Black Heart: Coeur de Sade (Black Heart Series) (2 page)

            Their eyes widened.  Even vampires were wary of the police.  I was no different.

            "So, have you seen two vamps together in here?  A pair of young males?"

            "Yes," he said.  He glanced at her, and she nodded reluctantly.  Vampires didn't like ratting on their own any more than teenagers.  "We saw two vampires who
might
be your rogues, over at Footlocker.  They were acting odd, but not causing trouble."

            "What do they look like?  What are they wearing?"

            "Hip hop clothes," she said.  "You know, everything oversized.  Both had one side of their head shaved, and their long black hair brushed to the other side."

            "Lots of eyeliner, too," he said with a disapproving scowl.  "And piercings."

            "Thanks," I said, and strode off down the mall.

            All my vampiric senses were on high alert.  There were a lot of people in that mall.  I was on the first floor, or level one.  All that hot, surging blood called to me.  Good thing I'd already fed.  But I'd have to feed again after this.

            Finding the rogues wasn't nearly as hard as I thought it would be.  I figured they'd be deep inside some store, cut off from my view as I passed.  But they were out in the corridor, following a young couple walking hand-in-hand.  That young couple looked like high school freshmen.  I didn't like the evil leers of the rogues.

            So I cut them off in front of Banana Republic.

            "Who the Hell do you...oh, you're one of us," the taller, skinnier vampire said.  He looked me over with growing interest.  "Cute.  Love the boots."

            "What's your name?" I said.  I prefer to know the names of the vampires I kill.

            "I'm Johnny," the shorter, stockier vampire said.

            "I'm Cody," the tall vamp said.  "Who are you?"

            "They call me Black Heart, boys," I said, pleased to see by their startled reactions that they'd heard of little ole me.  "You've been bad, bad boys."

            Security chose that time to show up.  A pair of uniformed security officers.  One looked like a chubby, curly-haired college student and the other an austere, older man.  Neither was equipped to deal with mortal punks, much less a pair of undead rogues.

            "Is there a problem?" Officer Gramps said, eyeing the two vampire boys narrowly.

            Yeah, he distracted me.  Dumb.  I know.  The next thing I knew a shopping bag of new running shoes slammed into the side of my head.  Some woman screamed.  Very annoying.

            Johnny was charging in after the shopping bag, eager to make short work of me.  He was too confident.  I knew things.  Like Krav Maga.  Israeli martial arts.  So my left arm swung up and I pushed him to the right as I spun left.  A quick kick to the side of his right knee dropped him.  He screamed, mostly in anger.  A broken knee would heal in a few minutes.

            Cody took a wild swing at me, a right cross.  He obviously had no martial arts training.  Vampires as a rule didn't need them.  I blocked that punch with my left forearm, and at the same time punched him in the throat.  Crushed his windpipe.  Painful, but not a mortal wound for a vampire.  Vampires didn't have to breathe.  But it was painful and he staggered back gagging.

            I pulled my pistol.  Blessed silver bullets hurt vampires.  Bad.  Felt like white hot coals in their bodies.  Older vamps could handle it better than the newbies.  My two boys were really going to hurting something awful.

            I carried a Beretta Px4 Storm.  Matte black.  9mm rounds.  My pistol of choice, though others in the know seemed to roll their eyes when I mentioned what I carried.  Hey, I liked them.  Damn snobs.

            "Bullets won't stop us," Johnny snarled from my right as he got to his feet.  His knee was healed enough to stand, but I doubted completely mended.

            "It's loaded with sanctified silver," I said, smiling smugly.  "Very painful.  Debilitating to a vampire, one might say."

            "Blessed silver?" he said.

            "Hai!" Cody cried, and kicked my gun hand.

            "Ah!  Shit," I said.  I know.  Potty mouth.  I was raised better than that, but since becoming a vampire I've slipped a bit.  To my surprise the pistol flew out of my hand, and straight into Johnny's belly.  A second later it was in his hand, aimed at me.  "Oh, that's not good."

            "Not for you," he said, and pulled the trigger.

            "Aaawww," I cried, staggering back.  I was struck just above the navel.  The pain was indescribable.  I hated getting shot with blessed silver more than anything else.  Then Cody kicked me in the chin, and knocked me flat on my back.  "Uuuggh."

            Cody reached down, seized me by the throat and lifted me up off the floor.  My feet kicked futilely in midair as he slowly pushed his thumbs into my windpipe.  I guess he forgot you can't kill a vamp like that.

            "Hai!" I cried, as I smashed his hands to either side and away from my throat.  At the same time I kicked straight up into his groin.  Typical Krav Maga move — defend and attack at same time.  A male vampire's balls are just as sensitive as a mortal's.  They just recover faster.  "I'm going to — "

            I was rudely interrupted by Johnny shoving my own pistol in my face.  A silver bullet to the head was the worse wound of all.  Most painful and took the longest to recover from.  It wouldn't stop or kill me, but it would hurt for a long time.

            "Don't shoot!" I cried, eyes wide with feigned fear.  I stepped back.  He followed, but his aim dropped to my chest, just an inch above my heart.  Another painful wound if shot there.  But he was too close for his own good.  I turned right suddenly, as my left hand shot up and grabbed the barrel of the pistol.  I wretched it violently, twisting the barrel towards his belly.  It came free, and a second later my right hand found the grip and trigger.  "Idiot."

            So I shot him in the heart.

            Johnny cried out and fell down.  I stepped over him, aimed for the base of his neck and pulled the trigger.  His whole body went limp when I shot out his spine.  Cody cried out, backpedaling.  I quickly pumped two rounds into Cody's belly.  Then I holstered the gun, reached down and seized Johnny's head.  "Haaa-hai!"

            With all my supernatural strength, I ripped off his head.  Hot blood sprayed me.  Women screamed.  Men shouted.  I heard a couple of people starting to retch.  Cody wailed and ran away.

            "You can't get away, bloodsucker!" I cried.

            I threw Johnny's head as far as I could down the corridor.  The police would fetch it.

            I took off after Cody.  He had problems.  I don't think either of them had ever been shot with sanctified silver before.  He was running all hunched over.  Add to that his hip hop pants were pulled way down his waist and trying to fall off.  Cody wasn't moving very fast.  Not fast enough to escape me, and I was running in heels.

            "Leave me alone!" Cody cried.  "We're both vampires!"

            "You'll have to do better than that, Abomination!"

            Cody ran into Dillard's department store.  It was packed with merchandise, much of it in elaborate displays in the middle of the wide aisles.  He ran past them, tipping them over and dodging up that aisle, down that one, doing anything he could think of to escape my pursuit.

            It didn't work.

            He turned to face me as I closed.  Trapped, he bared his fangs and hissed at me.  That kinda took me aback.  First time I'd seen a male vamp do that.  Most of the females seemed to do it out of instinct.  Including me.

            "You're a girlie boy," I said.  "And really stupid to stop right here."

            I reached over to the nearest display.  It was kitchen supplies.  Okay, a display of high end edged ware — butcher knives, meat cleavers, steak knives, etc...

            "I'm going to kill you, bitch!" he cried as I tested the edge on a meat cleaver.

            Cody wasn't the brightest monkey in the tree.  He didn't learn from his mistakes.  Another wild right cross.  I blocked it easily, and kicked him where it counted the most.  Cody retched all over my pretty thigh boots.  I mean from the knees down.  Pissed me off royally.

            I brought the meat cleaver down across his neck as he was hunched over.  That was one sharp cleaver.  One shot, and his head was bouncing on the floor.  I managed to kick the body away before it soaked me with hot blood.  So everything else within ten feet was covered in blood instead.

            The janitor was not going to be happy.

            I placed the bloody cleaver back where I found it, still dripping blood.  After picking up Cody's head, I smiled apologetically at the nearest store clerk and departed through an outside exit.  My biggest concern was getting out of there without meeting any police, and going somewhere private to get that God-blessed silver bullet out of my body.  Damn, it hurt now that I didn't have a pair of rogue vamps to worry about.

            The police were rushing into the mall entrances.  I guess they heard the gunfire and saw the people running out of the mall in terror.  I dropped Cody's head and pulled out my cell.  Powered it up, and called Sergeant Longhouse.

            "Longhouse."

            "Hello, Sable here," I said.  "Two vampires dead.  One in the corridor outside Banana Republic, the other in Dillard's.  The Dillard's body's head is outside."

            "You killed them?"

            I hesitated.  What did that mean?

            "What did you want me to do?  Read them their Miranda Rights?" I said.  "I am a vampire hunter.  I kill them.  Period.  Don't call me in, and then whine because I killed the Godforsaken bastards."

            "I'm not complaining," he said.  "Just asking."

            "Well, Longhouse...," I said as a man stepped out the door behind me.

            I glanced over my shoulder.  He pulled something out of his shirt, catching my eye.  I just wanted to ensure it wasn't a weapon or a cross.  My eyes fell on the large ruby, and suddenly I was consumed with red.

            I felt my jaw drop and my hand fall to my side as abject cold washed through me.  The phone clattered on the sidewalk at my feet.  The ruby owned my full attention.  I felt empty.

            "Well done, vampire," he said.  I didn't recognize the voice.  "I had plans for those two, but you beat me to them."  He chuckled.  It wasn't a nice, happy chuckle.  "I have decided to spare you.  This time.  If I see you again, you will die."

            I just stared at the ruby.  I couldn't move.  Hell, I could barely think.  All I felt was a sense of expectancy.  What did he want?

            "Go home, vampire.  Go home."

            I turned and headed for my motorcycle.  All I wanted to do was go home.  Nothing, no one, would stop me.

CHAPTER 2

            My eyes popped open.  Pitch black.  Coffin.

            Reaching over my head, I found the small control panel and turned on the soft LED lights.  Yep, I was inside Boney's old coffin in Desiree's basement.  I couldn't think of it as my coffin.  Desiree wanted me to, though.  She wanted me to consider her home my home.

            Wasn't going to happen.  I was already looking for a new home.  Nothing as fancy as Desiree's big Highland Park mini-mansion.  I really didn't know why she would need, or even want, such a large home.

            The coffin was as large as a twin-sized bed.  I mean huge for a coffin.  In fact, it had a twin-sized mattress in it.  A very comfortable coffin.  It also had a small flat panel TV, charger for my phone and stereo system.  There was no phone in the charger.

            Something very hot was burning my back.  I bowed my back to get some relief, and reached back to find a blessed silver bullet.  I brushed it aside, burning my fingers, and remembered being shot with my own gun the night before.  The blessed bullet had burned its way out of me.

            "What's going on?" I said.

            I sat up.  Yes, the coffin was that big.  Four foot deep, with a vaulted lid, in fact.  I could easily sit up inside it.

            First off, it was the first time I ever woke up alone in that coffin.  Since moving into her house, Desiree had shared my coffin.  Twice Desiree and another male fang whore of her acquaintance had shared it with us.

            Secondly, I was still fully dressed in the tattered and bloody clothes from the mall fight.  I never slept in my clothes, and I always changed as soon as possible when I bloodied my clothes.  I was quite fastidious about cleanliness.

            Thirdly, I didn't recall anything since calling Longhouse outside of the mall.  How did I get home?  Then I remembered...

            The ruby.

           
What the Hell was that?
I thought. 
What happened to me?

            I needed to talk to Desiree.  Maybe she had some answers.  But the lid didn't budge when I pushed it.  It was locked.  I frowned as I hit the open button, listening to the locks click open and the hiss of hydraulics.

            A platter with my breakfast was sitting beside the coffin.  Desiree had been there already.  I quickly drank my fill, then stripped out of my befouled clothes.  Both the jeans and tank top were ruined.  Desiree was good with leather, so the jacket and boots were safe.

            Naked, I looked myself over.  The blood was dried upon my body.  It was severely caked under my nails and in the cuticles of both hands.  My hair was tacky with congealed blood, too.  I felt disgusting.

            Though I really enjoyed a nice hot shower in the morning, I knew there was a better way to clean myself up.  So I changed into a wolf.  I remained a wolf a full five seconds, and was back to being human again.  Whenever I transformed like that, it left me utterly clean of all dirt, grime, blood, and makeup.  Way beyond soap and water clean.