Bill The Vampire - 01 (37 page)

I reached the door and tried the handle. It was unlocked. I took a deep breath and pushed it open, leaping back as I did so. No point in just standing there if he was waiting on the other side to stake me. After all this build up, that would be an utterly embarrassing way to go.

I needn't have worried. The entranceway was empty. Beyond the door was what appeared to be a small security checkpoint, unmanned, of course. Past that, there was an old walk-through metal detector through which the main warehouse floor could be seen. I was expecting a dank, dark place full of shadowy places perfect for an ambush. However, everything I could see from the doorway appeared brightly lit. Guess that made sense. Jeff wanted a face off, not an assassination. That, and turning off the lights on creatures who can see in the dark is probably not the most effective tactic in the world, anyway.

“Come on in and make yourself comfortable,” a voice called from inside, “and close the door behind you. Wouldn't want you to get a...
sunburn
,” the voice, Jeff's, chuckled.

“Help me, master!” Sally suddenly screamed out.

“Quiet, bitch!” I hissed and then backhanded her. Sure, the entire thing had been prearranged, but I will admit it felt kinda good. I was pretty cool with her after all we had been through, but she was still the person who had gotten me into this mess in the first place. I was probably owed at least one freebie without messing up my karma too much.

Her head reeled back much harder than it should have from the blow and she fell to her knees sobbing. She was definitely going for an Oscar with this one.

“Get moving!” yelled Ed, prodding her with the barrel of his gun. When she hesitated, I grabbed her by the hair and dragged her in with me. That part hadn't been scripted, but when on the stage, sometimes one must improvise a bit.

We walked through the non-functional metal detector, and I was able to get a better look at the surroundings. It looked defensible in case of a breach. Large wooden crates were strewn everywhere throughout the area, whether full or just for show, I couldn't tell. What I
could
tell is that they were placed in a way so as to force a visitor to walk a path between them... almost forming a sort of corn maze, minus the corn, of course.

“Come along, child. Daylight's burning,” called Jeff's voice again.

Tom, Ed, and I exchanged glances before entering the sea of crates. If it were possible for there to be a collective gulp, then I'm pretty sure we shared one. Heh! I was supposed to be all nervous and such, worrying about my mother. Instead, I was nervous worrying about getting all our asses out of there alive. End result is that I didn't have to put in a lot of extra effort to appear at the end of my already frayed nerves.

We walked slowly through the warehouse maze. Sally kept her head down and continued to sob. Tom, Ed, and I tried to keep our eyes on all places at once: in front of us, behind us, and on top of the crates. Despite the large size of the area, the makeshift corridors made it feel very claustrophobic. The fact that we couldn't see over them, to what lay beyond, wasn't helping things. This was obviously all done on purpose. I just wasn't sure whether it was a normal thing or if Jeff had set it up specifically just for me. If the latter, I might almost feel flattered.

At last, things opened up. We stepped out from between two crates into a large open area. Judging from the distance to the outer walls, at least from what I could see, we appeared to be approximately in the center of the warehouse. A large area about fifty feet on all sides had been left bare. Crates lined the sides like walls, with the exception of few breaks here and there for more passages leading into the bowels of the structure. On the far side of the clearing was the first piece of non-crate furnishing I had seen since entering. A large executive chair sat on the floor, at the opposite end, looking much like a throne. Upon it sat Jeff.

“I bid you welcome,
Dr
.
Death
.” He stood and mock bowed. “I see you've brought something that belongs to me,” he said, nodding in Sally's direction. He then briefly glanced at my roommates before settling his eyes back on me and sighing, “Didn't you read the sign outside? No pets allowed. I'm afraid I'm going to have to ask them to die.”

“Cut the shit, Jeff!” I said, trying to sound tough... emphasis on
trying
. “Where's my mother?”

A look of pure rage flashed in his eyes and he screamed out, “
YOU WILL ADDRESS ME AS NIGHT RAZOR
!”

I staggered from the force of it. I'm not sure if the compulsion attempt was done on purpose, or just out of habit, as he knew it wouldn't work on me. Nevertheless, it still left a nasty ringing in my ears. Fortunately, my head cleared quickly. I then turned to check on my companions. Uh, oh. I had thought a compulsion was a personal thing. I didn't realize one could be sent out like a mass email. Sally had ceased sobbing and was trying to shake off a glazed look which had appeared in her eyes. Tom and Ed weren't faring much better. Tom was holding his hands to his ears, and Ed had been driven to his knees, thin streams of blood dripping from his nostrils. Oh shit! In all my worrying about Sally, I had forgotten that humans could be compelled. This was a potential problem. What if the numbers were reversed and I found myself facing four foes instead of the other way around? I'd be toast pretty goddamned quick if that went down.

Luck was on my side, though, at least for the moment. Ed slowly regained his feet after a moment or two. Tom blinked a few times and then shot me a thumbs-up. It appeared that, while it could no doubt be fairly traumatic, the mass compulsion didn't affect people like it did vampires. I then remembered what both Sally and Jeff had told me. Compelling humans requires a lot more effort. If I had my facts straight, he might be able to bowl over my friends on a whim, but he wouldn't be able to outright control them unless he put some concentration into it. With me in the area, he probably wouldn't chance lowering his guard to try. At least I hoped he wouldn't, unless I just so happened to be standing next to him with a stake in my hand.

I let out a breath, trying real hard to not make it sound like the sigh of relief that it was, and turned back to Jeff. “Enough with the parlor tricks,” I said, attempting to project a tone of little more than base annoyance. “I have your little plaything. I'll trade you. Her life for my mom's.”

“You assume her life is worth anything to me,” he spat.

“I think it is,” I pushed on.

“You'd be wrong,” Jeff sneered. “Her life was forfeit the second she brought you to us. Besides, look at her now. How far she has fallen from what she once was. She's little more than...
sloppy seconds…
to me, now.”

“You fucking cocksucker!” a voice suddenly yelled.  It was Sally, forgetting all pretense of being our prisoner. “Sloppy seconds!? I'll sloppy seconds you in the ass, you fucking prick!”

Jeff and I both stopped our conversation to stare at her. She ended her rant as realization of what she had just done dawned on her face. “Sorry,” she sheepishly said to me.

“Hit a nerve?” I asked, to which she just shrugged.

Jeff looked confused for a second or two, and then rage once again filled his features. “Are you kidding me, Sally?” he spat. “You'd seriously choose
this
over me?”

“Yep,” she said in reply. “Let's face facts, hon. You're kind of an asshole.”

“You traitorous little slut. I was going to let you live, but now... oh, no! When I'm done with this little shit, I'm gonna make a pair of boots from your hide,” he snarled. “But for right now...
STAY PUT
!”

The compulsion was directed at her and hit like a rock. Her eyes glazed over and she went rigid, a slack jawed look on her face.

“Come on, Sally!” I pleaded, snapping my fingers in front of her face. “You're stronger than this. You can fight it.”

“No she can't, you little freewill piece of garbage,” replied Jeff, a cruel smile on his face. “I see she hasn't taught you a damn thing. She might be able to fight a compulsion to attack you or to kill herself. Emotions can make these things all sorts of messy. But a neutral compulsion? Now that's a different story. Neither being able to help or harm makes it difficult to tap into something that you can use to fight it.” He pulled something out of his pocket and walked over to a nearby crate. “I'm afraid, much like you, little Sally has seen her last... sunset,” He began fiddling with whatever he had taken out of his pocket.

“What are you...” I started to say, but he cut me off.

“Oh, you remember this?” he asked, stepping aside to reveal the little pocket camcorder he had with him during our outing the prior week. He had placed it on top of a crate overlooking the opening... or arena, as I was starting to think it must be. A red light blinked to indicate it was recording. “I hope you don't mind,” Jeff said. “I missed getting any good footage the last time, so I wanted to be sure I captured your horrific death for posterity's sake.”

“Good!” Tom suddenly said. He and Ed stepped up to flank me on either side. “I'm gonna want a copy of us fucking up your shit six ways to Sunday. Might even put it up on YouTube.”

Jeff looked less than perturbed by the threat. “How rude. You weren't thinking of all ganging up on little old me, now were you?” he asked in a mocking, innocent tone.

“The thought had crossed my mind,” I answered for all of us.

“Aren't you forgetting something?” he asked in that same tone.

I thought about it for a second and then shook my head once. “Not unless you were planning on surrendering.”

He rolled his eyes at me (
guess I know where Sally got it from
) and asked, “Your
mom
?”

Oh crap! I had almost forgotten. This was also a rescue mission to find...
someone
. It would be pretty damn sad if we wound up winning the day only to leave some poor schmuck tied up here to starve to death, all because it slipped my mind. Guys like Batman just didn't do stupid shit like that.

“Let her go!” I finally replied. I was beyond all pretense of nervousness at that point. The talk was winding down. It was only a matter of time before the killing began. I found myself actually wanting things to start playing themselves out before what little nerve I had left fizzled.

Jeff nodded and said, “Very well. Your mother is free to go.” What? That was it? He didn't even demand that I give him a
pretty please
. If things were ever this easy on
CSI
, each episode would be about three minutes long.

“Well... uh... thanks,” I sputtered, not really knowing what else to say.

“Don't mention it,” his mocking tone was back. “But wait! How rude of me. I would be a poor host if I let your dear old mother just walk out of here without first offering her some refreshments.”

“What the hell are you talking about?” Ed jumped in.

“You mean you haven't figured it out yet, you silly little monkey? It was such a long night, what with me tracking down where you lived, rearranging your apartment, and then kidnapping Dr. Death's mommy... well I was just so parched by the time I got back here that I couldn't help myself.”

Oh, shit!

“My dear, if you would be so kind!” he called out to the warehouse. “
HELP YOURSELF TO THE HUMANS
!”

The compulsion wasn't aimed at either me or Sally. Instead there was an inhuman screech from somewhere within the warehouse. It was followed by a scrabbling sound as something made its way toward us from atop the crates.