things go well over there.  We both remember the days of evil councils and
selfish master vampires.  It’s terrible to think that such archaic rulers are still
perpetuating the old ways in other cities.”

Maclemar pulled open the drawer next to his bed.  “Very scary,” he said.  “Now I was
scouting for equipment at the other houses, and I came across this ring.  You don’t
have to wear it or anything, but I’d like you to have it.  I think it’s your size.” 
He switched on the light.

Poe took the thin titanium ring without any adornments and smiled.  “Are you, like,
proposing to me?”

Maclemar kissed her brow.  “Well I don’t believe in marriage myself, but I’d marry
you in a heartbeat.”  Poe laughed and slid the ring onto her marriage finger.  It
fit perfectly.  “Did you get one for yourself?”

“Well that would be tacky now, wouldn’t it?” he snickered.  “You have to find one
for me to wear if anything.”

“Alright, I’ll do that.”

The following day Poe went foraging from house to house for a plain ring big enough
to fit Maclemar’s thick finger.  She rather liked the dull silver luster of her own
ring and was hoping to find something similar for her man.  She found large sizes
on three different skeletal remains.  One was gold which Poe didn’t like very much,
and the others were silver and a hard gray metal she’d never seen before.

She inhaled the clean tang of the ocean and headed for home.  She sniffed the air
for Maclemar’s excellent stews but could not detect a hint of goodness.  The instincts
that helped her survive since she was eight years old took hold.  Something was wrong
here at the cottage. 
Vampires.  Has to be vampires.
She blinked away her worries, praying to no one in particular
.  Please keep my family safe.

She took out one of the Colt .45s and stuck it behind her back where her windbreaker
would hide it better.  She realized her decision to stop wearing her wrist knives
was stupid.  The funny-looking machete hung on a scabbard on her belt, and she groaned. 
I wish I had been a better sword-maker.  This thing’s embarrassing
.

The day was sunny and temperate.  She figured the vampires must be sun-immune and
damn powerful and their human support well armed and lethal.  Her instincts told her
that the dead weren’t sent by the pitiful Tunics this time. 

Poe fiddled with the back door as quietly as possible and headed for the living room
where Maclemar and Percy would normally have been. 
Too late.  Four of them.
  Automatic weapons pointed at her.  Some vampires had superhearing, of course.

“Search her,” ordered a handsome vamp with his platinum hair slicked back with smelly
20-year-old gel.

Poe folded her arms.  “If anyone touches me, I will kill every stupid one of you,”
she proclaimed in all seriousness.  “I’ll be happy to hand you the gun in my shoulder
holster, but that’s about it.  The machete, I’m keeping.”

“How can we trust that you don’t carry any more weapons?”

“Because I’m retired and living on this island,” she said and shook her head as if
the platinum-haired enemy was stupid.  Poe looked at Maclemar, and he laid a comforting
hand on Percy whose face was white as chalk.

“Take the gun, Paul,” said the gel-slicked vamp who was obviously in charge.  He had
three companions with him, all armed to the goiter and wearing Kevlar vests.  Poe
opened her jacket and let the man take her gun, butt first.

“What’s this about, fellas?  The San Diego big-shots send you to kill me?”

Paul, a thin vampire with ambition written on his face, answered, “Not kill exactly
but take you back with us and make an example of you.”

“Huh?”

“You’re the infamous Julia Poe.  You give hope where no hope should be given.  With
you and Sainvire running the show, you’re creating chaos on our streets.  Plasmacore
brews in secret, vampires and halfdead talk about jumping ship because they don’t
like the established regime.  And get this, they’re feeling remorse for the blood
cows that had been feeding them for nearly two decades,” explained Paul.  “Having
you in San Diego in front of a crowd would destroy all sedition.”

“And what is to happen to her in front of the crowd?” asked Maclemar in a steady voice.

“You really shouldn’t speak before you’re spoken to, Mr. Maclemar,” said Platinum. 
“But since you didn’t know the rules, I’ll answer your question.  Your girlfriend
will be publicly flayed, raped, and hanged.  As a finale she can expect decapitation
to show she’s nothing but a short human with a violent hand.  Then we’re going to
fly her remains to San Francisco for our ally, Peter Newbitt.  Her body parts will
be displayed on stakes until the buzzards leave nothing to be desired.”

Maclemar rose out of anger, his fist opening and closing.  Angrily he spit, “Dos i
ffwcio dy hun y cont.”

“And what the hell does that mean, I wonder,” said the amused leader.

“It means ‘Go fuck yourself, you cunt,’” answered Maclemar.  The creature was so fast
that Poe missed a thin silver knife leave the intruder’s jacket and stab Maclemar
twice.  Three fingers fell from Maclemar’s left hand as they impeded the strike of
the knife.  Poe’s fury rose when Maclemar hit the ground twitching.  Percy forgot
her fear and tried to stopper Maclemar’s chest wounds like a girl with a good head
on her shoulders. 

Poe reached for the .45 tucked in her back and shot Paul, the closest target, in the
head.  Platinum rose in the air and disappeared to the second floor.  Desperate shots
were fired by the other two lackeys as she hid behind a camphor Chinese chest.  Poe
closed her eyes. 
Mom and Dad, Sister Ann and Goss, I want you back. 
The moment firing stopped, Poe took to her feet and fired at two couches where the
flunkeys were hiding behind.  She knew without looking that she’d hit both of them
in the face through the frame and cotton of the couch.

At last her killer instinct returned.  She imagined shooting the two heads, and without
even seeing them, completed her task.  She ran to the room expecting Platinum to hover
in the hallway.  She was right.  He pointed his Sig Sauer at her chest.  Poe’s expression
was furious.  “My man is bleeding to death, you fucker.  I don’t…”  She shot him in
the head twice before the vampire realized that Poe had raised her gun at him.  “…have
time to dick around.”

She ran downstairs where Percy was coolly applying pressure to the wound.  “He’s still
alive, Poe.  We got to get him to Morales.”

“I know it.  Put ice in a Ziploc and place his fingers in it.  Then get the carrying
contraption Maclemar made for Penny.  We need to get him on the boat.”  How the two
small people dragged Maclemar’s body to the boat was one for the books.  Poe ran back
to the house to get Penny and the pig while Percy collected warm clothing for all
three of them and comforters for Maclemar. 

Poe turned on the engine and punched it, creating a choppy wake.  Percy took over
and aimed for the big land mass on the horizon.  “Be alright, please.  We just discovered
each other.  You can’t leave me, James,” said Poe as she taped gauze on the bleeding
wounds on his back and chest.  The blade had penetrated through his back.  The vampire
killer bit her lip.  The knife wound was awfully close to his heart.  She shivered
thinking about her own gunshot wound a year and a half before. 

“Maclemar,” she whispered in his ear.  “I love you, you crazy Welshman!  Remember
how you said you’ll do anything I say?  Well I’m telling you to hold on and live for
me.  I can’t go on without you now.  I just can’t.”

They reached Los Angeles Harbor in San Pedro at three o’clock with Percy nearly colliding
with a docked boat.  As quickly as they could, they heaved Maclemar’s makeshift carrier
bed on the truck and hoisted the pig alongside him.  Poe stashed Penny, whining, in
the back seat.

“You know how to drive a car?” asked Poe.

“No.  Sorry.”

“Don’t worry.  It can’t be that hard.  Take care of him while I drive, will ya, Perce?”

“I will,” Percy promised, covering Maclemar with another blanket.  “But he’s turning
purple, Poe.”

“It’s just the cold,” insisted Poe.  “That Welshman is tough.”

Poe turned on the engine and pulled the gear to drive.  She pressed the gas and braked
a couple times, jarring the passengers.  “Sorry, Penny.  Hold on.”

She kept her foot on the gas and maintained speeds up to 90 miles per hour on the
Harbor Freeway.  Steering was difficult because of her urge to turn her head and look
at the back of the truck. 
Please.  Help him.  He can’t die.  Mom, help me.  Dad, help me!

She slowed down the vehicle as they veered to the 6
th
Street exit in Downtown.  There was a concrete barricade and two Jeeps waiting for
her.   Poe jumped out of the truck and was greeted with AKs, Armalites, and Uzis pointed
at her.

“Stop right there!  Do you have a password or—”

“Shut the fuck up!” Poe shouted in distress.  “Open your eyes.  I’m Julia fucking
Poe!  I got a hurt man in the back of the truck.  I need to see Morales, pronto! 
If you don’t get that barrier out of my way, I swear I’m going to destroy you.”