Tomorrow's Dead: The Julia Poe Vampire Chronicles (36 page)

“I think so, but I think I’ll need to go to the Valley every once in a while to clear
my head,” said Poe with a smile.

“Whatever, Poe,” said Morales.  “As long as you come back to us.  You don’t know how
much we missed you.”  Poe could tell that T-Doc was also referring to her supposed
mental breakdown.

“You guys are my family,” Poe said with surprise at her own words.  “We sink and swim
together.  I’m good at protecting, and I’m going to protect everyone.”

She noticed him approaching.  He stared strangely at her as he handed Piper to Joseph. 
“Hello, Poe.”

“Hey,” Poe said and reached for Piper’s chubby arms.   “Hey, kid.  Do you know me?”

Piper had her mother’s red hair and father’s brown eyes.  “Uh huh.  You Aunt Poe.”

Extremely pleased, Poe smiled.  “You like movies?”

“Cartoons,” said the child.  She traced a finger in Poe’s dimple.

“I’ll show you lots of cartoons at my place.  Would you like that?”  Poe was actually
afraid of getting a no for an answer.

“Shue.  I want Penny,” the baby said, pointing at the dog sitting on her haunches.

“Shue means yes, sis,” translated Joseph.  Piper’s fathers left Poe and Kaleb together. 
Like she understood, Penny followed the squealing toddler to give the ex-lovers some
privacy.

Sainvire was back in his usual black shirt, blue Dickies, and Adidas.  “Maybe I’ll
try the farm.”

“You got lots of responsibility here,” said Poe.  “The new government will collapse
without you.”

 Sainvire laughed, his gray eyes amused.  “I’m like you.  Muscle.  I don’t participate
in politics anymore.  I’m retired.  You can see they’re doing very well without me.”

Poe’s wavy Bacall hair kept obscuring her sight, and she constantly flipped her head
to the left.  Sainvire reached over and tucked her bangs behind her ears.  The vampire
hunter nearly lost her composure.  “Don’t do that.”

“What?”

“Touch me,” said Poe quietly.

Percy ended the awkward situation by running toward her.  The girl had been helping
with the food and missed Poe’s entrance.  “Poe!”  The sisters hugged.

“Percy, I’m never leaving you again,” said Poe, her voice breaking.  “I’m sorry for
neglecting you.  I’ll teach you everything I know, and we’re going to overdose on
watching DVDs, alright?”  Percy’s eyes watered, hugging Poe until tears splotched
the red dress. 

The touching moment was curtailed when Maple asked Poe to follow her to the corridor. 
“Sorry for interrupting.”

“That’s alright.  What can I do for you?”

“We have a situation,” said the mallet-armed vampire.

Poe nodded.  She knew her place in the new society.  Like Sainvire said, she was muscle. 
“Shoot.”

“We have friends in Malibu.  They’ve been in contact with Sainvire since he rescued
them from vampire catchers nearly 20 years ago.  The town is quite large.  Maybe 60
or 70, I believe, and that’s counting children.”

“And?”

“Rogue vampires have been draining members for three days now.  The days of cattle
aren’t over.  The messenger only made it to us several minutes ago.”

Poe bit her lower lip.  “I’ll go home and get dressed.”

“Thank you, Poe.  We estimate 14 vamps.  Two can fly, four are day vamps, and the
rest we don’t know anything about.  I assume you’re driving there?”

“Yeah.  Maclemar’s truck.” 

“The truck will only get you so far on the Coast Highway.  There’s debris on the roads
from last winter’s storms.  You’re going to need to ride your Vespa, walk, and hike
the rest of the way.  You should leave at sunrise tomorrow.”

Poe thought about Maple’s suggestion and decided it was sound advice.  She felt calmer,
more level-headed.  “Okay.  Just draw me a map, and I’ll take the scooter.”

“Want some help?”

Poe shook her head.  “I work alone, remember?”  She thought of Sainvire whose memories
were erased because he followed her to San Francisco.  She needed to curb her impulsiveness. 

“How many communities escaped the Vampire Council anyway?  How many did Sainvire protect
all those years?”

“About 12, Poe.  Sainvire’s frequent absences were from his visits to these holdout
groups.  He kept them from becoming cattle.”

“Everybody knows this except me?  That there’s pockets of survivors who were lucky
enough to keep their veins untouched?”

“Only a few of us know, Poe.  We kept the information secret to safeguard their positions. 
Trench and the Council would’ve gone out of their way to steal those people for the
food supply.”

Poe nodded.  Years ago in Koreatown she had met independent people who helped hide
her after Quillon Trench bombed the Central Library.  There were the West L.A. folks
too.  She wasn’t the only one with a virgin neck after all.  The extent of Sainvire’s
good works elevated him in her mind. 

Maple laid her hand on the middle of Poe’s back and led her back to the party.  “Enjoy
this day with your goddaughter, Poe.  And if you haven’t noticed, your friends have
missed you.”  Poe heeded her friend’s advice and shyly approached Piper who sat on
a cushion, building a precarious house of Lego bricks.

“Can I play with you?” Poe asked.  She was sitting cross-legged on the ground and
realized her folly.  She had exposed herself to the group of people surrounding her. 
Quickly she eased her position into a mermaid pose and pulled the dress material down
to her knees.  She cleared her voice to get the embarrassment out of it.  “I’m a Lego
expert.  I can even make a dinosaur for you.”

Piper looked up with awe on her face.  “Really?”

“Sure.  My brother and sister and I used to have competitions to see who can make
the best figures.  We had bins of this stuff.”

“What’s competition?” asked the child with Morales’ eyes.

“That’s when we try to outdo each other.  Um.  You know.  Whoever builds the best
building wins.  Our mom and dad decided the winner.”

“Okay.  Make me dinoso,” she ordered.

“Please,” corrected Poe.

“Please,” said the girl.  Poe reached out to ruffle the girl’s red hair.  “Legos are
supposed to make you smarter, you know, especially in math and logic.”

“What’s logic?”

“For crying out loud,” Poe said under her breath and slapped her forehead.  The kid
wouldn’t stop asking questions.  Joseph leaned down and whispered in her ear, “Don’t
use big words you can’t explain.  You’re doing fine so far.  Good job.”

Poe sighed as Morales, Joseph, Sainvire, and a few others hovered nearby.  They were
waiting to see if she was exaggerating about being able to put together a dinosaur. 
With deep concentration and a Buddha smile on her face, Poe chose appropriate blue
and green tiles and assembled a Tyrannosaurus Rex.  Within 20 minutes she handed a
professionally made T-Rex to the smiling Piper.

“You awesome, Aunt Poe!” Piper exclaimed.  She hugged Poe, and the vampire killer
grinned. 

“What else can you make, Poe?” asked Sainvire from a tiny toddler chair that looked
ready to collapse.

“Yeah, Aunt Poe.  What else?”

“Lots.  Star Wars ships, boats, robots.  Whatever you can think of.  My mind figures
out how to put them together.”

“That’s why you’re so brilliant.  You’re a Lego nut,” said a chuckling Joseph. 

“I wouldn’t discount it.  That’s why these kids should build Lego cities and learn
how to read maps.  We need geniuses.”

“So you’re saying you’re a genius now?” asked Morales.

“Not a genius exactly,” she said and met Sainvire’s amused eyes.  “Perhaps a prodigy.” 
Poe’s grin brought laughter in the circle.

“What’s genius?  What’s pro-gidy?” asked Piper. 

“I’ll let you answer that, Sainvire,” Poe said, rising to her feet.  “You’re good
at explaining things.  I’ve done my job here, dear friends.  Time to knock out some
chores.”

The men watched as she left the room.  “What bouncy hair she has.  A real looker,”
said Morales, glancing at Sainvire.

“That she is,” agreed Kaleb Sainvire.  As if to himself, he said, “What I never knew
about Poe was how shapely her legs are.  She is a fine figure of a woman.”

“Hell, you don’t know anything about her,” said Morales with a scowl.  “Unless you’re
remembering?”

“No.  I don’t remember her at all.”  He glanced at Joseph.  “I wish I did because
she seems like a lovely woman.”

Morales brushed an imaginary dandruff flake from his shoulder.  “Funny how fate interferes
so rudely in life.  Poe was the woman you loved the most on this earth, and yet you
don’t remember a thing about her, and here you go talking about her legs.  The saddest
part is you remember monkeys like me and Joseph and whoever else you meet on the street. 
It’s just too painful, man.  I feel for Poe.  Really I do.”

***

At five in the morning a powder-blue Vespa was provided to her with a five-gallon
emergency gas tank strapped to the back.  Poe’s pockets were bulging with clips for
her two hand guns and a high-powered rifle was slung on her shoulder.  A small pack
containing more ammo, night vision goggles, dried food, and a half-gallon water jug
was slung on her back.  She felt so damn uncomfortable like she was bogged down by
too many toys
.  No choice.  There are 14 of them. 

Joseph and Percy were the only ones to see her off.  “I’ll be there in no time.  I
just need to avoid landslides and rocks.”

“Be careful, sis.  We want you back by tomorrow,” said Joseph.  He gave her shoulders
a squeeze.

“Yeah.  Come back quickly,” said Percy who reached out to pinch Poe’s perky nose. 

“Ouch!” she said.  “I’ll kill them all and be back for supper.  You take care of Penny. 
She can hang out with Chops.”  Poe reached down and patted the balding liver-spotted
head.”

“Keep the speed between 20 to 30 miles an hour on the good roads.  Otherwise stick
to 10 miles an hour or less on the PCH.  The cars and debris were never cleared up
the coast.”

Poe tried to be alert by sweeping her sights to points vulnerable to ambush, but her
heart wasn’t in it.  How many humans were stupid enough to go on a solo hunt for 14
vampires?  She wasn’t infallible.  She nearly died two years ago, and here she was,
the same vacuum cleaner for Los Angeles.

Somehow this assignment bothered her.  She knew she could die that day, and no one
would even bother to find her remains.  Everyone was busy with important tasks, and
searching for her body would be a non-existent luxury. 

Malibu was a beautiful seaside place with great ocean views.  Her aunt had a mansion
on top of a hill and often invited them to dinner and parties.  Her husband was a
pompous screenwriter who’d written nothing but nondescript rom-coms for springtime
release. 

Poe would watch surfers defy the waves keeping their footing despite devastating water
surges.  Movie stars dripped from the Malibu Colony area.  During rainy seasons, landslides
would block streets and teeter houses to the brink.  In the summer brush fires would
assault the beleaguered paradise and consume multimillion-dollar homes.  Not even
the water in custom swimming pools would help combat fire.  But between the perilous
seasons, the community of Malibu once thrived in its bikini-clad dreams of perfect
living.

Poe remembered her brother and sister diving into the blue pool with mosaic tiles
and feeling jealous.  Her swimming classes were to start that summer, and she was
peeved at her siblings who had better life skills than she.  Clearly she could picture
her mother wrapped in a sarong and comforting her, but Poe was stubborn and far from
maudlin, of course.  She harrumphed, jumped on her father’s back, and tickled him. 
Her father was quite ticklish.

Riding on the scooter made her pensive from uncorking old memories.  If it hadn’t
been for the Gray Armageddon, she would have graduated from college by then and spent
every Christmas at home with her family.  “What the hell are you?” she asked the wind.
“Your poison ruined my life and the lives of the survivors.  You let them reign, those
bastard vampires.” 

Hours passed and Poe contemplated her life.  The slow Vespa irked her, but she had
no other choice.  After exiting the Santa Monica Freeway, Poe made her way to the
Pacific Coast Highway.  Joseph had correctly assumed the highway that undulated along
the Pacific Ocean was a mess.  Mangled cars rusting on the road made the drive a challenge. 
Poe found herself driving five miles an hour because she had to zigzag around vehicles
and avoid large rocks, metal shards, and mounds of dirt.

She had expected to arrive before noon, but the painful trek delayed her ETA.  Twice
she took a spill and scraped her elbow rather painfully.  The third accident occurred
when she wasn’t vigilant enough to notice a sharp rock the size of a chicken blocking
her way.  The scooter slammed into a parked Cherokee and spun three times until it
ejected Poe and cracked the drum of gasoline on the back of her Vespa.

“Fuck me!” Poe gritted and stood with difficulty.  “Maybe I am going to die today.”
She straightened the Vespa, poured the rest of the petrol into the scooter into the
fuel tank, and flung the container in anger.  She studied her surroundings and inhaled
fresh air tinged with gasoline.  She was in over her head.  One nail on the road would
have left her stranded.  “I’m so damn cocky, right, Sister Ann?  I could’ve used some
company, but I’m stupid enough to believe I can handle things on my own.  Well I can’t
this time.  I can’t ever.”

With her arm she wiped the tiny beads of sweat from her nose.  “I never believed I
was a superhero.  I’m just a girl who’s barely trying to make sense of the world. 
I can’t even make sense of my own pathetic life.” 

Poe got on her Vespa and drove slowly through the debris with a promise to bring a
team on future assignments.  At 26 she was no spring chicken.  She braked and turned
to study the ocean.  She blinked a couple times to double-check that a boat wasn’t
on the water like her peripheral vision had made her believe.  The Chameleon, James
Maclemar’s ship, came to mind.