Demon Jack (25 page)

“Where would she go?” she asked, cutting her eyes up to take in her surroundings. Around us, old factories, forgotten and discarded, loomed like the empty shells of a progress long past and discarded.

“I have no fucking idea,” I said. The cold feeling of despair that I had experienced watching over Lucy threatened to settle over me again. I pushed it aside, turning it into a tight ball of anger and swallowed it. Now was not the time to give in to something like that. I had to at least try to keep my head clear. There would be time later for self-hatred. Right now, I had to focus on the matter at hand. Where was the crazed hungry vampire?

“We ‘ave to find her.”

“I’m aware,” I said, touches of frustration coloring my words.

For a long moment she fell silent, content to walk to the beat of that bag against her hip. Silence reigned again, a weary, tired thing. It was the kind that came with a stack of questions and not enough answers, frustration without solution.

“Well, where would you go?” she asked.

“She’s not me, and I’m not a fucking vampire so to reiterate: I have no fucking idea.”

“So you have no suggestions then?” she asked.

“I seriously never thought about what I would do if I was a new vampire running around the streets with no guidance and a serious hard on for something to eat.”

“Well we need to think of something, Jack. She’ll kill someone, get herself killed, and God only knows what kind of shit storm it’ll cause if that happens.”

“Jesus freaking Christ, you think I’m not aware of that?”

I didn’t have to think about that. I already knew the answer to that scenario. A huge fucking mess that would take Adam and company weeks to squash. By then, given the proliferation of cell phones, the Internet and the like, it’d be too late. Sure, people might write it off as a hoax, or a publicity stunt, but some wouldn’t. Word would start to spread that all those things that went bump in the night were real. It’d be a disaster. There were still those that hunted the supernatural for whatever reason. They’d descend on Boston like vultures.

“So, back to the question at hand. What are we going to do?”

The vampires stepped out of the shadows in almost perfect synchronization. The shadows seemed to stretch, sliding back off their skin as they stepped away from the buildings that had served as their hiding spot. There were three of them, two men and a woman. The men could have been twins, both well built and crammed into jeans and leather jackets. Both had shaved heads, the streetlights casting them with a dull sheen. The woman was young, maybe early twenties, and dressed in one of those motorcycle racing suits. The form fitting, catsuit kind that zipped up the front to the throat, its bright red playing off her shoulder length blond hair.

I stared at them, and sighed. “Seriously? Again?”

Chapter 24

“Mister Draughn. Adam would like to conclude his business with you,” the woman said, letting the twins move to flank her, three sets of milky white eyes settling on me.

“Well. I guess that answers that question,” I said, looking towards Maggie.

“Hmph,” she offered in reply.

I turned my attention back to the woman.

“I’m sorry, now’s not the best time for me. I’ll tell you what, since you’re Adam’s people apparently, why don’t you go ahead and call my people. We’ll see what we can do about a power lunch?”

“I don’t believe that’s an option,” she said, her voice all velvety and sultry.

“Right, what is it with you vampire types always referring to shit like it’s a fucking board meeting anyways? I’ve never gotten that. ‘Conclude his business.’ Why don’t you just say, ‘hey Jack. Adam wants to finish fucking killing you now’?”

Blondie’s eyes narrowed. She took a step closer, the muscle at her sides moving with her, fanning out to take position at our flanks. Beside me, Maggie tensed. The twin to my right smiled, running his tongue over his teeth.

“You have the option, Mister Draughn, of coming peacefully, or we can take you by force. The choice is yours. You initiated the Rite of Challenge, and that rite has yet to conclude. It must be finished. If you’d like you may have a moment to discuss it with your friend,” she said, looking towards Maggie.

I didn’t really need to discuss it. I had about had my fill of things trying to kill me, of turning a corner and surprise, something wants to rip my head off.

“Whatcha think?” I asked Maggie, my tone mocking and almost jovial.

The vampire to our left smiled wider than his counterpart, a shark tooth grin that seemed to split his face. He lifted his shirt, just the slightest, showing the gun tucked in his waistband. I scoffed at him.

“I'm not thinking we have a whole lot of choice 'ere, Jackie,” Maggie said, false resignation rolling over her syllables. “Our options are right and proper limited.”

“Yeah, that was my take.”

Lucy exploded from out of nowhere, a blur of ferocious motion catching blondie around the waist. They hit the ground rolling, Lucy’s mouth already clamped on the woman’s shoulder. The paralytic toxin in Lucy's bite wouldn’t affect the vampire, but the impact of ninety pounds of starving Lucy sure as hell did.

They hit the pavement in a tangle of thrashing limbs. Lucy had her arms and legs wrapped around the other vampire, wrapping her up in an unshakable death grip. The blonde let loose a rage filled scream, loud enough that it hit me like a physical blow, causing me to take a step back.

The other two vampires, turned, their expressions radiating between surprise and confusion. I looked to Maggie, meeting her eyes. For a tense moment, everything seemed to go quiet. Even the thunderclap volume screams of the blonde locked in Lucy’s arms seemed to dim.

This was it, my last chance to turn and run. I knew, somewhere deep down, after this there wouldn't be any more opportunities to put this behind me, to scramble away, keep myself alive, and live to fight another day. If I did, Maggie and Lucy were done. They’d be memories, betrayals that I’d learn to fool myself into thinking I’d be able to eventually put behind me. I was tempted. I was really tempted. But I knew it wasn't real. They'd haunt me until whatever it was that offed me sent my miserable soul back to the pit.

I kept my eyes on Maggie for a moment longer, then reached out grabbing the vampire closest to me by the back of his collar. He’d made the mistake of turning his back to me so he could see what was happening between his boss and Lucy. His surprise had, for a moment, made him forget all about me. I pulled him into the fist I drove into his kidneys. No holding back, no control. It was a quick, hard rabbit punch that hit like a sledgehammer.

The vampire grunted, his legs going weak. He dropped to his knees, half turned towards me. He reached for his gun, fumbling at his waist. I grabbed his hair and rammed my knee into his face. There was a crunching sound, fire erupting across my leg. Teeth and blood flew from his face, and the heat intensified, my leg growing numb and wobbly.

The son of a bitch had bit me!

I could feel the venom pumping through my blood. My leg felt heavy. It took a physical effort to stay standing. I reached down, grabbing the gun as he freed it, easily pulling it from the dazed vampire's hand. I put it to his temple, still holding his hair and pulled the trigger. Red mist and other less desirable chunks exploded out of the other side of his head, leaving a greasy wet stain over the sidewalk.

I lifted the gun, as the other vampire brought his to bear. Standing on the business end, the barrel looked vaguely wide enough to house a subway train. I fought to stay standing, my leg growing less responsive by the second. We held the stand off for a brief second. His eyes cut back towards where Lucy and the Blonde had been thrashing only seconds before, and then back to me. Indecision warred on his face. The leader of the trio lay beneath Lucy, the younger vampire straddling her waist. She tore savagely at the wound on her prey’s shoulder, blood staining her face. The vampire under her didn’t move.

Maggie damn near blew him apart with the fireball she launched at him, searing heat following on the trail of more whispered Gaelic. His body went up like a torch, and I had to take a few steps back just to avoid the sheer intensity of the on rush of heat. He hit the ground, a searing hole blown through most of his torso, the rest quickly being consumed by flames. Thick oily smoke billowed into the air, reminding me of a tire that had been set on fire. Another burst of flame from Maggie finished the one who’s head I’d ventilated.

I hit the pavement, my leg dead beneath me. I could still feel the poison, a thick burning wave that swept through my body with each heartbeat. My other limbs were slowly going just as numb as my leg. I tried to weakly get back to my feet and managed it, wavering drunkenly. Already the dead vampires were decaying, withering into nothing before my eyes. Within minutes, there would be nothing left but dust and a grease stain on the pavement.

A streetlamp pole kept me from falling all the way over. I stood there, propping against it. If I could ride it out for a few minutes, I’d be able to get past it. The vampire hadn’t hit me with a lot, a glancing blow when my knee had connected with his teeth. Still, the venom was a potent, burning agony racing along my nerves and spreading numbness over my skin. It felt damn weird.

Maggie made a beeline for Lucy, only slowing down when she was close. She approached the girl slowly, her movements wary and deliberate. She spoke in hushed, soothing tones. I couldn’t hear what they said, but a moment later Lucy was in her arms, her body wracked with sobs. She seemed to convulse under the weight of them. Maggie cradled her head to her chest. Even from several yards away I could see the stark contrast of the vampire’s blood smeared across Lucy’s face, the pain radiating from her features was almost palpable. Not physical pain, but something deeper, something on an almost spiritual level. If Adam had killed her when he turned her, then I was getting to watch a part of her soul die. A part of what had made her human, made her a bright, shining person dimming before my very eyes.

I leaned against the post for what felt like hours. I stood slowly, testing my weight, feeling the leaden heat slowly lifting off my limbs. A full on dose of that stuff would be nasty with a capital nasty.

I half walked, half stumbled to Lucy. I sat beside her, well more like deflated to the ground next to her. She looked at me,
through
me it seemed. Her face was a mess, blood cut with trenches of flesh from her tears. Blood had soaked the front of her hand-me-down shirt, causing the fabric to cling to her body, the blue color marred by a black stain roughly the size of a dinner plate.

For a minute the words wouldn’t come. My tongue felt thick and heavy, my brain still reeling from the vampire’s venom.

“Sorry you got caught up in all this mess kid,” I said, the words slurring like I had been drinking.

“Sorry I tried to eat you, Jack,” she said.

“Shit happens,” I said, shrugging, “How’d you find us?”

“I could smell her blood,” Lucy said sheepishly.

“Not bad. Creepy as hell, but not bad,” I said.

Maggie heard it first, her head snapping towards the blonde woman’s corpse. A low mechanical humming was coming from blondie's clothes. The vampire Lucy had killed was already dust, and Maggie poked at the pile of fabric, pushing it this way and that with the point of her knife, before plucking a cell phone from the dust and the remnants of the catsuit. She looked at the caller ID, smirked and tossed me the phone.

Adam’s name flashed on the screen.

“How do I turn this thing on?”

Lucy reached over, swiping her finger across the screen, even going so far as to set the speaker phone to “on”.

“Do you have him?” Adam’s voice, slightly tinny and pitched higher than I was used to hearing, came through the speaker.

“By
him
, do you mean me?” I asked.

Silence.

“This thing still on?” I whispered to Lucy.

“Yes, Jack, it is,” Adam’s voice said again. “Should I take it my associates have met with an unfortunate set of circumstances then?”

“You mean are they dead?”

“Yes, Jack. Are they dead?”

“Then I’d have to say yes, they are.”

“That’s unfortunate,” he said on the other end, “And my daughter?”

“Excuse me?” Lucy asked, the words leaving her mouth before her brain had a chance to stop them, judging by the look on her face.

“Hello my dear, when will you be coming home?” Adam asked, his voice a mixture of mocking and gleeful.

I spoke up quick, stopping Lucy before she launched into what looked like it was going to be a ranting diatribe of epic proportions. Maggie watched the interchange with a smirk and a raised eyebrow, perfectly happy to let me shoot my mouth off for a change.

“She’s not,” I said. “She’s not coming home.”

“Oh? I’ll be forced to come and retrieve her then,” Adam said, his voice dropping low and icy.

“You can try,” Maggie snapped.

Adam snickered on the other end. “Tsk tsk,” he said, like he was chiding a small child. “Jack, you do realize that I can find you easily enough if I put forth the effort don’t you?”