Chapter 14
The wind was cool and smelled of rain. I turned my face to the soft touch of it. The air smelled of green growing things. It smelled clean and new. I stood on the grass looking upward. Ellie Quinlan's window shone like a soft yellow beacon. Ellie had opened the windows, but her father had turned on the lights. She had met her vampire lover in darkness. The better not to see him for the walking corpse he was.
I had the coverall back on, unzipped halfway so I could get to the Browning. I'd only brought an inner pants holster for the Firestar, so I shoved it into a pocket of the coveralls. Not handy for a quick draw, but better than not having it. An inner pants holster just doesn't work well with a skirt on.
Larry had his very own gun in a shoulder rig. He stood beside me shrugging his shoulders, trying to get the straps more comfortable. It isn't really uncomfortable if it's a good fit, but it isn't really comfortable either. It's sort of like a bra. They fit and they are necessary, but they are never completely comfortable.
He was wearing the extra coverall unzipped and flapping nearly to his hips. A flashlight flicked over us, glinting on Larry's cross. The light swept over me, glaring in my eyes. "Now that you've ruined my night vision, get that damn thing out of my eyes."
Deep masculine laughter came from behind the brilliant beam of light. Two state cops had arrived just in time to join us on the hunt. Oh, joy.
"Wallace," a man's voice said, "do what the lady says." The voice was deep and vaguely threatening. A voice to say, "lean on the hood of the car and spread 'em." And you'd do it or else.
Officer Granger walked up to us, his flashlight pointed at the ground. He wasn't as tall as Wallace, and a gut was beginning to creep over his belt, but he moved through the dark like he knew what he was doing. Like maybe he'd hunted in the dark before. Maybe not vampires but something. Maybe men.
Wallace walked over to us, flashlight swimming around us like an oversized firefly. It wasn't in my eyes, but it was still not helping my night vision.
"Turn off the flashlight... please," I said.
Wallace took a step closer, looming over me. He was tall, built like a football player, With long legs. A running back, maybe. He and Deputy Coltrain could arm wrestle later. Right now I just wanted him to back the fuck off me.
"Turn it off, Wallace," Granger said. He'd already clicked off his own.
"I won't be able to see a damn thing," he protested.
"Afraid of the dark?" I asked, smiling up at him.
Larry laughed. It was the wrong thing to do.
Wallace turned on him. "You think that's funny?" He stepped up to Larry until they were almost touching, using his size to intimidate. But Larry's like me; he's been small all his life. He'd been bullied by the best. He stood his ground.
"Are you?" Larry asked.
"Am I what?" Wallace asked.
"Afraid of the dark?"
Animating wasn't the only thing Larry was learning from me. Unfortunately for Larry, he was a boy. I could get away with being a pain in the ass and most people wouldn't take a swing at me. Larry wasn't so lucky.
Wallace balled his hands into Larry's coverall and lifted him to tiptoes. His flashlight fell to the grass, rolling around spotlighting our ankles.
Officer Granger stepped up close to them but didn't touch Wallace. Even in the dark you could see the tension in his shoulders and arms. Not from lifting Larry, but from wanting to hit him and resisting the urge.
"Ease down, Wallace. He didn't mean anything."
Wallace didn't say anything, he just pulled Larry closer to him, leaning over to put his face next to Larry's. A square of yellow light fell across his face. The muscle along the edge of his jaw was jutting out, throbbing like it would pop out of his face. There was a scar under the bone of his jawline. A scar that disappeared into the collar of his jacket.
Wallace nearly put his face nose to nose with Larry. "I-am-not-afraid-of-anything." Each word was squeezed out.
I stepped up close to him. He was bent down to intimidate Larry, so I could whisper in his ear. "Nice scar, Wallace."
He jumped like I'd bit him. He released Larry so suddenly that Larry stumbled. He whirled, one big hand raised to smash my face. At least he'd let go of Larry.
He swung at me. I swept his arm to one side and past me. He stumbled. I brought my knee up into his stomach hard. It took a lot not to follow through and really hurt him. He was a cop. One of the good guys. You don't beat up on them. I stepped back, out of reach, and hoped that one near miss had cooled him down. I could have hurt him badly in the initial rush, but now he'd be ready. Harder to hurt.
He was nearly a foot taller than me and outweighed me by more than a hundred pounds. If the fight turned serious, I was in trouble. I hoped I wouldn't regret my gallant gesture.
Wallace ended on all fours near the shrubs by the house. He got to his feet quicker than I wanted him to, but he stayed half bent over, hands on his knees. He looked up at me. I wasn't sure what his expression meant, but it wasn't completely hostile. It was more a considering sort of look, as if I'd surprised him. I get that look a lot.
"You all right now, Wallace?" Granger asked.
Wallace nodded. Hard to talk after a good gut shot.
Granger glanced at me. "You all right, Ms. Blake?"
"I'm fine."
He nodded. "Yes, you are."
Larry moved up beside me. He was standing too close. If Wallace came back at me, I would need more room to maneuver. I knew that Larry meant it as a show of support. After we got Larry's shooting up to speed, we'd have to work on some basic hand-to-hand techniques.
Why was I training him to shoot before I taught him to fight? Because you don't arm wrestle vampires. You shoot them. He would live through a beating from Officer Wallace. He wouldn't live through a vampire attack. Not if he couldn't shoot.
"Were you with him when he got that scar?" I asked.
Granger shook his head. "His first partner didn't make it."
"Vampire got him?"
He nodded.
Wallace stood up sort of slow. He arched his back just a bit, as if working the kinks out. "Nice shot," he said.
I shrugged. "It was my knee, not my fist."
"Still a good shot. I don't have any excuses good enough for what I just did."
"No," I said, "you don't."
He just looked down at the ground, then up. "I don't know what made me do it."
"Let's take a little walk." I started off into the dark without looking back, as if I had no doubt he'd follow me. This technique works more often than you think it would.
He followed me. He had stopped to pick up his flashlight, but bravely turned it off.
I stopped just short of the woods and stared off into the trees, letting my eyes adjust to the dark. I didn't look at anything in particular. I let my eyes just sort of see everything. I was looking for movement. Any movement. The tree limbs moved fitfully in the spring wind, but it was a general movement like ocean waves. The trees weren't what worried me.
Wallace tapped the darkened flashlight against his thigh. A soft whap, whap. I wanted to tell him to stop but didn't. If it comforted him, I could live with it.
I let the silence stretch between us. The wind picked up, filling the night with a rushing, hurrying sound. You could smell the rain on the wind.
He gripped the flashlight in both hands. I could hear his intake of breath above the wind. "What was that?"
"The wind," I said.
"Are you sure?"
"Pretty much."
"What do you want?" he asked.
"Is this the first vamp you've gone after since your partner's death?"
He looked at me. "Granger told you?"
"Yeah, but I saw your neck. I was pretty sure what had done it."
I wanted to tell him it was okay to be scared. Hell, I was scared, but he was a cop and a man, and I didn't know him well enough to know how he'd take a pep talk from me. But I had to know if he'd follow me into those woods. I had to know if I could depend on him. If he stayed this scared, I couldn't.
"What happened?" I asked. Maybe talking about it right now was the wrong thing to do, but ignoring it wasn't working very well.
He shook his head. "Headquarters says you're in charge, Ms. Blake. Fine, I'll do what I'm told. But I don't have to answer personal questions."
It was too much trouble to shrug out of the overall, and I really didn't want my arms trapped. I undid one button on my blouse and spread the cloth.
"What are you doing?"
"How good's your night vision?"
"Why?"
"Can you see the scar?"
"What are you talking about?" He sounded suspicious. Suspicious that I was crazy, maybe.
My night vision would have picked it up, but most people don't have my eyes. "Give me your hand."
"Why?"
"I am about to give you a once-in-a-lifetime offer. Just give me your damn hand."
He did, sort of hesitatingly, glancing back at the waiting men.
His hand was cold to the touch. He was one scared puppy. I traced his large, blunt fingers along my collarbone. The moment he touched the scar tissue, his hand jerked like he'd had an electric shock. I pulled my hand away, and he traced the scar again on his own.
He took his hand back, slowly, rubbing his fingers together like he was remembering the feel of my skin. "What did that?"
"Same thing that did your neck. A vampire that wasn't neat with its food."
"Jesus," he said.
"Yeah," I said. I rebuttoned my blouse. "Tell me what happened, Wallace. Please."
He looked at me for a moment longer, then nodded. "Harry, my partner, and me, we got a call that someone had found a body with its throat torn out." He made the words very bland, ordinary, but I knew he was seeing it in his head. Watching it all happen again behind his eyeballs.
"It was a construction site. Just us in the middle of the place with our flashlights. There was a sound like wind whistling, and something hit Harry. He went down with a man on top of him. He screamed, and I had my gun out. I fired into the man's back. I hit him solid three, four times. He turned on me and his face was bloody. I didn't have time to wonder why, 'cause he jumped me. I emptied my gun into him before I hit the ground."
He took a deep breath, big hands twisting back and forth on the flashlight. He was looking off into the trees, too, but not for vampires, or at least not for this one.
"He ripped my jacket and shirt like they were paper. I tried to fight him, but..." He shook his head. "He caught me with his eyes. He caught me with his eyes, and when he tore into my neck, I wanted him to do it, wanted it worse than I've ever wanted anything in my life."
He turned a little away from me, as if not meeting my eyes wasn't enough. "When I woke up, he was just gone. Harry was dead. The girl was dead. I was alive."
He turned to me finally, looked me straight in the eyes and said, "Why didn't he kill me, Ms. Blake?"
I looked into his earnest eyes and didn't have a good answer. "I don't know, Wallace. He wanted to make you one of them, maybe. I don't know why you and not Harry. You ever catch him?"
"The local master sent his head in a box to the station. The note apologized for his uncivilized behavior. That's what the note said, 'uncivilized behavior.'"
"It's hard to look at it as murder when you feed off humans yourself."
"Do they all do that? Feed off people?"
"I've never met one that didn't."
"Can't they eat animals?"
"Theoretically, yes. In practice it seems to lack certain nutrients." Truth was, feeding was too close to sex for most vamps. They weren't into bestiality, so they didn't feed off animals. I didn't think the sex analogy would go over well with Officer Wallace.
"Can you do this, Wallace?"
"What do you mean?"
"Can you go out into the dark and hunt vampires?"
"It's my job."
"I didn't ask if it was your job. I asked if you can go out into that darkness and hunt vampires."
"You think there's more than one?"
"Always best to assume so," I said.
He nodded. "Yeah, I guess so."
"Scared?" I asked.
"Are you?"
I looked off into the windswept night. The trees tossed and moaned in the wind. There was movement everywhere. Soon there would be rain, and what light the stars gave would be gone.
"Yeah, I'm scared."
"But you're a vampire hunter," he said. "How can you do this night after night if it scares you?"
"Doesn't it scare you to know that every time you pull over some yahoo for a traffic violation that he could be armed? You walk up on that car and never know."
"It's my job."
"And this is my job."
"But you're scared?"
"Down to my toes."
Larry called, "The sheriff's back. He's got the warrant."
Wallace and I looked at each other. "You got silver bullets?" I asked.
"Yes."
I smiled. "Then let's go. You'll be fine," I said. I believed it. Wallace would do his job. I would do my job. We would all do our jobs. And come morning, some of us would be alive and some of us wouldn't. Of course, maybe there was just the one newly dead vampire to deal with. If so, we might all see the sunrise.
But I hadn't lived this long assuming the best. Assuming the worst was always safer. And usually truer.