Blood Work (22 page)

Mercy slinked
off the tombstone and took a couple of cautious steps toward me. I
held up a hand, keeping her at a distance.

While she
stood statue still in the moonlight, I pulled out my mobile phone.
“Where did the cop stop you?”

“Near
Southbank.”

I called
Roberts. He was at work. That is, he was at a nightclub so I had to
wait while he went outside.

“Yeah, what’s
your problem?” he asked when the noise had dropped several hundred
decibels.

“Mercy had a
little indiscretion with a cop near Southbank,” I said as calmly as
I could, which wasn’t very. “Can you find out if he’s alive?”

“Shit,”
Roberts said. “How did she get away from you?”

“Don’t worry
about that. Can you find out?”

“Sure. Give me
an hour or two.”

I hung up
before he could ask any more questions.

Mercy eyed me
warily.

“You know what
you’ve done,” I said softly. “You can feel it, can’t you?”

She
nodded.

“Soon you’re
going to be like the wild vampires, feeling the effects of the
wrong blood type. It’ll make you tired and weaker. You’ll want to
find somewhere to go to sleep. But you’re not a wild vampire,
Mercy. You don’t know how to find somewhere secure outside of the
house. And you won’t just sleep through the day this time. You’ll
be truly knocked out. Utterly defenceless.”

Her slender
shoulders shivered as she looked around, worried frown pinching her
brows together.

“You know I
always protect you from the sunlight, don’t you.” I didn’t make it
a question and didn’t wait for an answer. “Now, can I trust you to
ride the bike home?”

“Yes.”

“You won’t
take off on your own?”

“No.”

I believed
her. She’d never lied to me before, didn’t know how to. And right
now, she looked like nothing more than a severely chastised and
repentant child, scared into behaving.

This was what
I’d learned to do in the early months of our strange relationship.
Beat her down, make her scared and then remind her I was her only
protection. I made her believe that without me, she wasn’t able to
survive. Then I’d told her that if she ever disobeyed me, I’d kill
her myself.

Only one other
act would result in a death penalty for her—if she killed a
human.

Quiet and
meek, she walked ahead of me to where I’d left the car. The bike
lay on its side behind it.

“Stay in front
of me the whole way,” I said, tone firm.

She nodded,
righted the bike and waited for me to get into the car. When I had
the engine turned over, she kicked the bike into gear and pulled
out, very sedate. Usually, she would have been popping wheelies and
skidding tyres.

It was an
uneventful trip home. Didn’t mean I relaxed for one moment. I
couldn’t let myself breathe easy until she was in her cage and
locked up securely. Retreating to the lounge, I waited for Roberts
to call back. Meanwhile, I turned on the TV and scanned channels
for any word about dead or injured cops.

The next thing
I knew, the phone was ringing and glorious sunlight streamed in
through the front windows. TV still babbling on with some morning
news show, I grabbed the phone and rolled off the couch, back
protesting the entire way.

“What did you
find out?” I asked, limping into the kitchen.

“Got good news
and bad news,” Roberts said without preamble.

I stopped at
the fridge, frozen to the spot. “What’s the good news?” My voice
was barely audible. I would need the good to buffer the bad. If the
bad was what I feared it might be, I didn’t want to face it just
yet.

The thought of
killing Mercy twisted my guts into a knot. I wasn’t sure I could do
it. She was… innocent. Ruled by instincts that had no place in
civilised society. It wasn’t her fault her base compulsion was to
hunt humans. But I couldn’t leave her alive if she killed someone.
They put dogs down for much less.

“The cop’s
alive.”

I grabbed onto
the fridge to keep on my feet. Relief sapped all the tension fear
had given me.

“Lost a lot of
blood,” Roberts continued, “but he’ll be fine. As of half an hour
ago, they’re not looking for anyone matching Mercy’s description.
They think it must have been a man, someone big enough to knock the
cop down and keep him down.”

“Do you know
if they got the bike rego?”

“No, but I’d
keep it tucked away for a while though.”

Pulling out a
chair, I sat at the table, head resting in my free hand. “Thanks,
mate. That’s the best news you could have given me.”

He snorted and
it wasn’t a happy snort. “Ready for the bad news?”

“Not
particularly.”

“Tough. When I
tapped my source about Mercy’s dinner, I found out something else.
What was the name of the doc who patched you up the other
night?”

“Nolan.
Why?”

“He was killed
last night.”

“From what I head,” Roberts
continued, “it was vampires. Massive blood loss through relatively
minor puncture wounds. They must have beat him up first, though.
Arms and legs were broken, ribs cracked, teeth knocked out.”

“Enough,” I
ground out. “I get the picture.”

There was a
short silence.

“Sorry,”
Roberts said, but there was something in his voice that made me
question the sincerity of it.

“I get it,
okay,” I snapped. “I fucking get it. I got him killed. I know that.
Do you think I don’t understand what I am? What sort of person
would let a vampire live, Roberts? What sort of person would let
that vampire out of his sight so she could go attack humans? The
same sort of person who would leave another man defenceless against
a threat I could have helped him prepare for. I know what I am,
Roberts. I don’t need you reminding me that I’m a monst–”

“Shut the fuck
up, you fucking idiot,” Roberts yelled. “You’re not a monster. I
didn’t mean anything by it. Can’t I be a bit upset as well? They
came after me, too, Matt.”

Somewhere in
my tirade, I’d stood up. I sat again, hard.

“Jesus,” I
breathed, all my self-indulgent guilt flying away in an instant.
“You okay?”

“Yeah. I’m
fine. They hit my apartment. Luckily I was out chasing down
information about your cop. Got home about an hour ago. The place
is trashed.”

“Excuse me,” I
muttered and put the phone down.

I went out the
back and down to the dock. I stood in the early morning sun,
soaking it up for a moment, then I picked up the folding chair and
smashed it into the banana lounge. I tore that bastard apart. I
swung metal piping at the pilings of the dock. I punched the wooden
planking. I snapped slates from the lounge over my knee. I growled
at the world and gave it the finger.

When I could
breathe steadily again, I turned and headed back inside. Charles
was at his back door, cup of coffee in one hand, jaw dropped wide.
I smiled nastily and waved. He just stared.

“You okay?”
Roberts asked when I picked up the phone again.

“Yeah. Just a
bit of therapeutic venting. I’m sorry, Roberts. I should never have
dragged you into this.”

He was quiet
for a moment, then scoffed. “If I remember correctly, I was the one
who involved myself. You warned me off Mercy that first night, but
I just had to chase her around. I didn’t even care if you were her
boyfriend or not. It’s my own damned fault. Don’t beat yourself up
about it.”

“Wasn’t myself
I beat up. I’m going to need new deck furniture.”

“Dude. That’s
some temper. And you’re not allowed to feel too guilty about Nolan,
either.”

“Why not? It’s
all because of me. They hit my place in Ipswich yesterday with a
hired ghoul. They hit your place last night and they took out
Nolan. Everything associated with me, even a little bit.”

It hit us both
at the same time.

“Jacob.”

I hung up and
called the store. He would be in by now. No question. There was no
answer.

I don’t even
know if I hung up that time. All I know is that I took off as fast
as I could. The traffic was at the tail end of the morning rush, so
I forced my way through it. It’s easy to be intimidating on the
road when you have a car with a powerful engine and no compulsion
not to use it. I’d taken a couple of advanced driving classes, but
that had been mainly in ambulances. Still, same principles,
smaller, faster car. I swung onto Edward Street in the city in what
was probably record time, if not sound-barrier breaking.

Every park was
already taken, so I slammed to a stop in the lane outside of Vogon
Books and ignored the horns and shouts as I piled out, slid over
the bonnet and raced into the bookstore.

I skidded to a
stop just inside, heart stopping dead in my chest.

The place was
a mess. Books and comics were scattered across the floor. One set
of shelves was on a serious angle, propped up against a wall. The
area before the counter had been cleared out and chairs were flung
haphazardly across it. A pair of boots stuck out from behind the
counter.

I flung myself
over the counter and dropped down beside Jacob. He was sprawled
across the floor, arms and legs thrown wide, head turned to one
side. There were bite marks on his neck.

“Jacob,” I
shouted and shook him. “Hey, Jake. Come on, mate. Don’t be
dead.”

He
twitched.

Oh, thank God.
“Jacob, come on. Wake up. Talk to me.”

Jacob groaned
and opened his eyes. “What you doin’, man? Leave a guy to die in
peace.”

I straightened
out his limbs and felt his neck for injuries. “You’re not going to
die, Jacob. I won’t let you. And more importantly, I won’t let them
win.”

“But I want to
die. And who’s not going to win?”

Fingers on his
pulse, I stopped long enough to smell his breath. “Jacob. Are you
drunk?”

He clumsily
slapped my hand away. “No, I’m hung over. I just got to sleep. Go
away.”

I glanced at
my fingers. They had red on them. I rubbed it between my fingers
and it smeared and glittered just a little bit.

“Lip
stick?”

Jacob grinned
sloppily. “Yeah.”

I sat back on
my heels. “You didn’t get attacked by vampires last night?”

“Sort of. Not
a real one. Sally Burkenhoff. Man, she’s hot.”

My head was
filling up with images I really didn’t want. I didn’t know Sally
Burkenhoff, but the mere thought of Jacob and some girl getting so
busy they created the carnage in the shop was bad enough. At least
he’d put his pants back on before passing out.

Jacob decided
he wasn’t going to die and struggled up to lean against the
counter. I sank down the wall and just stared at him. He still had
that funny little smile on his face.

“Great party.
You should have come. I left you a message. We had a Blade party.
One, two and trinity. Fantastic stuff.”

“I didn’t get
the message,” I said flatly.

“Pity. There
was this girl here, all leggy and dark haired and big eyes. You
would have liked her. Very Mercy-esk, but taller, and you know,
human. I told her all about you. She’s interested. And cool. I
mean, she really likes Blade.”

“Great,” I
muttered. “Maybe we can go out on a date, fall in love, get
married, have us a whole bunch of kids and die fucking horrible
deaths because some mad vampire has marked my friends and
acquaintances for death!”

As my voice
rose, Jacob leaned further and further away from me, eyes widening
until I could have tapped him on the back of his head and popped
them out.

“Jesus, man.
Do you know how much you scared me?” I demanded. “I thought you
were dead. I thought you’d had all your blood sucked out. Don’t you
ever do that to me again.”

“Sorry?” he
hazarded.

“You should
be.” I got to my feet and paced around the counter, lacing my hands
together at the back of my head so I wouldn’t punch anything. “It’s
getting bad, Jacob. I think you should shut up shop for a while,
get out of town.”

Jacob pulled
himself up the counter, leaned on it in his usual hunch. “What
happened?”

“I don’t
really want to talk about it.”

“I could
help.”

I kicked a
chair. “No, you couldn’t. You could just get dead, that’s all. Go
away, Jake. Get Sally Whatshername and go screw yourselves silly in
Sydney or Byron or Darwin. Just get out of town. Today. Do not pass
go, do not collect two hundred bucks. Do not wait for the
dark.”

The phone
rang. Jacob jumped about three feet in the air, came down gasping
for breath and answered.

“Hey, Roberts.
Yeah, he’s here. Acting strange, though.”

I glared at
him. He just nodded and listened and then said, “He wants me to get
out of town.” More listening and nodding. “Really?” His eyes bugged
again. “That’s terrible.” After a moment, he nodded. “Sure, no
worries. Right. I’ll put him on.”

He held the
phone out to me. I snatched it up and he skittered away.

“What?”

Roberts
sighed. “Calm down, Matt. It’s not Jacob’s fault he survived.”

“He scared me,
man. I don’t need this aggravation.”

“What you need
is a sleep. You’re getting cranky. Listen, I’ve convinced him to go
visit his sister in Cairns for a while. Just leave him to it, okay?
He’ll be gone before sunset, I promise.”

“I’ll hold you
to that. What about you? What time you leaving?”

“I’m not going
anywhere.”

The plastic of
the phone creaked in my hand. “Why not?”

“Dude, you
can’t deal with this on your own.”

“You were
willing to leave me to it yesterday. What’s changed?”

There was
silence. I couldn’t make out anything on the other end so I figured
he was just thinking.

“I guess I
felt a bit stupid for panicking yesterday.”