B00724AICC EBOK (23 page)

Wei’s gray-blue eyes blinked several times as he pondered about the young girl. Bao sat next to him in the white lawn swivel club chair with the acrylic fabric cushions facing the love seat. The cushions were wrapped in high density foam covered in Dacron, an expensive set. Their swords were set out in front of them on the small metal table that was part of the patio furniture set.

Two large black crows set down upon the left corner of the white fence and appeared to observe them. The birds didn’t go unnoticed as Wei gestured with his head toward them. It was a puzzling sight as the animals made their way down the fence, getting closer and closer. One bird flew to the coffee table and cawed loudly, as if trying to say something. The bird shook its head rapidly, and then seconds later repeated the gesture.

Bao shook his head. “What the hell is it with these birds?”

“
Never saw anything like that before in my life. Maybe they are someone’s pets?”

“
People don’t have crows for pets,” said Bao, “biters maybe.”

The second crow flew to the coffee table near the first crow and cawed several times and then both became silent. Wei stood up and then they both flew off into the northern sky. “Is that a bad omen or what?”

Bao remained puzzled. “No such thing as a bad omen.”

Wei shrugged. “If there were I think that would be it. At least they didn’t try to pick our eyes out. Because we can turn into bats some animals do act weird around us.”

“
Yeah, but not like that.”

Silence took over for a while. Bao’s dark brown eyes turned and broke the six minute silence. His muscular definition was obvious even through his triple-stripped gray and white dress shirt. “Are you still thinking about that girl?”

Wei nodded. “Damn right I am. She pulled our butts out of the fire and acted as if it was nothing.”

“
So what are you saying?”

“
I want to talk to her.”

Bao finished the last of his blood. “Why?”

Wei also finished the last of his bottle of blood and wiped his mouth on his hand. His two feet long queue of hair shifted to the side. “I’ve never sensed so much energy in anyone. She even appears to surpass the aura of ancient vampires, and yet I can tell that she’s not that old.”

“
I don’t know I can’t sense aura’s at all.” Bao placed the bottle onto the steel table beside him.

“
I think I might be able to track her aura, what do you say we go talk to her?”

“
For what purpose?”

“
I’d like to know why she saved us for one thing. Aren’t you curious?” Wei stood up and cracked his back.

“
She’s one of the good ones, what else do you need to know. It’s embarrassing being rescued by such a little thing.”

Suddenly, three vampires blurred into their yard, all with samurai swords at the ready. They all resembled one another. Three brothers that had been notoriously bad as humans and now were looking to make a splash into the vampire world by killing a couple of red sheriffs. All three had sparse beards, as if they were unable to grow a proper one. They looked to have been turned in their mid-twenties and they had only been vampires for less than a decade. Spencer, Lucas and Jack appeared to be a little too happy facing two experienced sheriffs.

Wei and Bao blurred and suddenly stood with their swords in hand.

Wei was immediately angry for the trespass. “How the hell did you get our home address?”

Spencer’s rapid laughter annoyed both sheriffs. “We paid a stupid cop fifty grand for the list. Then we killed him and took the money back!” He laughed and laughed.

Jack had a stupid look on his ugly face; he was prepared to taste the deliciousness of victory. “Three against two. You die now.”

Spencer continued to laugh.

Bao shook his head. “I’m going to kill this guy first just to shut him up.”

All three brothers went after Bao first with their swords swinging. The sheriff deflected all their blows as Wei cut the head off Spencer and he fell with only his bones remaining. It was only then that Jack and Lucas realized that they might be outmatched, but found themselves in a quandary. They didn’t expect their number advantage to be equaled so soon. They figured that they would be killed if they attempted to flee, but were actually too cocky to surrender.

Jack swung his sword with such force that it put him off balance and Bao decapitated him and watched as his bones fell at his feet. Lucas attacked Wei swinging his sword furiously left and right. Wei backed up several steps as he deflected the blows. Bao watched as he knew what was coming. Wei sidestepped Lucas and cut his head off as well; it popped off straight up and was side kicked across the lawn.

Wei took Spencer’s bones and sat it on the love seat. “If those evil son-of-a-bitches ever organize properly they’ll kill every one of us. Let’s go find that girl.”

CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR

ON THE SUNDAY THAT JEFF GORDON had won his third Daytona 500 Jenny was five. It was the year 2005. The child had already been fascinated by those cars zooming around the track for almost a year, and so Allison humored her and permitted the 5-year-old to watch the races. She was so cute sitting on her little white plastic chair observing the race that Allison watched her watching the contest. It was interesting how such a young child managed to keep her attention span fixed on television for such a period, but she watched as if she was a fifty-year-old with money on the outcome. She would jump up and down with the excitement of one car passing another. Whenever there was an accident she would hold her hands over her eyes and peek through the cracks.

Little Jenny always had several things set up before she watched the race. On her small white plastic table she had a glass of milk and five Oreo cookies. She would save the last cookie for the end of the race. Allison thought that it showed discipline for such a young child, but of course she was no ordinary kid. She also had a baby polar bear that she called Jeff, and he had to watch the race with her and pay special attention to Jeff Gordon’s car.

“
Go, go, go!” Jenny called out as she bounded through the room.

Jenny was overjoyed when Jeff captured the lead and fought off Kurt Busch and Dale Earnhardt Jr. in extra laps to win the race. She jumped and danced and clapped. “We won, we won! Mommy we won!”

“
How much did we win?”

“
We won a cookie!”

Jenny particularly liked it when they showed the cars close to the wall, with the sound of the cars whooshing by in a blur at over two hundred miles per hour. Her mother thought that she was a little boyish in that respect. She played with dolls but she also played with cars, although some of the cars she smashed. She was only rough when playing with her cars, and because she was a hybrid, she was extremely strong. He mother entered the living room one morning to find her with the sofa balanced over her head. The fact that she could lift the sofa was telling enough, but with the child being able to balance it as well was a testament to her talent. She had the might of a vampire in that small body.

Fortunately for Allison, her daughter appeared to know her own forte and was gentle enough in her activities, although she did rip a solid brick out of an apartment building one afternoon when her mother wasn’t looking. It was simply done out of curiosity. She wanted to see how it was put together. She did put it back but of course it wasn’t the same. She had noticed a small spider crawl into a crack beside the brick, which also made her wonder about the brick itself.

Allison was always worried when she played with other kids, and constantly reminded her not to play rough because of the possible consequence. But thank goodness she was a good kid and not at all mean spirited. When she destroyed her cars it was simply to make them crash into one another, not to be mean spirited. At times it was difficult for Jenny not to show the world that she was special; she ran faster than any other kid Allison had ever seen, and received strange looks from the neighbors. Two months before her fifth birthday she subdued a large dog that had charged a friend she’d been playing with her on the front lawn. She grabbed it by the tail and threw it across the road. She never saw the dog after that.

“
Mommy, it wouldn’t be fair if Jeff Gordon won every race, would it?”

“
Well,” Allison thought on it. “Nobody would ever want to race with him. They’d probably go find a race that he wasn’t in.”

“
Nobody would want to play with him, huh?”

“
I guess not.”

“
What would happen if someone tried to cross that road where the cars are racing?”

Allison shook her head at the thought of it. “We would not want to see that. They’d probably get run over by ten cars.”

“
I gotta go poop.”

The doorbell rang as Jenny ran into the washroom. It was a mistake to open the door even with the chain still attached. The felon kicked the door in and was on top of Allison faster than she would ever have thought possible. His fetid breath reeked of alcohol and hamburger meat. She struggled with the knowledge that Jenny would soon return to the living room, and what she saw there would perhaps affect her for the rest of her life. She didn’t dare scream and felt as helpless as a newborn. Willie had at least fifty pounds on her, and of course his testosterone was an unfair advantage. In the middle of the living room floor there was nothing for her to grab and smash him with. He had been incarcerated for rape in the past, and had spent the past week watching Allison and getting excited. Willie ripped her yellow dress as Jenny ran into the living room.

“
Jenny, run and get help!”

Jenny smashed him on the back of his head as hard as she could, so hard in fact that it hurt her mother underneath the miscreant. She broke his neck and paralyzed him. Allison rolled him off and called the police.

“
Did I get him Mommy?”

“
You got him good!” Allison said with tears in her eyes.

The ambulance took him out with a neck brace and initially it was thought that he would never walk again, but as fate would have it he fully recovered, though it did take months.

CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE

ALEXANDER AND HIS GERMAN SHEPHERD were on the outskirts of a New York farm house listening to the bug he had planted earlier in the week. He could just barely see the white house through the branches of the trees. The listening device had been placed under the kitchen table; he knew that there was a chance that it could be found, but for the time being it was operating properly. There was also a fair amount of static but it didn’t stop him from hearing what they were saying.

Alexander’s thoughts went back to his childhood home in Rockland Maine. It was a happy childhood. He had fond memories of chasing his friends around the house with toy guns as they played, with his hound dog Biscuit running after them glad to be part of the excitement. It was a simpler time when most vampires concealed themselves. After the supernatural beings had emerged from the shadows they start getting ideas of becoming the dominant force. Why should they be second to inferior mortals? And with no Dracula to keep them in line, many of them had commenced to kill regularly, red sheriffs or not.

Tessy had broken a large cow bone in two in the back seat and was licking at the bone marrow inside. The sky was full of stars as Alexander waited patiently. He sat in his red Dodge minivan eavesdropping on two miscreant vampires at the table in the kitchen. Alexander was wearing a new black leather trench coat with black suit pants and polished black shoes. He was a bit restless because he had attempted to get something on Sharpton several times in the past. Sharpton was as dirty as mud and yet proving it had so far been impossible. Many nasty stories originated from him, but they were always second hand and nothing that he could actually move on.

Holgate and Ryman were playing poker at the square kitchen table as they waited for Sharpton to show up. They were short in stature; Holgate had a nicely trimmed white beard. Holgate was sixty-four when he’d been turned almost two centuries ago. Ryman had naturally curly brown hair and cauliflower ears from his early days as a boxer. His nose was large and bent to the left. They were rough looking characters and looked out of place in their gray Armani suits. They resembled businessmen that had just got out of prison after a long sentence. Putting a suit on a gorilla didn’t fool anyone.

Sharpton was almost two hours late as they dealt another hand. The kitchen was rustic and light blue in color with an old wood stove and cupboards that were in need of some new paint. A dirty off-white oilcloth floor was under their feet. The only modern thing was a huge ceiling fan that appeared out of place. Vampires were never really cold or warm so it hadn’t been used in over a year.

“
He’s always late. I hate when he makes us wait. Our time means nothing to him.” Holgate played with his beard out of habit as he was getting restless. Sharpton was always delayed but each time it aggravated him a little more. The vampire adjusted his gun inside his coat.

“
It’s his style. Maybe he’s killing someone.” Ryman cleared his throat.

Holgate continued to play with his beard. “I’m gonna tell him that it pisses me off when he’s late.”