The Vigilantes (The Superiors) (9 page)

Byron wondered if sapien farming wasn’t a career Draven could look into. He knew Draven liked animals, and he’d just earned his bonus for the Ander mission, a bonus that he could use to purchase a sap. Maybe he’d suggest it next time he saw the man. Draven liked to change employment often, and raising sapiens could prove quite profitable once the initial investment was returned. If he didn’t have such an important job already, Byron would have considered the career for himself after talking to the sapien farmer who’d lent him the male.

He thought maybe he’d buy the male if it made a good mate for his female. That way he wouldn’t have to go looking for a male to rent every time his female needed breeding. Besides, he’d heard that contented saps kept bearing children longer than unhappy ones. He doubted the truth in that statement, but it couldn’t hurt. Saps could become depressed and nonresponsive after having too many babies taken away, or having babies taken at too young an age. Having a constant companion decreased the chances of a sap wearing out. Supposedly their bodies just refused to impregnate sometimes. So maybe he’d keep the male around. Keep his saps happy.

Now wasn’t that a laugh—here he’d started considering the feelings of his livestock, attributing them with the capability for emotion in the first place. Already, being cooped up had started getting to his head. No wonder people went nuts and started crime sprees up here.

Chapter 13

“Hey everybody. We got a surprise for you,” Larry said. He’d hardly been able to contain himself through supper. Sally could just tell. She couldn’t eat nothing herself, what with all the excitement just about eating up her insides.

“What’s that, son?” Daddy asked, leaning his chair back on two legs and hanging his arm over the back of it.

“You gotta come out to the shed to see it,” Sally said.

“Come on now, I don’t want to be traipsing out in the snow, getting all cold and getting my feet wet just to see you found the shovel or some damn thing. Just spit it out.”

“Nope,” Larry said. “You wanna see it, you gotta come out to the shed.”

“Quit trying to be mysterious,” Uncle Tom said. “You done fixing to make me lose my patience. What you do, make an improvement on the cage?”

“Oh no,” Larry said. “Cage is perfect already. I seen to that.”

“So what is it?” their cousin asked. She’d come back with Tom from her mother’s house. “I wanna see, if no one else does. I’ll go with you.”

“Sissy, finish your supper. Nobody’s going out in this cold at night, getting all bundled up to see one of Larry’s crazy inventions.”

“Trust me, you’re gonna wanna see this one,” Sally said. “And it ain’t nobody’s invention. Least not nobody who lives here.”

“I’ll go,” Mama said. “I’m done eating. Let me get my boots on. Come on, Daddy, you come, too. Ain’t safe for us to be out there without some menfolk. You know those bloodsuckers come out at night.”

“Oh, alright.” Daddy sighed and got up, grumbling curses as he did so. He went to fetch his boots, and Sally and Larry got up, too.

“Come on, Uncle Tom. You’re gonna wish you’d come out if you don’t. I’m telling you. It’s better than any deer, or any of my inventions,” Larry said.

“Dammit, Larry. Fine, I’m coming. Get your coat, Sissy. But I’m warning you, Larry. If this is one of your hare-brained schemes, and I have to get all dressed up to go see it, I’m gonna tan your hide when we get back.”

“I ain’t twelve years old no more, Tom. Now quit your yapping and let’s go.”

The six of them tromped out through the frigid night, sending cloudbursts into the darkness with every breath. The night was clear and cold as that steel chain after it had lain in the snow. Sally wondered if bloodsuckers ever felt cold. She’d never seen one up close before, and she wanted to know what they looked like for real. She’d only seen pictures and lots of drawings in her books. Now that they’d gotten this one safely caged, it might be kind of fun to see its fangs. It were probably real scary, though. Maybe Sissy shouldn’t’ve come.

They crowded into the shed, and Larry pulled the string that turned on the single bulb hanging from the ceiling. They all looked at the black oblong shape on the floor in the cage.

“What is it?” Sissy asked, her voice full of awe.

“We got ourselves a real live bloodsucker out in the woods today,” Sally said.

Mama covered her heart and started up trembling. “Sweet Jesus,” she said.

“You went out there and brought this back and never told us all through dinner? You’re a couple of damn fools is what you are. It could’ve escaped and killed us all.”

“He ain’t escaping, Daddy,” Larry said. “I worked hard on this cage every day, and we’ve both read up and been to all them meetings. We know how to chain them up real good.”

“You should’ve told us sooner.”

“Ain’t you even happy about it?”

“Sure I am. I’m real proud of you both. I only hope there ain’t more of them out there in the woods. We best set up a watch.”

The lump on the floor started saying things, too muffled for them to understand.

“How’d you get it all wrapped up like that?” Sissy asked.

“We didn’t. It was the darnedest thing. He was all wrapped up like that when we found him.”

“What’s it look like?”

“We ain’t seen it yet. But it talks in our language and everything. He was just begging to be let go, swearing up and down he’d leave us alone if we let him go.”

“I’m sure glad you listened to reason, son. Now. Tonight we’re gonna keep watch on it, and up yonder at the house. Tom, you best go round tomorrow and let everybody know. We can have a viewing tomorrow, too, and decide when to kill it and all.”

“Can we see it tonight?” Sally asked. “I mean, we caught it. Shouldn’t we get to see it first?”

“Oh dear, I just don’t know,” Mama said.

“I want to see it,” Sissy said.

“Hell, I want to see it, too,” Tom said. “Come on, Larry. You cover me. Get you a stake in each hand in case it gets loose or tries to bite me. The rest of y’all stay out there and arm yourselves in case it’s faking. They’re sneaky little bastards, them bloodsuckers.”

Larry and Tom unlocked the cage and went inside, passing the key out so Daddy could lock it again. The rest of the group armed themselves from the supply of stakes.

“Now remember, don’t nobody look in its eyes. They can hypnotize with just one look,” Mama said.

Sissy’s small hand slipped into Sally’s. “Is it gonna be scary?” Sissy asked, her eyes wide.

“Yeah, real scary,” Sally said, squeezing her cousin’s hand. “Just hold tight to me and keep your stake ready.”

Tom crept up to the bundle on the floor while Larry stayed behind him, stakes at the ready. Tom started pulling at the black stuff covering the bloodsucker’s head, but the thing had wrapped itself up real tight, and Tom had some trouble with the wrapping. Finally he got out a pocket knife and cut through the strange fabric. The creature made an awful muffled sound, and they all jumped and then laughed uneasily. Sally shifted from one foot to the other and looked at her brother.

“Did they hurt it?” Sissy asked.

“No, hon. They don’t feel no pain. They can’t die excepting for being staked, and they heal up real fast, too,” Daddy said.

Tom pulled the wrapping off the thing’s head. But it didn’t look much like a bloodsucker, or a creature, or a thing. It looked just like a man with blood running down its cheek. A man looking straight into Sally’s eyes.

Geez Louise. She’d forgotten to look away. But it didn’t matter nohow, because she didn’t get hypnotized. So maybe she’d looked away fast enough. She looked down at Sissy and jerked the girl’s arm. “Psst. Don’t look at its eyes,” she said.

“I ain’t. But it don’t look scary. It looks kind of scared to me,” Sissy said.

“That’s what it wants you to think,” Daddy said.

Somehow the thing managed to roll itself up into a sitting position without using its arms, which Sally thought looked near impossible until it succeeded. Uncle Tom and Larry both stepped back, and Larry held up both stakes. “Don’t you move again or I’ll stake you,” he said.

“Please do not kill me,” the bloodsucker said. His voice came out clear and accented, every word precise. It was a strangely full voice—full of warmth and strength. “I mean you no harm. I only stumbled upon your house last night by accident and continued on my journey. I only wish to leave in peace.”

“You really think we’re just gonna let you go?” Tom said. “We know all about your bloodthirsty kind. You ain’t going nowheres, excepting to your grave where you belong.” Tom stepped forwards and hocked a big loogie and spit it right on the man’s face. Larry and Daddy started laughing, but Sally thought it was just plain gross, even to a non-human. The bloodsucker didn’t look right scary to her, neither. He actually looked real nice, in a harmless, pretty kind of way. Probably all an act, though. Like her daddy said, they were a deceitful breed.

The bloodsucker couldn’t wipe his face, so the spit just ran down it real slow. He looked at Tom. “I am Draven,” he said. “Draven Castle. I wish that you will remember my name after you have killed me.”

What a weird feller. He sure had the strangest request Sally ever heard.

“Is that right?” Tom said, backing away from the man in the bundle. “And how many of us have you killed? You know any of their names?”

“I’ve never killed a human.”

“I’ll be danged. I bet you’re just sweet as peaches on the inside, right? Next thing you’ll be telling us you don’t drink human blood at all. Ain’t that right?” The man-creature didn’t say anything, and Tom started laughing. “You piece of bloodsucking shit. You really think you can fool us? We burn your kind at the stake, just like they did witches a long time ago. You unnatural, cannibal freak.” He stepped forward and started kicking the man, who grunted every time Tom’s foot hit him. When he fell over sideways, Tom just kept right on kicking him until Sally covered Sissy’s eyes and turned away.

“Girl, you’re twenty-eight years old,” Daddy said. “One of these days you’re going to have to get used to the fact that these things ain’t even alive no more. I know you been staying away from the executions in the past, but you found this one yourself. You’re going to be there this time.”

“Yes, Daddy. I just don’t think Sissy’s quite old enough.”

“Come on,” Mama said. “I’ll go in with you two. Daddy, you come on in, too. We might need you to set up guard with us. They’ll be fine out here.”

Daddy passed the key to Larry and headed on out of the shed. Sally looked back to see her brother had join in the beating. She turned away and pushed Sissy out in front of her, and they followed Sally’s parents into the house. Half the night, Sally sat up doing guard duty in the house. She didn’t want to go back in the shed. She tried not to think about the sickening thuds of her uncle’s feet hitting the thing in the wrapping, but she couldn’t quite get it out of her head.

Chapter 14

Draven lay bound for a long while as the men kicked him. After they left, he didn’t move. He didn’t have much choice in the matter. The pain was too great for him to make any attempt at movement. So he lay on the floor while his wounds began their itchy, painful healing process.

It seemed impossible that sapiens had done this to him. He knew some Superiors beat their saps, although he didn’t know any who practiced this method of discipline. The people he associated with didn’t own livestock, since the majority of Thirds, like him, couldn’t afford something so expensive. Most Superiors who did own livestock subscribed to the theory that a happy sap caused less trouble, and they treated their saps well. Draven didn’t know any Superior who actively hated homo-sapiens. Superiors either liked them, or had a vague disgust for them, or in extreme cases like Byron, found them unbearably repulsive. But Draven couldn’t imagine a Superior hating saps. How could someone hate his own food?

Draven had never been foolish enough to believe sapiens loved their masters. Of course they wouldn’t enjoy getting bitten every night. But the government had enacted many laws to protect their rights. Superiors had laws against human cruelty, laws against overdrawing humans, even laws against overworking them. Killing a human was a crime. Before that night, Draven had never imagined saps hated their owners so much. A small bite caused a small pain. It did not warrant what these sapiens had done to him. He had never known anyone could hate him so much, even an animal.

If a wolf or a bear killed a man out of fear or hunger, or perhaps madness in rare cases, it wasn’t out of hatred. Hatred was the exclusive property of man. Perhaps of homo-sapiens. Draven had never known a Superior to hate anything. He’d never hated anything since he had evolved, not even the man he’d killed. Not Byron when he found his friend had out-maneuvered him, nor the human who had almost killed him with a wooden shard.

Draven attempted to blink, but his eyes had swollen shut. Blood sealed his eyelashes together over one eye. He gave up his minute struggle and thought back to his human life. Although he usually preferred not to dwell on things that had happened so long ago, he’d thought of that time more since he’d gone into the wilderness. His memories came back at times, the Superior ones as fresh as if he had done those things yesterday instead of a hundred years ago, the human ones faded and vague. Had he hated anything then?