Fatal Retribution Page 12

  “To what end?” Shapes were emerging from the black, a table, someone’s silhouette.

  “They prefer the storybook white flesh to the grey-blue paleness that is our natural complexion.”

  “So, it’s the vampire’s version of fake-and-bake?” I said. I could see well enough by then. The VCC was huge. There were two rows of small glass rooms. Tristan was standing next to me and a tall blond vampire in a white coat was standing just a few feet away from us. Nick was in the first cube to my right. He was naked and standing with his hands against the glass, shivering as though he were cold. He was making soft whining noises, like a pup in a cage. All the other vampires were strapped into their beds, sedated and being fed blood through a tube.

  “Nicholas?” I asked. He tensed, his muscles stopped trembling. Tristan grabbed at my arm, but I jerked away from him and walked toward the glass, “Nicholas!” And, like a dog behind a fence, Nicholas attacked. His face was wild, mouth impossibly wide and full of inhuman teeth. Teeth meant for rated R violence.

  Tristan was suddenly there, holding me back from the glass, almost dragging me back while I screamed. Once I was far enough away Nick slid to the ground and dug his nails into his arms with his eyes shut tight.

  “Tristan?” I whispered.

  “I’m sorry. I asked that they wake him up,” he said. I could feel his chest rising and falling against my back. “I wanted to talk to him, just talk. But, the first thing he did was rip his restraints and clothes off. He attacked me same as you.”

  “He seems pissed,” I said.

  “Hungry is more like it,” said Blondie. “Baby vampires are hungry, crazed little devils. That’s why we keep them asleep with a constant flow of fresh blood.”

  I looked back at Nick. He was rocking back and forth, staring at his feet. He looked harmless. His big sad eyes would draw you in, and then he’d eat you.

  “How long will Nick be like this?” Tristan asked.

  “It usually takes a night or two. We should get him strapped back in for his own safety, so if you don’t mind.” Blondie ushered us toward the elevator and we didn’t argue. I think we’d both seen enough of Nick tonight. Maybe tomorrow, as Tristan suggested.

  When the elevator doors opened a slender vampire came through with a goat on a leash trailing behind her. “Thanks Teddy,” she said with a sultry voice. Teddy, the elevator attendant, stood behind her wearing a big smile.

  “What are you doing Kat?” asked Blondie.

  “Alistair asked that Seth’s nephew be fed,” Kat said.

  The two vampires stared at each other for a moment. It was a silent argument. She stood tall and calm, giving Blondie lazy eyes. Blondie was visibly agitated, but he said nothing.

  Looking at the goat’s innocent face I found strength enough to say, “You can’t feed that to my brother! He’s an elf and this is animal cruelty!”

  “Please leave,” said Blondie. “You don’t want to see this.”

  Tristan moved to leave, but I watched as Kat took the goat to a small metal door at the far end of Nick’s cube. It was like a car accident. I couldn’t help but look.

  “Can’t you stop her?” I asked. I watched as she pulled a knife out and sliced a long red ribbon down the goat’s side. The goat cried out, bucking and strangling itself to get away. It wasn’t a fatal wound. The animal would live if I could get him away from that woman.

  “Our master bids it,” Blondie shrugged.

  “Stop her!” I screamed. “Doc, Nick’s an elf. This will destroy him. He won’t forgive himself, please!”

  Kat opened the door just slightly and Nicholas was there. He forced the goat through the small opening. His fingers dug deep into fury flesh, bones cracked, and the goats scream became frantic. I doubled over and Tristan caught me. I was going to be sick.

  “Get her out of here!” Blondie yelled.

  The goat needed saving from my Nick, and Nick needed saving from himself. I felt like a coward as I ran for the door.

  “Have a pleasant visit?” Teddy laughed. He flashed us a fang-full smile.

  Tristan’s nostrils flared and I thought for a moment that he was going to punch Teddy, but he didn’t. Smart man.

  We rode up to the main floor in silence. Tristan walked me to my car, and then went back inside for his therapy session with Damon. Perhaps I should have joined him.

  18:

  CRESCENT MOON WAS one of Tacoma’s few exclusively nocturnal restaurants, and at one in the morning it was packed. With a warm and inviting atmosphere, it was a welcomed contrast to Bastion’s cold stone and even colder hospitality. Mom asked me to come on her date with Ruy and I didn’t want to ruin it with the horrors of my night, so I kept it to myself. I tried to forget the image of Nick eating that poor goat, and focus on the menu in front of me. I tried and failed.

  “Are you ok?” Ruy asked. I nodded, but I wasn’t. “You sure?” I nodded again.

  I would never have thought that Ruy was Mom’s type of man, what with her being so insufferably pious and whatnot. Though, Ruy certainly looked the part of the well-bred courter tonight. He was so gussied up that he and Mom almost looked like they belonged together. Almost. Mom still looked like a high elf-witch and Ruy still looked like a big tough, macho hunter. Not so much a lamb and a lion, more like a poacher and a lion.

  Awkward silence grew between us and I began to wonder if Mom’s invitation wasn’t really an invitation at all. When I pulled up into the driveway Mom’s exact words were, “I’m meeting Ruy at Crescent Moon for a bite. Do you want to join us?” Was I supposed to say no? Mom was fidgeting in her purse, looking frustrated and disappointed. I should have said no.

  “I’m sorry, I shouldn’t have come along on your date,” I said when I couldn’t take the silence any longer.

  “Don’t worry about it,” Ruy said.

  The look on Mom’s face said I should worry about it. She wasn’t making eye contact with anyone. Not with Ruy, or the waiter that took our orders, and definitely not with me. She was more than disappointed, she was mad.

  “You could have said no. You had a long day. (She didn’t know the half of it) You looked like you were ready to pass out. I thought you would decline,” Mom’s said. “I thought it was obvious that my invitation was rhetorical. Maybe you just wanted to crash.”

  “No, Mom.” But, she interrupted me with a scoff.

  I could hear Ruy’s thoughts loud and clear. “Maybe she’s afraid I’ll take Anna from her or replace her father…”

  I had to stop him there, “I’ve never had a father so there’s no one to replace, and you can’t steal Mom’s attention from me because I never had it. My mom’s a big girl. She knows what’s best for her.”

  “What?” Mom asked in the mom tone. I didn’t answer her. It would only lead to an argument that I didn’t feel like having.

  Ruy looked startled. He suspected I’d heard his thoughts. Damon told me to keep this stuff a secret. Oh well, I was too tired to give a shit at that moment. I was distracted by the sound of cracking bones and ripping flesh and piercing screams that kept playing in my head. I didn’t want to be here, but I didn’t want to be alone either. I had no friends to call. Two out of three brothers were locked away somewhere until they regained their civil minds, and Tristan had to stay at Bastion Fatal for his appointment with Damon. But, was being here any better than being alone? Not really.

  “What am I doing here?” I asked no one, before I stood to leave.

  Mom pulled on my sleeve with a jerk. “Don’t be such a drama queen. Sit, and eat with us. You’re here, so you might as well eat something.”

  I was only half listening to her, because an idea came to me. I was reading Ruy’s thoughts so well that if I wanted an update on Sherriff Mato’s investigation into what happened to us all I would need to do is get Ruy thinking about it. I could get some answers without asking any questions. But, what would be the catalyst to his thoughts? I sat back down and tried to not look too eager.

  “Who�
�s your favorite Beatle? Mine’s Paul,” I said and then listened closely to his thoughts.

  “Poor Paul,’ he thought. “After all he’s been through he didn’t deserve that, not that, to die a monster, burned alive. God damn it.”

  “I don’t know, Lennon I guess,” Ruy said aloud. I nodded. I agreed with him actually.

  That really didn’t help though. I grasped for another thought-catalyst as the waiter set down my potato soup. I watched them eat and talk over their soups and I studied his thoughts. He usually said what he thought unless he thought Mom would find it insulting or uninteresting. But, what he thought was often times more interesting than what he said. For example: Mom said she loved Crescent Moon’s neoclassical décor, especially how most things were red or gold. To that Ruy said, “Me too.” But, what he thought was, “It reminds me of a zombie-brothel I raided back in Saint Louis five years ago.” The bad thing was, most thoughts came with visuals now—I so did not need a mental picture of a zombie-brothel raid to top off this night of horrors! Really.

  No good ideas came to mind, and I was tired of pussy-footing around the subject. “So, Ruy, the case, what of it?” I asked. I didn’t expect an answer out-right, but I knew that would get me some useful thoughts.

  “Raina!” Mom said. “Not now.” I played the dumb apologetic girl, but secretly I was listening to Ruy’s mind intently.

  “I’m a vampire hunter for Darkness, Raina, not a detective. My involvement in the case ended when we found Paul’s remains and dealt with you and your brothers.” But he knew more than he let on. He knew a great deal actually.

  “Five different phone numbers called him from Seattle. Who did Paul know in Seattle? People all over Western Washington are getting infected. What the hell is going on? He bought it. I know he did, because his bank account is bone dry. The question is, who’s selling vampire blood, and why?”

  But his thoughts on the case stopped there, and turned back to the mundane: bills, his food, my mom and so on. I couldn’t take it. I had a taste of knowledge, and I wanted more. I had to know who Paul was, a villain or a victim.

  “Please, Ruy, tell me about Paul.” I interjected. “I have to know what kind of man he was. After what he did to us, I thought he was a monster, but he was loved by those who knew him before.” Mom didn’t even yell at me. She just looked away with her lips pursed in dissatisfaction. Ruy actually looked thoughtful for a moment.

  He took a deep breath. “I can appreciate how you must feel right now, Raina. Paul was raised by his mom until she died of cancer when he was just seventeen. He moved to Darkness shortly after college with the hopes that the collective might accept him. They eventually did, but before he was turned he finally found his biological father. He was on his death bed in Texas. Paul flew out to meet him before he died and the doctors there convinced him to get tested to see if he had the same disease that was killing his father…and he did. He had Huntington’s disease. In spite of that damning diagnosis, Paul came home with a portion of his father’s inheritance and no worries. He was going to become a vampire, and that would fix everything. But, what Paul didn’t know at the time was that a disease like Huntington, a disease that’s basically a death sentence, means you’re no longer fit to become a vampire in the eyes of the law. The powers that be think that someone who’s dying isn’t in the right frame of mind to make that kind of decision. None of us could help him. The state declined his application. All we could do was sit and watch him slowly lose control over his body and mind. It was painful to watch...” Ruy stared into his soup with tears clinging to his eye lashes.

  “I’m sorry,” I said. “That’s a stupid law. It doesn’t make any sense.”

  “No, it doesn’t. If you’ll excuse me?” he said before leaving the table and heading for the restrooms.

  “Raina, will you leave him alone now?” Mom did look at me then, with angry eyes. I felt bad for asking about Paul, but how was I supposed to know he’d get all leaky eyes on me.

  “Don’t you want to know why Paul did what he did? Don’t you want justice? This person, whoever sold Paul this blood, he didn’t do it to be nice. He didn’t do it for Paul. He exploited Paul’s pain for money. And, we aren’t the first people to be affected by this. This guy is selling the disease like its candy.”

  “How do you know that?” Mom asked.

  “It doesn’t matter,” I said with a wave of my hand. “This man needs to be stopped! Look at Nicholas and Michael and Paul. They deserve justice.”

  “Paul made his own bed,” she said, her voice cold and indifferent, “And Nicholas and Michael will live—sort of.”

  “Paul’s dead because he wanted to live, and Nick is your son, Mom. He’s your son whether you want him to be or not, and I don’t think you’re angry enough for his sake. His life is ruined, damn it. You can’t just pretend its okay, it’s not okay. Being eaten alive wasn’t okay. Watching my brother die, his eyes staring, pleading for help while he bled his life away wasn’t okay!” I was screaming and crying before I realized it, and now it was me that couldn’t look anyone in the eyes. “I’m sorry,” I said quietly, but I couldn’t stop the tears now. Day’s worth of pain fell from my eyes with no foreseeable end, but I tried to be quiet about it. I hid my face is a napkin from the table. I didn’t think it was possible to put a cap on the impeding hysteria begging to be unleashed, but I did. I shoved all my anger and fear and sadness deep down inside my gut like a weight and wiped my face clean. I couldn’t do anything about the red puffiness.

  Mom was silent, staring straight ahead with her arms resting on either side of her bowl of soup. Her face gave nothing away, save for tightness around the eyes. We didn’t have to wait in silence long before Ruy returned. His face looked a little long. Great, I just completely obliterated their evening.

  Ruy didn’t sit back down. He put his hand on Mom’s shoulder. “Mato called. He’s meeting with some detectives in Seattle. They think they have something.”

  “That’s great news,” I said. I wanted to smile but the best I could do was a quick shadow of a smirk.

  “I’m sorry Ann, I have to leave now. Mato has asked that I meet him there as a consultant.” Ruy looked down at her, and his face was truly sad. Mom gave a slow nod. “I’ll take care of the bill on my way out.”

  “Don’t’ worry about it, Ruy.” Mom smiled up at him and he kissed her lightly on the forehead before he walked away.

  I wanted to ask if I could go with him, but I knew the arguments that they’d make. Ruy would say I couldn’t because it was police business, and Mom would say it wasn’t safe. Why bother asking at all? Instead I let Ruy walk out of the dining area without a word.

  “Where are the restrooms?” I asked, but I didn’t wait for Mom’s answer. I stood and followed Ruy. He was standing in the middle of the lobby, talking to the matradee.

  I did the whole cliché sneak act. I dashed from a large planter to a huge wooden column, to a group of snobby folks, to the wide double doors and then I sprinted to his jeep. With my back to the jeep I looked around the parking lot before I climbed in back using one of its big tires for a boost. I made myself as flat as I could get on the floor of the jeep and set his large duffle bag on top of me, along with several other things, to help hide me from sight. I could hear his boots as he walked up to the jeep, opened the door and slammed it shut.

  “I can pretend not to know you’re there the entire way to Seattle, or you can sit up front with me once we get away from the restaurant. It’s your choice,” Ruy said.

  “I thought you would have argued with me if I asked to go,” I said from my hiding place.

  “With Anna right there, yeah, I would have argued with you, but eventually she’ll find out what you did, and it will all be on you. That’s the deal between us. You say I didn’t know and take the heat, or I walk you back into the restaurant right now.”

  I nodded, “Fine, but why are you letting me tag along?”

  “I don’t fucking know. Maybe I’ve gone
bat-shit.”

  “Good enough for me!” I said with a smile he couldn’t see.

  Once we turned off South Write Ave and onto South 27th street I hopped into the more comfortable front passenger seat. Mom was going to be so pissed, but it was worth it for peace of mind. I dug into my purse and called home. No one would answer of course, but Mom would check her messages when she got home.

  “Mom, it’s me, Raina. I know you’re mad as all hell right now, but I had to go with him, and you two wouldn’t have let me go. I turned my phone off so Ruy won’t hear it when you call. I love you and I’m sorry.” I hung up my phone and threw it back into my bottomless pit of a purse. I sat back in my seat, put my feet on the dashboard and let the cold night wind run through my toes.

  We took A Street and merged onto I-5, heading north to Seattle, The Emerald City.

  19:

  THE SKYLINE WAS glowing red as we approached Seattle. The moon was waxing behind thin gray clouds, and the stars were all but lost in the city lights as we took our exit. The overpasses were thick with green vines, and trees grew where they could, between old buildings and twisted roads. Much of the city was dead at this hour, but the parts that were alive, were very alive. Those oases of life reminded me of Darkness, and how alive it was at night. But, with thoughts of Darkness, came thoughts of Nick and I began to cry softly in the dark of Ruy’s Jeep. If he noticed, he made no sign of it.

  We finally pulled up to a Doctor Jackal/ Mr. Hide of a building, the Justice Center. It was half court house, half Seattle’s Police Department. The court house half had a wall of glass windows, beautiful water fountains, and modern pieces of art in shades of cranberry red, celery green and cream. But we walked past all that loveliness to reach the dramatically uninspiring half of the same building, the police department. Blah. The interior of SPD matched the exterior. It was thoroughly just as boring. We walked up to a counter, where a man sat behind a sheet of bullet proof glass. Ruy gave him his gun and knife. I gave him a small thingy of mace I kept on my key-chain.