Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story Chapter 26

Chapter 26At the culmination of the NightThe emperor thatterfly spieled a woody match well-nigh the finish up of a Cuban cigar, drawing and checking until the tip glowed the equal revolution.I dont agree with their ideology, utter the emperor moth, solely we mustiness give the Marxists their due they docu ment a fine cigar.Bummer snorted and grow regaining at the cigar, because shake himself violently, spraying the emperor and Lazarus with a fine wet mist.The Emperor scratched the capital of Massachusetts terrier d feature the ears. Settle down, runty 1, you undeniable a bath. If we vanquish our enemy, it bequeath be by g anyantry and cour term, not the fetor of our persons.Shortly aft(prenominal) sunset a member of the racing racing yacht participation had condition the Emperor the cigar and had invited him to use the club showers. oftentimes to the chagrin of the club custodian, the Emperor sh ard vex in his shower with Bummer and Lazarus, who left(p) the drain expectlessly clogged with the fluff, stuff, and filth such as heroes are made of. nowadays they were waiver the evening on the like oxalis on which they had slept, the Emperor savoring his cigar eyepatch the troops s in additiond watch.W present do we go from here? Must we wait for the fi displace to shovel in again in advance we pick up the trail?Bummer considered the questions, working the words eachplace in his doggy brain tone for a «food» word. Not purpose it, he began to lick his balls to subvert the vexation odor of deodorant soap. Once he achieved the desired balance (of both his terminates odour roughly the same), he padded more than or less the dock marking the mooring posts against sea ensnare invaders. With the borders of the soil firmly established, he went in attend of something tatty to roll in to remove the be evidence of the shower. The right fragrance was near, but it was coming in despatch the pee.Bummer went toward the smell until he s similarlyd at the end of the dock. He truism a wal allowable white calumniate bubbling go forth oer the gunwale of a yacht moored a hundred yards a counseling. Bummer barked to let the smirch hunch to stay away.Settle down, secty one, said the Emperor. Lazarus move some body of body of water out of his ears and joined Bummer at the end of the dock. The besmirch was halfway between the yacht and the dock, pulsating and bubbling as it moved across the water toward them. Lazarus lowered his operate and growled. Bummer added a graduate(prenominal) whine to the harmony.What is it, men? the Emperor asked. He throw bump pip his cigar out on the sole of his shoe and secured the remains in his br tocopherol pocket forrader limping, pie-eyed from beatting, to the end of the dock.The cloud was or so to the dock. Lazarus expose his teeth and snarled at it. Bummer plunk for away from the edge of the dock, not positive(predicate) whether to bolt or stand his ground.The Emperor numerateed out over the water and power saw the cloud. It was not wispy at the edges, but sharply defined, more exchangeable a solid mass of gel than water vapor. Its middling a bit of fog, men, dontHe uneven a look mannequining in the cloud that changed as he watched to the excogitate of a giant communicate, thusly bubbled into the designate of a dog.Although weather is not my specialty, I would venture to guess that that is no cut-and-dry fog bank.The cloud undulated into the shape of a huge viper that reared up, twenty feet over the water, as if preparing to strike. Bummer and Lazarus let go with a explosion of barking.Gents, let us away to the showers. Ive left my sword by the sink. The Emperor dour and ran down the dock, Bummer and Lazarus close at his heels. When he reached the clubhouse he sullen to count on the cloud creeping over the mouthpiece of the dock. He stood, watching transfixed, as the cloud began to condense into the solid form of a tall, dark human race being.The Animals began drifting into the store almost midnight, and to Tommys delight they all guaranteemed at least(prenominal) as hung over as he was. force, tall, gaunt, and deadly earnest, had them sit on the study counters and wait for his medical diagnosis. He aim the aired from man to man, wagering at their tongues and the whites of their look. Then he walked toward the position and knock againstmed to lose himself in concentration. afterwards a moment he went into the place and came thorn with the truck manifest. force remark the number of slip of write ups, then nodded to himself and removed a bottle of pills from his shirt pocket and turn over it to Tommy. Take one and pass it down. Who drank the tequila?Simon, who had pulled his abusive Stetson over his eyes, raised his hand with a slight moan.You scratch two, Simon. Theyre diazepam number fives.Housewife heroin, said Simon.pull announced, E trulyone drink a qua rt of Gatorade, a slug of Pepto, three aspirin, some B vitamins, and two Vivarin.Barry, the balding scuba diver, said, I dont trust that over-the-counter stuff.Im not finished, Drew said. From his shirt pocket he pulled an aluminium cigar tube, unscrewed the cap, and tipped it into his hand. A long, yellow typography cone slid out. He held it out to Tommy. It smelled like a cross between a skunk and a eucalyptus coughing drop. Tommy raised an eyebrow to Drew. What is it?Dont worry virtually it. Its recommended by the Jamaican Medical Association. Anybody got a light?Simon pitched his Zippo to Drew, who handed it to Tommy.Tommy hesitated before lighting the joystick and looked at Drew. This is just pot, right? This isnt some weird clothes designer kill-the-family-with-a-chain-saw-and-choke-to-death-on-your-own-vomit drug, right?Not if used as directed, Drew said.Oh. Okay. Tommy sparked the Zippo, lit the adjunction, and took a recently hit. Holding in the boob his eyes wat ering, his face scrunched in gargoyle determination, his limbs contorted as if he had contracted a case of the instant creeping geeks he offered the word to Lash, the unforgiving business major.There was a thump on the present door, followed by an urgent pounding that rattled the windows. Tommy dropped the joint and coughed, expelling a blast of smoke and spittle in Lashs face. The Animals shouted and dark, not so much startled by the noise, but tortured by the ravishment on their collective hangover. foreign the dual automatic doors the Emperor pounded on the number with his wooden sword. The dogs jumped close to his feet barking and leaping as if they had treed a raccoon on the roof of the store.Tommy, still gasping for breath, dug into his pocket for the store keys and made his way to the door. Its okay. I issue him.Everybody knows him, Simon said. Crazy old fuck.Tommy turned the key and pulled the doors open. The Emperor fell into the store. Bummer and Lazarus leaped over their master and disappeared down an aisle.The Emperor thrashed around on the floor and Tommy had to step endorse to keep from having his shins whacked by the wooden sword.Calm down, Tommy said. Youre okay.The Emperor climbed to his feet and grabbed Tommy by the lifts. We give up to marshal our forces. The monster is at hand. right away nowTommy looked rear end at the Animals and grinned. Hes okay, authentically. Then, to the Emperor, only if slow down, okay. Can I cut you something to eat?Theres no time for that. We must take the battle to him.Simon vociferationed, perchance Drew has something to mellow him out. Drew had recovered the joint and was in the process of relighting it.Tommy closed and locked the door, then took the Emperor by the arm and led him toward the office. See, Your Majesty, youre inside now. Youre safe. Now lets go sit down and see if we can sieve this out.Locked doors wont assay him. He can take the form of mist and pass through the smallest crack. The Emperor addressed the Animals. Arm yourself, succession at that place is still time.Who? Asked Lash. Whos he lecture close to?Tommy cleared his throat. The Emperor thinks that at that places a lamia s public lecture the City.Youre shittin me, Barry said.Ive just seen him, the Emperor said, at the marina. He changed from a cloud of vapor to human form as I watched. Hes not far back me, either.Tommy patted the old mans arm. Dont be silly, Your Highness. regular if on that point were lamias, they cant turn into vapor.But I saw it.Look Tommy said. You saw something else. I know for a fact that vampires cant change into vapor.You know that for a fact? Simon drawled.Tommy looked at Simon, expecting to see the usual grin, but Simon was hold for an answer.Tommy shook his top. Im trying to bring out things under potency here, Simon. You deficiency to give me a burst out?How do you know? Simon insisted.It was in a book I was packing. You remember, Simon, you read t hat one too.Simon looked as if he had just been threatened, which he had. Yeah, right, he said, pushing his Stetson back down over his eyes and slant back on the register. Well, you ought to just call the loony-bin boys for your friend in that location.Ill take care of him, Tommy said. You bozos fascinate started on the truck. He opened the office door and nudged the Emperor toward it.What about the men? asked the Emperor.Theyre safe. Come on in and give out me about it.But the monster?If he treasured to kill me, Id be dead already. Tommy shut the office door fucking them.Big hair, Jody estimate. Big hair is the way to go with this outfit. After all these age of trying to tame my hair, all I had to do was dress like an upmarket hooker and I would go been fine.She was walking up Geary Street, her fake Gucci bag of relax cosmetics still in hand. There was a new club down here somewhere and she needed to saltation, or at least show off a mid approach.A panhandler wearing a unreal sign that read, I am dismissed and Illiterate (a friend wrote this for me), stopped her and move to sell her a free periodic news reputation.Jody said, I can pick that up anywhere. Its free.It is?Yes. They give it away in every store and cafe in town.I call into questioned why they were laying out there for the taking.Jody was angry with herself for being pulled into this exchange. It says free right there on the cover.The sordid pointed to the sign abeyance around his neck and tried to look tragic. Maybe you could give me quarter for it anyway.Jody started to walk away. The jerk off followed along beside her. Theres a vast article on recovery groups on page ten.She looked at him.Someone told me, he said.Jody stopped. Ill give you this if youll leave me alone. She held out the cosmetics bag.The bum acted as if he had to think about it. He looked her up and down, pausing at her sectionalisation before feel her in the eye. Maybe we could work something out. You mu st be cold in that dress. I could warm you up.Normally, Jody said, if I met a guy who was unemployed and preliterate who hadnt bathed in a couple of weeks, Id be standing in a have with excitement, but Im sort of in a bad mood tonight, so take this bag and give me the fucking paper before I pop your little head like a zit. She pushed the bag into his chest, knocking him back against the window of a closed camera store.The bum offered her the paper tentatively and she snatched it from his hand.He said, Youre a lesbian, arent you?Jody screamed at him a high, explosive, unintelligible expulsion of pure(a) inhuman frustration a Hendrix high note sampled and sung by a billion suffering souls in Hells own choir. The window of the camera shop tattered and fell in shards to the paving. The store panic wailed, paltry in comparison to Jodys scream. The bum covered his ears and ran away.Cool, Jody said, more than a bit satisfied with herself. She opened the paper and read as she walked up the thoroughfare to the club.Outside the club Jody got in line with a gathering of well-dressed wannabees and resumed reading her paper, enjoying the stares of the men on line in her peripheral vision.The club was called 753. It seemed to Jody that all of the new, swervey clubs had eschewed names for numbers. Kurt and his cistron buddies had been big fans of the number-named clubs, which made for Monday-morning recount conversations that sounded more like equations We went to Fourteen Ninety-Two and ex Sixty-Six, then Jimmy drank ten Seven-Sevens at Nineteen Seventeen, went fifty-one fifty and got eighty-sixed. Normally, that more numbers in succession would have had Kurt diving for his PC to establish trend lines and resistance levels. Jody glazed over at the mention of numbers, which would have made alert with the broker a bit of an ordeal even if he hadnt been an asshole.She thought, I wonder if Kurt will be here. I hope so. I hope hes here with the little well-bred, breastless wonder. Oh, she wont care, but hell die a thousand jealous deaths.Then she perceive the alarm sounding down the street and thought, Maybe I should learn to change some of this hostility.You, in the LED said the ostiary.Jody looked up from her paper.Go on in, the doorman said.As she walked past the other(prenominal) throng on line she was careful to vacate eye contact. champion single guy reached out and grabbed her arm.Say Im your date, he begged. Ive been waiting for two hours.Hi, Kurt, Jody said. I didnt see you.Kurt stepped back. Oh. Oh my God. Jody?She smiled. Hows your head?He was trying to ginger nut his breath. Fine. Its fine. You lookThanks, Kurt. Good to see you again. Id better get inside.He clawed the air after her. Could you say Im your date?She turned and looked at him as if she had found him in the back of the refrigerator with green growing on him.I have been chosen, Kurt. You, on the other hand, are an untouchable. I dont think youd be appropriate for the image Im trying to project.As she walked into the club she heard Kurt say to the following(a) guy in line, Shes a lesbian, you know.Jody thought, Yep, Ive got to work on controlling my hostility.The theme of 753 was darkened San Francisco actually, obsolete San Francisco burning down, which is largely what Old San Francisco used to do. There was an antique hand-pump empty engine in the affection of the leaping floor. Cellophane flames leaped from pseudowindows driven by turbine fans. Nozzles in the cap drizzled dry-ice smoke over a crowd of young professionals ar-rhythmically sweating in layers of routine cotton and wool. A flannel-clad grunge birthplace here a tie-dyed and dreadlocked Rastafarian there some neo-hippies a sprinkling of black-eyed, white-faced revolutionary Wave holdovers looking alienated contemplating the adjacent body part to have perforate a few harmless suburban homeboys here to bust a move, def and phat, in three-hundred-dollar giant gel-filled, glow-in-the-dark, pneumatic, NBA-endorsed sneakers. The doorman had tried to shake up a mix, but with fashionable micro-brewery beer sledding for seven bucks a bottle, the crowd was bound to overbalance to the side of privilege and form a thick yuppie scum. Cocktail waitresses in substitute helmets served reservoirs of imported water and thanked people for not smoking.Jody slinked onto a bar green goddess and opened her paper to avert eye contact with a droopy-eyed intoxicated on the next stool. It didnt work. Scuse me, I couldnt tending noticing that you were sitting down. Im sitting down too. dinky world, huh?Jody looked up briefly and smiled. Mistake.Can I buy you a drink? the rummy asked.Thanks, I dont drink, she said, thinking, Why did I come here? What did I hope to reach?Its my hair, isnt it?Jody looked at the guy. He was about her age and balding, not quite finished with what looked like a bad hair-transplant job. His scalp looked as if it had been stra fed with a machine gun entire of plugs. She felt bad for him.No, I really dont drink.How about a mineral water?Thanks. I dont drink anything.From the stool behind her a mans articulation. Shell drink this.She turned to see a glass filled with a thick, red-black liquid being pushed in front of her by a bone-white hand. The index and middle finger seemed a little too short.Theyre still growing back, the vampire said.Jody recoiled from him so hard she nearly went over opposed on her barstool. The vampire caught her arm and steady her.Hey, buddy, said Hair Plugs, hands off.The vampire let go of Jodys arm, reached across to put his hand on Hair Plugss shoulder, and held him prodigal to his seat. The drunks eyes went wide. The vampire smiled.Shell rip out your throat and drink your blood as you die. Is that what you want?Hair Plugs shook his head violently. No, I already have an ex-wife.The vampire released him. Go away.Hair Plugs slid off the stool and ran off into the crowd on the d ance floor. Jody leaped to her feet and started to follow him. The vampire caught her arm and go around her around.Dont, he said.Jody caught his wrist and began to squeeze. A human arm would have been reduced to mush. The vampire grinned. Jody locked eyes with him. Let go.Sit, he said.Murderer.The vampire threw his head back and laughed. The bartender, a buirdly jock type, looked up, then looked away. Just another loud drunk.I can take you, Jody said, not really believing it. She treasured to break loose and run.The vampire, still smiling, said, It would blade an interesting news story, wouldnt it? Pale peer Destroys Club in Domestic Disagreement. Shall we?Jody let go of his wrist but stayed locked on his eyes. They were black, showing no iris. What do you want?The vampire broke the stare and shook his head. Little fledgling, I want your company, of course. Now sit.Jody climbed back onto the stool and stared into the glass before her.Thats better. Its almost over, you know. I d idnt think you would last this long, but alas, it must come to an end. The plump for has become a bit too public. You have to break from the cattle now. They dont take you. You are not one of them anymore. You are their enemy. You know it, dont you? Youve known it since your first kill. Even your little pet knows it.Jody started to shake. How did you get into the bonce to get Tommys book?The vampire grinned again. One develops certain talents over time. Youre still young, you wouldnt understand. deviate of Jody wanted to slam her fist into his face and run, yet another part wanted answers to all the questions that had been running through her opinion since the night she was changed.Why me? Why did you do this to me?The vampire stood up and patted her on the shoulder. Its almost over. The sadness of having a pet is that they unendingly die on you. At the end of the night, you are alone. Youll know that feeling very soon. Drink up. He turned and walked away.Jody watched him leave , relieve that he was gone, but at the same time disappointed. There were so many an(prenominal) questions.She picked up the glass, smelled the liquid, and nearly gagged.The bartender snickered. I never had an order for a parallel of straight grenadine before. Can I get you something else?No, Ive got to go catch him.She picked up her paper, got up, ran up the steps and out of the club. She found that if she stayed on the balls of her feet, she could actually run in the high-heeled pumps. churl one up for vampire strength, she thought.She grabbed the doorman by the shoulder and swung him around. Did you see a thin, pale guy in black just leave?That way. The doorman pointed east on Geary. He was walking.Thanks, Jody tossed over her shoulder as she took to the sidewalk, waiting to break into a run until she was out of sight from the club. She ran a block before taking off the pumps and carrying them. The street was empty only the thrum of wires and the compressible padding of her feet on the sidewalk broke the silence.Shed run ten blocks when she spotted him, a block away, leaning against a lamppost.He turned and looked at her as she pulled up.So, fledgling, what are you expiration to do when you catch me? he asked in a soft voice, knowing she would hear. Kill me? Break off a signpost and drive it though my heart? Rip my head from my shoulders and hightail it puppet with it while my body flops around on the sidewalk? The vampire pantomimed flopping, turn over his eyes, and grinned.Jody said nothing. She didnt know what she was divergence to do. She hadnt thought about it. No, she said. How can I stop you from killing Tommy?They always betray you, you know. Its in their nature.What if I leave? Dont tell him where Im going?He knows we exist. We have to hide, fledgling. Always. Completely.Jody felt peculiarly calm. Perhaps it was hearing the we. Maybe it was talking in a normal voice to someone a block away. some(prenominal) it was, she wasnt afraid, not for herself, anyway. She said, If we have to hide, why all the killings?The vampire laughed again. Did you ever have a cat bring you a annulus it had killed?Why?Presents, fledgling. Now if you are going to kill me, please do. If not, go break away with your pet while you can.He turned and walked away.Wait Jody called. Did you pull me through the wine cellar window?No, the vampire said without looking back. I am not raise in saving you. And if you follow me, you will find out exactly how a vampire can be killed.Gotcha, asshole, Jody thought. He had saved her.