Hard Times (A Sam Harlan Novel Book 2) (12 page)

“I practice at the range,” Mary Kate said confidently.

“Paper targets
aren’t
the same,” I said. “In real life, vampires move quicker than you can imagine. Quicker than you can
think
.”

I watched their faces, so full of passion and ready to fight, and almost cried. Callie was brave, but put too much trust in the power of the Lord. I had seen her sister’s faith weaken, the light dimming before finally going dark. It would be a disaster if that happened to Callie.

On the other hand, Mary Kate put her faith in her .38. While the silver could kill a vampire, she had to hit if first. She didn’t have my enhanced reflexes.

No, they were both woefully mistaken about their chances of survival.

Callie dropped to her knees and took my hand in hers. “You want to protect us. That’s admirable. You really
are
a good man, but we’re adults. We know what we’re facing. We can handle it.”

“You
don’t
know what you’re facing,” I said. “You weren’t there in Warren’s house when they came for us. You didn’t see how they killed him. You didn’t watch when Pearl tore through your sister’s guts.”

She shook her head, but I continued. “You didn’t see Stacie. How she beat me. How she
hurt
me. I thought I understood by then.” I glanced between her and Mary Kate. “I’m stronger, but I’m not
that
strong. Do you understand? I can barely protect myself. Look how this thing almost killed me, in the middle of the day, when it should be the weakest. You think you understand them? You don’t. You can’t. Not until you see one for yourself.”

Callie’s eyes were shining. “The Lord shall protect us.”

“Or He won’t,” I argued. “What will you do then?” I pointed at Mary Kate. “What will you do when it comes for her and you can’t stop it? What will your Lord do for you then?”

She squeezed my hand. “I know you’re scared—”

“Damned right I’m scared,” I said. “I’m scared for you, and her, and me. I’m scared for those girls. I’m scared for the whole damned Mendoza family.” I wiped at the sudden tears in my eyes with the sleeve of my denim shirt. “I want to make them pay, Callie, but I don’t want
anyone
else dying.”

Callie’s face softened. “The Lord has a plan, for
each
of us. What will be, will be. You have to trust yourself to him.”

I considered that. “What if I don’t?”

“Then trust me to place
my
trust in him,” she said. “We risk dying. You have to accept that.”

She was right. I couldn’t protect her. I could only try. “I’m sorry. I know this is hard, and I
do
trust you. I just can’t help but worry.”

“It’s okay to worry about me,” Callie said, finally breaking into a smile. “It means you care.”

Mary Kate was standing behind her, smiling as well. “Sam, I have something for you. I was saving it for Jack…”

She left and returned quickly with a small gun case. “I bought this as a present,” she said, opening the case and handing me the handgun. “It’s a Kimber Tactical, a very high-quality piece. It’s a forty-five ACP, just like your Colt. It should fit your shoulder holster.”

I held the gun in my hand. It was beautiful. I dropped the magazine and found it fully loaded with silver ammunition, then reinserted the magazine and chambered a round. The slide click-clacked with tight precision, and I thumbed on the safety before sliding it into the shoulder holster under my left armpit. It fit as well as the Colt, if not better, and I snapped the leather catch closed. There were two spare magazines in the gun case, also loaded with silver ammunition, and I removed the two magazines from my right armpit and replaced them with the Kimber’s.

Mary Kate was smiling, and I said, “Jack would have loved it.”

She nodded. “He always appreciated fine guns, and the Kimber is one of the finest made. I’m sure you will put it to good use.”

They turned to go and I cleared my throat. “Be careful out there,” I said.

Callie bowed her head in acknowledgment, and then they left, together.

* * *

I sank back against the couch and tried to close my eyes. I was marginally better than I had been after leaving the alley, but there was a stabbing pain in my side. I had either broken a few ribs or, at the least, cracked them. I thought about Callie and Mary Kate driving around downtown and tried to put that worrying thought out of my mind. Before I knew it, I had drifted off to a dreamless sleep.

I woke to the sound of footsteps, and when I opened my eyes, I saw that the light streaming through the windows high against the far wall had grown dim. I grabbed for the Kimber and yanked it free of the holster as Callie rounded the corner. She stopped, her hands up in front of her chest. “It’s only me,” she said.

I nodded and put the Kimber back in the holster. “Where’s Mary Kate?”

“Parking the truck,” she said. “We drove past the restaurant. It appears quiet.”

“No sign of the vampire?”

“Nothing,” she said. “Not even a hint.”

I squinted at the window. “What time is it?”

“Almost four.”

“What?” I bolted upright. My head still throbbed but at least I didn’t feel like I was going to puke all over myself. “What were you doing?”

“We drove around downtown,” she said, biting her lip, “making bigger circles, trying to sense the vampire. There was no sign of it.”

I stared at the dull light peeking through the window. “You should have come back sooner.”

“What would you have done?” she asked gently. “You’re in no shape to fight a vampire. Not even with your new handgun.”

She was right. I was weak, wrung out, and hurting. “Tell me you found something, at least.”

She nodded. “We did see something. Colden entered Fiesta Cancun. Mary Kate wanted to go after him and stop him before he got in any trouble.”

My stomach sank. “You didn’t. Tell me you didn’t.”

Callie’s face darkened. “It was hard to make Mary Kate see reason, but we waited and Colden left shortly after. He … didn’t appear to be in a good place.”

“What’s that mean?” I asked.

“He was holding his face and staggering,” she said.

“A vampire would have killed him,” I said. “It had to be something else. You didn’t sense the presence of the unholy?”

“No.” She squinted at me. “The Church thinks with practice a religious can sense a vampire from a mile away.”

Father Edmund Lewinheim knew more about vampires than just about anybody I had ever met, outside of Jack, and Callie had helped him archive his journals. “Did Lewinheim ever mention it?”

She sighed. “He could never sense them past a few hundred yards, and he trained for such a thing. I haven’t.”

“It’s always something,” I said. “We’re spinning our wheels and it’s almost night.”

Mary Kate walked through the door, her face hard as stone. “Sam? Can you talk to Colden again?” She nodded at Callie. “She didn’t think it was safe for me to speak to him.”

I managed to rise from the couch with a herculean effort. “We’ll get on it. Sounds like something went down at the restaurant.”

* * *

After much arguing, Callie left to start the truck. I removed my cell phone from my front pocket and nodded to Mary Kate. “Can I have a minute?”

“Of course,” Mary Kate said, returning to the front of the pawnshop. I removed a business card from my wallet and dialed the number.

A man answered, a gruff voice with a hint of drawl. “Hello?”

“It’s Sam.”

There was a long pause. “Samuel. It’s been a few weeks. How are you?”

“Still dealing with it,” I said. “It will probably take me a long while to get there.”

“Might be you’re right,” Henry Hastings agreed. “That’s not why you’re calling.”

“No,” I said. “That’s
not
why I’m calling.”

“Where are you?” Henry asked.

“Marshalltown,” I said. “Not far from Jack’s place.”

“His home in Toledo.”

“You’re familiar with it?” I asked.

“Been through there a time or two,” Henry acknowledged.

“Working for the Ancients,” I stated. Of course it made sense that Henry knew where Jack lived. He had spied on Jack for years. “You’ve been to Jack’s house?”

“Couldn’t get within a mile of it,” Henry said. “It’s protected, somehow.”

“Yeah,” I said. “I think I understand how that works.”

“Why are you calling, Sam?”

“There’s a missing girl.”

Henry chuckled bitterly. “There always is. A vampire involved?”

“As a matter of fact, there is. I can’t … seem to figure out how to track it. To find its—”

“Lair.”

“A lair?”

Henry sighed deeply on the other end. “Sounds melodramatic, I know, but think of the vampire as a wild animal. You need to find its lair.”

“How in the hell do I do that?”

“You could track it, but you don’t have the skills. You could set a trap, but you have to understand what the vampire wants, what it needs. You said there’s a missing girl?”

“It
started
with a missing girl,” I said. “Now her younger sister is missing, too.”

“A vampire is controlled by instincts, Sam. By desires. Two sisters missing? That’s a scourge.”

The word rattled around in the back of my head until I remembered something Jack had told me. “Jack mentioned that. When his family was attacked. When Silas was given the gift. Something about being scourged.”

There was a long pause before Henry said, “Jack would know. He saw hard times. A vampire tends to fixate. Could be it’s about blood. Sometimes it’s an old slight. Sometimes a leftover hankering from before they were given the gift. Whatever the reason, when a vampire takes that kind of interest in a family, they’ve been scourged.”

“The vampire is interested in them?” I asked. “It’s not random?”

“Most likely.” There was a long pause. “Watch yourself, Samuel. A vampire
that
obsessed is dangerous. Need any help?”

I glanced over to Callie, who had entered while I was speaking to Henry and had listened to my side of the conversation with hooded eyes. I knew how she felt about vampires, but her feelings toward Henry weren’t
exactly
the same.

We had talked, after moving to Jack’s. She told me everything she knew about the sheriff, the vampire who culled the herd for the Ancients, killing younglings when they brought too much attention from the mortal world. The sheriff protected the Ancients first and humans second.

When she met Henry Hastings, she found him different for a vampire. But that didn’t make him human and it sure as hell didn’t mean she would trust him.

“No,” I said, “I think we can handle it.”

“I understand,” Henry said mildly. “Figure out what the vampire wants; then you’ll understand how to find the missing girls.” He paused again. “Do what you must,” Henry said, his voice deeper, his raspy drawl disappearing. It was no longer the voice of the sheriff of Hot Springs County. It was harsher, more guttural. “Find the girls. Slay the vampire. Or I shall be forced to stop the threat. Entire villages have been laid waste to keep humans from learning too much. Tell me you understand, Samuel.”

My blood turned to ice, an expression I had never truly understood until that moment. Henry Hastings was a thousand years old, and while he may have adopted the folksy manner of a Wyoming county sheriff, he was the most dangerous things I had ever met. In the old days he would’ve been worshiped as a god. My bladder tightened, threatening to loosen. “I understand,” I managed.

And like that, Henry’s drawl returned. “Reckon you would. You’re a Harlan. Jack would be proud. Good luck, boy.”

* * *

Mary Kate, Callie, and I piled into the Chevy and headed for Colden’s house. The sun was almost below the horizon and it sent streamers of red and yellow to bounce against the low clouds looming on the horizon.

The drive was uneventful and I parked in front of Colden’s house. I nodded at it. “How are we going to play this?”

“You need to tell Colden the truth,” Mary Kate said from the passenger seat.

I glanced at Callie, sitting between us. She gave a slight shake of her head.

“People don’t want to believe,” I said. “
If
I told him and
if
he believed, what good would it do?”

“Sam is right,” Callie said. “I know you don’t want to hear it, but it might be safer if we kept Colden in the dark.”

“I think you should tell him,” Mary Kate said stubbornly. “He’s twenty-one. He’s a grown man.”

I laughed bitterly. “He’s just a kid. He might do something stupid like get himself killed, and probably us along with him.”

Mary Kate’s face hardened in the gloom. “You’re not much older. How can you dismiss him? He deserves to know the truth about Elena. He needs to know she didn’t just leave him. She was taken.”

I sighed. Between the throbbing in my head and the sharp pains in my side, I didn’t feel young.

I feel like an old man with one foot in the grave.

“Let’s talk to him first and find out what happened at Fiesta Cancun,” I said.

She bit her lip but nodded. We made our way to the porch of the Glick house and Mary Kate knocked. After several minutes, an older woman answered the door, opening it just enough to get a good look. Short blond hair framed her chunky face and there were dark bags under her eyes. She stared at us, then turned to Mary Kate. “What’s going on?”

“We need to speak with Colden,” Mary Kate said. “Sam. Callie. This is my sister-in-law, Lori.”

The woman, Lori Glick, was clearly Colden’s mother. She had the same innocent blue eyes and naive expression, and I could see some of Colden’s sister, Carrie, in her.

She turned from us to Mary Kate and raised an eyebrow. “
Who
are they?”

“They’re friends,” Mary Kate said.

Lori continued to hold the door in a death grip, never opening it farther than needed, squinting. “Why do you want to see my son?”

I tried to smile, an expression that felt painfully awkward on my face. “Ma’am, do you know Colden’s fiancée is missing?”

The woman shrugged. “He mentioned it. I’m sure it’s just a case of cold feet. My son makes mountains out of molehills.”

Callie cleared her throat. “Ma’am, he’s not wrong. She
is
missing.”