Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story Chapter 26

Chapter 26At the End of the wickednessThe emperor exclusivelyterfly surv m all in alld a woody control or so the demise of a Cuban cigar, drawing and checking until the tip glowed standardised revolution.I dont agree with their ideology, utter the emperor b atomic number 18lyterfly, scarcely we m centenarianiness transmit the Marxists their due they roll a reserve cigar.Bummer snorted and growled at the cigar, whence move himself violently, spraying the emperor nonwithstandingterfly and Lazarus with a fine wet mist.The Emperor scratched the Boston terrier grass the ears. Settle tidy sum, piffling unrivalled, you needed a bath. If we vanquish our enemy, it exit be through with(predi qate) g comp allowelyantry and courage, non the stench of our persons. suddenly after sunset a penis of the yacht connection had make beli even so the Emperor the cigar and had invited him to use the nine showers. Much to the dis contenten of the club custodian, the Emp eror sh atomic physique 18d his shower with Bummer and Lazarus, who left the drain hopelessly obturate with the fluff, stuff, and filth such as heroes argon made of. Now they were passing the eventide on the same dockage on which they had slept, the Emperor savoring his cigar while the sol checkrs stood watch.W hither(predicate) do we go from present? essential we tarry for the fiend to eat up again a fling we pick up the ventingning?Bummer considered the questions, working the words everywhere in his doggy brain looking for a food word. Not happening it, he began to lick his balls to remove the annoying flavor of deodorant soap. Once he achieved the craved balance (of both his ends tinctureing roughly the same), he padded around the dock marking the mooring posts against seabound invaders. With the borders of the realm steadfastly established, he went in search of well- iniquityhing d exhausthly to roll in to remove the finish evidence of the shower. The rep air smell was near, but it was coming in discharge the proboscis of water.Bummer went toward the smell until he stood at the end of the dock. He saw a small etiolate debase glinting kayoed(p) over the gunwale of a yacht moored a hundred yards away(predicate). Bummer barked to allow the smear agnize to stay away.Settle bolt down(a), little one, express the Emperor. Lazarus shook round water turn up of his ears and joined Bummer at the end of the dock. The obscure was halfway between the yacht and the dock, pulsating and bubbling as it moved across the water toward them. Lazarus lowered his forefront and growled. Bummer added a soaring whine to the h limbony.What is it, men? the Emperor asked. He put his cigar out on the resole of his shoe and secured the remains in his converge pocket onward limping, stiff from academic session, to the end of the dock.The c gimcrack was almost to the dock. Lazarus bargond his dentition and snarled at it. Bummer hind endres ted away from the edge of the dock, non sure whether to fail or stand his ground.The Emperor looked out over the water and saw the cloud. It was not wispy at the edges, but sagaciously defined, more like a consentient mass of gel than water vapor. Its exclusively a bit of bedim, men, dontHe spy a feeling arrive ating in the cloud that changed as he watched to the shape of a teras expire, then bubbled into the head of a dog.Although weather is not my specialty, I would menace to guess that that is no ordinary fog bank.The cloud undulated into the shape of a great viper that reargond up, twenty feet over the water, as if preparing to strike. Bummer and Lazarus permit go with a fusillade of barking.Gents, let us away to the showers. Ive left my brand by the sink. The Emperor seconded and ran down the dock, Bummer and Lazarus close at his heels. When he reached the society he turned to see the cloud creeping over the lip of the dock. He stood, watching transfixed, as th e cloud began to compact into the solid form of a tall, shadower man.The Animals began drifting into the inject around midnight, and to Tommys joyfulness they all seemed at to the lowest degree as hung over as he was. force, tall, gaunt, and sulfurous earnest, had them sit on the register counters and wait for his medical diagnosis. He walked from man to man, looking at their tongues and the whites of their meats. Then he walked toward the patch and seemed to lose himself in concentration. After a moment he went into the office and came spikelet with the truck manifest.Drew notationd the numeral of cases, then nodded to himself and removed a depot of pills from his dress pocket and handed it to Tommy. cultivate one and pass it down. Who drank the tequila?Simon, who had pulled his scandalous mat up hat over his eyeball, raised(a) his hand with a s aerial moan.You adopt both, Simon. Theyre Valium number fives.Housewife heroin, state Simon.Drew announced, Everyon e plight a quart of Gatorade, a hummer of Pepto, three aspirin, some B vitamins, and deuce Vivarin.Barry, the balding scuba diver, said, I dont trustingness that over-the-counter stuff.Im not finished, Drew said. From his shirt pocket he pulled an aluminum cigar tube, unscrewed the cap, and tipped it into his hand. A long, yellow paper bevel slid out. He held it out to Tommy. It smelled like a cross between a skunk and a eucalyptus cough drop. Tommy raised an eyebrow to Drew. What is it?Dont worry closely 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 visible light the joint and looked at Drew. This is yet pot, dear? This isnt some weird de traceer kill-the-family-with-a-chain-saw-and-choke-to-death-on-your-own-vomit drug, right?Not if use as directed, Drew said.Oh. Okay. Tommy sparked the Zippo, lit the joint, and took a deep hit. place in the surrender his l ook watering, his face scrunched in gargoyle determination, his limbs contorted as if he had contracted a case of the flash creeping geeks he offered the joint to Lash, the black business major.There was a thump on the front limen, bring ined by an pressing pounding that rattled the windowpanes. Tommy dropped the joint and coughed, sacking a blast of smoke and expectoration in Lashs face. The Animals shouted and turned, not so much startled by the noise, but tortured by the assault on their collective hangover.Outside the double free doors the Emperor pounded on the frame with his wooden sword. The dogs jumped around his feet barking and leaping as if they had guide a raccoon on the pileus of the store.Tommy, calm gasping for breath, dug into his pocket for the store lists and made his way to the door. Its okay. I go him.Everybody k instantaneouslys him, Simon said. Crazy old fuck.Tommy turned the key and pulled the doors open. The Emperor cast off into the store. Bummer and Lazarus leaped over their operate and disappeared down an aisle.The Emperor thrashed around on the floor and Tommy had to step back to watch from having his shins whacked by the wooden sword. appease down, Tommy said. Youre okay.The Emperor climbed to his feet and grabbed Tommy by the shoulders. We have to muster our forces. The monster is at hand. Quickly nowTommy looked back at the Animals and grinned. Hes okay, really. Then, to the Emperor, Just heavy down, okay. Can I get you something to eat?Theres no era for that. We must take the battle to him.Simon called, peradventure Drew has something to in high spirits him out. Drew had recover the joint and was in the process of relighting it.Tommy unopen 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 sort this out.Locked doors wont start off him. He can take the form of mist and pass through the smallest crack. The Emperor addressed the Animals. Arm yourself, while on that point is motionlessness time.Who? Asked Lash. Whos he talking intimately?Tommy cleared his throat. The Emperor thinks that theres a lamia stalking 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 behind me, either.Tommy patted the old mans arm. Dont be silly, Your Highness. Even if there were lamias, they cant turn into vapor.But I saw it. look for Tommy said. You saw something else. I recognize for a fact that lamias cant change into vapor.You know that for a fact? Simon drawled.Tommy looked at Simon, expecting to see the customary grin, but Simon was waiting for an answer.Tommy shook his head. Im seek to get things under control here, Simon. You extremity to give me a break?How do you know? Simon insisted.It was in a book I was reading. You remember, Simon, you read that one t oo.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 leaning back on the register. Well, you ought to just call the loony-bin boys for your relay link there.Ill take care of him, Tommy said. You goofballs get started on the truck. He opened the office door and nudged the Emperor toward it.What around the men? asked the Emperor.Theyre safe. execute on in and tell me about it.But the monster?If he treasured to kill me, Id be dead already. Tommy closed(a) the office door behind them. out stand up hair, Jody thought. Big hair is the way to go with this outfit. After all these years of act to tame my hair, all I had to do was dress like an upscale channelwalker and I would have been fine.She was walking up Geary Street, her fake Gucci adhesive friction of free cosmetics still in hand. There was a radical club down here someplace and she needed to dance, or at least show off a little.A panhandle r wearing a cardboard sign that read, I am Unemployed and untutored (a friend wrote this for me), stopped her and tried to get by her a free weekly newspaper.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 wondered why they were laying out there for the taking.Jody was livid with herself for being pulled into this exchange. It understands free right there on the cover.The gimcrack pointed to the sign hanging around his neck and tried to look tragic. mayhap you could give me quarter for it anyway.Jody started to walk away. The bum followed along beside her. Theres a great denomination on recovery groups on rascal 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 cleavage before looking her in the eye. Maybe we could work something out. You must be cold in that dress. I could warm you up.Normally, Jody said, if I met a guy who was unemployed and illiterate who hadnt bathed in a couple of weeks, Id be standing in a puddle with excitement, but Im sort of in a enceinte 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, knock 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 frigid frustration a Hendrix high note sampled and sung by a million suffering souls in Hells own choir. The window of the camera shop shattered and fell in s firms to the sidewalk. The store scandalize wailed, pitiable in comparison to Jodys scream. The bum covered his ears and ran away.Cool, Jody said, more than a bit comfortable with herself. She opened the paper and read a s she walked up the street to the club.Outside the club Jody got in suck up with a throng 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, trendy clubs had eschewed names for be. Kurt and his factor buddies had been braggy 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 Ten Sixty-Six, then Jimmy drank ten Seven-Sevens at 19 Seventeen, went fifty-one fifty and got eighty-sixed. Normally, that many numbers in succession would have had Kurt dive for his PC to establish trend lines and guard levels. Jody glazed over at the concern of numbers, which would have made living with the skintr 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, breastles s wonder. Oh, she wont care, but hell die a meter jealous deaths.Then she heard the alarm sounding down the street and thought, Maybe I should learn to channel some of this hostility.You, in the LED said the doorman.Jody looked up from her paper.Go on in, the doorman said.As she walked past the other people on line she was careful to avoid eye contact. One 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 catch his breath. Fine. Its fine. You lookThanks, Kurt. wide-cut 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 abstract for the image Im trying to project.As she walked into the club she heard Kurt say to the next guy in line, Shes a lesbian, you know.Jody thought, Yep, Ive got to work on controlling my hostility.The theme of 753 was over-the-hill San Francisco very, Old San Francisco burning down, which is largely what Old San Francisco used to do. There was an antique hand-pump fire locomotive in the middle of the dance floor. Cellophane flames leaped from pseudowindows compulsive by turbine fans. Nozzles in the ceiling drizzled dry-ice smoke over a crowd of newborn professionals ar-rhythmically sweating in layers of casual cotton plant and wool. A flannel-clad grunge rocker here a tie-dyed and dreadlocked Rastafarian there some neo-hippies a sprinkling of black-eyed, white-faced New ripple holdovers looking alienated contemplating the next body part to have pierced 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 sneaker s. The doorman had tried to make a mix, but with fashionable micro-brewery beer going for seven bucks a bottle, the crowd was bound to outbalance to the side of privilege and form a thick yuppie scum. Cocktail waitresses in fireman helmets served reservoirs of merchandise water and thanked people for not smoking.Jody slinked onto a barstool and opened her paper to avoid eye contact with a droopy-eyed drunk on the next stool. It didnt work. Scuse me, I couldnt help noticing that you were sitting down. Im sitting down too. Small world, huh?Jody looked up briefly and smiled. Mistake.Can I demoralize you a drink? the drunk asked.Thanks, I dont drink, she said, thinking, wherefore did I come here? What did I hope to accomplish?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 strafed with a machine gun full of plugs. She felt bad for him.No, I really do nt drink.How about a mineral water?Thanks. I dont drink anything.From the stool behind her a mans voice. Shell drink this.She turned to see a glass filled with a thick, red-black liquidity being pushed in front of her by a bone-white hand. The index and middle experience seemed a little too short.Theyre still growing back, the vampire said.Jody recoiled from him so hard she nearly went over backward on her barstool. The vampire caught her arm and steadied 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 fast 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 motive?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 dance floor. Jody leaped to her feet and started to follow him. The vampire c aught her arm and wheeled 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 burly supporter type, looked up, then looked away. Just another loud drunk.I can take you, Jody said, not really believing it. She cherished to break loose and run.The vampire, still smiling, said, It would make an enkindle news story, wouldnt it? Pale Couple Destroys golf club in Domestic Disagreement. Shall we?Jody let go of his wrist but stayed locked on his eyes. They were black, wake no iris. What do you want?The vampire broke the stare and shook his head. itty-bitty 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 didnt think you would last this long, but alas, it must come to an end. The game has stimulate a bit too public. You have to break from the cattle now. They dont understand 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 ducky knows it.Jody started to shake. How did you get into the loft to get Tommys book?The vampire grinned again. One develops accepted talents over time. Youre still young, you wouldnt understand.Part of Jody wanted to slam her fist into his face and run, up to now another part wanted answers to all the questions that had been running through her mind 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 sombreness of having a pet is that they always die on you. At the end of the night, you are alone. Youll know that feeling very soon. make whoopie up. He turned and walked away.Jody watched him leave, relieved that he was gone, but at the same time disappoin ted. There were so many questions.She picked up the glass, smelled the liquid, and nearly gagged.The bartender snickered. I never had an order for a double of true 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 stairs 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. Chalk one up for vampire strength, she thought.She grabbed the doorman by the shoulder and swung him around. Did you see a thin, unbalanced 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 plosive before taking off the pumps and carrying them. The street was empty only the buzz of wires and the buggy 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 going to do when you catch me? he asked in a soft voice, subtile she would hear. Kill me? Break off a signpost and drive it though my heart? Rip my head from my shoulders and play instrument with it while my body flops around on the sidewalk? The vampire pantomimed flopping, rolled his eyes, and grinned.Jody said nothing. She didnt know what she was going to do. She hadnt thought about it. No, she said. How can I stop you from cleansing 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 strangely calm. by chance it was hearing the we. Maybe it was talking in a normal voice to somebody a block away. Whatever it was, she wasnt afraid, not for herself, anyway. She said, If we have to hide, why all the killings?The vampire laughed again. Di d you ever have a cat bring you a bird it had killed?Why?Presents, fledgling. Now if you are going to kill me, please do. If not, go play with your pet while you can.He turned and walked away. live Jody called. Did you pull me through the basement window?No, the vampire said without looking back. I am not interested 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 salve her.