Blood of the Gods (The Vampire from Hell Part 5) (12 page)

Conversation with Ashton (Rayea)

***

“
I'm not concerned with your liking or disliking me... All I ask is that you respect me as a human being.
” ~ Jackie Robinson

***

As Grace and I walked along the streets of China Town, we weaved through the crowds of tourists.  I enjoyed seeing the sights of my favorite city and tried to process Grace’s frantic nature.  Usually she enjoyed my joking and kidding her, but this concern she had for Lynn’s safety had my vampire senses on edge.  The fire in my blood rumbled and roared beneath my skin.  I ran my hand over two vials of gods’ blood that I had packed in my front pocket of my jeans. 
Please don’t be what I think this is
, I said to myself, struggling to dismiss the expectation that somehow Stephanie was indeed involved in the odd events at the church that Grace had been watching.  I didn’t know what time it was in New Zealand, but I decided to call Ashton anyways.  Maybe he would take my call.

“Rayea, is that you?”  Ashton’s voice seemed warm and friendly.

I sighed, hearing his voice after so long.  My celebrity romance from the past.

“Do you have a second?” I asked.

“Absolutely.  It’s late here, but I can’t sleep.  I’ve got lines to go over for my scenes tomorrow and I can’t concentrate.  Have you talked with Lynn?  I’m guessing Grace told you what is going on.”

“She did, but I haven’t spoken with Lynn yet.  She’s not answering my calls.  Grace told me you guys split up.  What happened?”

“That asshole ex-boyfriend of hers.  He persuaded her to break up with me and return to him.  He was in some accident and she felt sorry for him.  He’s gotten involved with some new friends and told her that he has changed his ways, but he’s beating her again, Rayea!  I just know it.”

I stopped walking along our path and pulled Grace into an alley away just pass Stockton Street and Grant Avenue.  “Hold on,” I said to her.

“Ashton, Grace is here with me now.  I’m going to put you on speaker phone.  Can you repeat what you just said to me please?”

We walked a few feet away from the noise of the crowd.  The line clicked over and I held my iPhone up in front of our faces.  “Go ahead, Ashton,” I repeated.

“Okay.  Thanks.  Hi, Grace.  I hope you are well.  Okay, I called her the other night and Steve was there.  She wanted to talk to me.  I know she did.  But that fuckhead told her to get off the phone.  She told me not to call her again and then he started beating her.  I know she’s in trouble.  As soon as I get back to the states, I’m going over there and getting her, even if I have to physically remove her from his place.”

“Ashton, slow down.  Do you know for certain Steve is abusing her again,” I asked.  I knew Lynn’s past with her on again, off again boyfriend Steve.  He was a waste of space and had a big drinking problem, but I didn’t want to harm him for no reason.  I wanted to make sure.

Grace grimaced at me and stabbed her finger at the phone.  “It’s true.  It’s true,” she hissed.

I motioned for her to be quiet.  “Hold on,” I whispered.

Ashton sighed over the phone.  The sound of steam coming from one of my mother’s tea kettles filled the phone’s connection.  Finally, he responded, “I have proof if you want it.”

Grace’s eyes flashed and she yelped.  Then she slapped her hand over her mouth, trying to remain quiet.

I nodded to her and, for a moment, put my hand on her shoulder.  “It’s going to be okay,” I mouthed the words silently.

Ashton continued, “I started recording our calls a month ago when I realized she was probably in danger.  I have them all on my phone.  I can email you the clip from the other night.”

Grace fist pumped the air with her hand and I grinned at her.  We both knew Steve’s tendency towards violence.

“That would be great, Ashton.  Thank you,” I replied.

“Anything I can do to help.  Hey, by the way, how are you?  It’s great to hear your voice, Rayea.  Are you okay?” he asked.

The concern in his voice startled me.  We had not really broken up, but after I had gone missing and everyone presumed I was dead, he and Lynn had started dating.  Standing there in the alley now and thinking back to a memory of our making love on a stack of wooden crates in China Town, I nearly blushed.  Ashton had been my summer romance, a time in my life when I had been carefree and frivolous.  Those days seemed so long ago.  I was happy he had found someone like Lynn.  Steve did not deserve Lynn, but Ashton did.

“If we can get Lynn away from Steve, I think I’ll be okay.  I’m sorry she broke up with you.  I hope you guys can make up.”

“Me too,” he said.

“When you get back from New Zealand, look us up.  Okay, Ashton?” Grace added.

“I’ll do that Grace.  Certainly.  You guys can come to the movie premiere too.”

“That would be great,” I said, winking at Grace, and then pointing to the phone to see if we could end the call and be on our way.

“And if you need to smack Steve around some, that’s fine by me.”

Grace laughed out loud and I grinned at her while I held the phone between us.

“Oh, count on it, Ashton,” I replied.  “We’ll make him an offer he can’t refuse,” I followed up, quoting one of his favorite movies,
The Godfather
.

“Yes,” he yelled with delight.  “Thank you both!  I’ll email that info to you right now.  I’ve got to get back to work.  Let me know when she’s safe.  Okay?”

“Okay,” I replied before ending the call.

***

As the sun set behind the Transamerica Pyramid building on Montgomery Street, the tallest skyscraper in San Francisco and just outside of the entrance to China Town, Grace showed me the apartment where Steve and Lynn were staying.  We stood across the street from a popular bar I had frequented in the past, Vesuvio’s.  The area was extremely populated and not a spot to set any building on fire if the opportunity arose.  I did not realize Steve lived above the bar because Lynn had never told me.  She did not like talking about her relationship with the guy.

“He lives upstairs.  How do you think we can get in and get her out?” Grace asked me.  She was already processing a plan of escape for Lynn.

We were about to cross the street and sneak around to the alley behind the bar when Steve walked out of Vesuvio’s.

Grace lurched forward, but I grabbed her by the shoulder.  “Wait, let’s be sensible,” I said, pulling her behind a large tree growing in a planter on the sidewalk where we could be hidden.  I handed her a vial of blood.  She watched as I drank my vial.  The rush of the blood of the gods rolled over me in rapid waves of satisfaction.  It was a feeling I still could not get used to.  I reached out for the tree to steady myself and breathed in deeply. 
Slow and easy now.

“It’s okay.  Go ahead,” I said.

She took the vial and drank the contents as well.  “Holy shit, that’s strong!”

I grabbed her when she almost sank to her knees.

Immediately, she recovered and looked at me.  Her bright green eyes, same as mine, flashed and gleamed.

Once the light in her eyes returned to normal, I shared with her my plan of attack.

“We’re going to be nice and casual about this.  We’ll just walk up to the door and let ourselves in.  I don’t want to kill this guy unless we absolutely have to.  Not by flames.  No flames at all.  We’ll burn the whole block down and I don’t think we want that.  It’s got to be some other way.”

Grace nodded.  “No biting either,” she added.  “He looks drunk.”

“Agreed,” I added as we watched Steve climb the stairs next to the bar.  Clearly, he had been drinking because he staggered up the steps.  “You’re right,” I said to Grace as we observed him.  “We don’t want his blood in our system.”

“Can we knock him out maybe?”

“That might work.  I hope Lynn’s there in the apartment.  Let’s see if just knocking him out will work.  But our number one priority is to get Lynn and leave.  Okay?”

“Deal,” Grace said.

When I heard my phone chime, I realized that must be Ashton’s email.  “Grace, wait.”

We listened to the recorded phone conversation.

“Who are you talking to?!”

“Look, Ashton, I have to go.  Have a great life, okay?”

“Lynn, wait.  Wait!  Don’t hang up.”

“Who is that?  Who are you talking to?  Give me the phone!

“Who is this?  Who are you?  You can’t talk to my girlfriend, you fuck!”

“You hear me?  You fuck!  I know who you are.

“You leave her alone.  She doesn’t love you!”

“I’ll kill him,” Grace said as she stepped out onto the street, headed to Steve’s apartment above the bar.

Lynn’s Notebook

***

“
We are here it seems, to be transformed, and transformed again, and again and again.
”

~ Michael Cunningham

***

October 31
st
.  Apartment.

I need a miracle.

I’m surrounded by chaos and insanity.  Steve has gone bonkers.  Drinking.  Drinking.  Drinking.  And more drinking.  I can’t believe it.  And the friends.  Oh my god, his new friends are nuts.  I really should get out of here.  It’s no longer safe.  It really isn’t.

“Be quiet in there.  I can hear you scribbling.  Stop it!” Steve yells.

“Yes, dear.  Anything you say, dear.  Can I get you another drink?”

“No!  Shut up!  I have plenty.  Nathan is sending over another case.  T will deliver it soon.  Just shut up.  I’m trying to concentrate!  They like it when I sing to them.”

I have decided to let Steve drink himself to death.  Since it is Halloween, he has started early.  If he passes out soon, maybe I can sneak out.  The front door is the only way out now.  He has barred up all the windows.  Since we are on the second floor, it doesn’t matter.  I have to escape by the stairs.  Even the emergency exit has been shut off.  That happened the night he brought his pets home.  His new lover he calls her, his pet snake, Dandy, an albino boa constrictor.  I can’t stand to watch him with it.  I hear things now and again when he handles them, but I can’t open the door.  When he’s gone, the door remains locked.

“If I charm her, Nathan said I can keep her.  I can keep all of them,” Steve yells again.

“That’s nice, honey,” I reply, hearing his voice from the other room.  I don’t know what he’s thinking.  Who can charm a snake?  Maybe it’ll bite him and I’ll be able to throw both him and his dead snake off the balcony.

This stupidity has got to stop.  At least the beatings aren’t as frequent as they were.  He is too busy with his snakes.  I am happy about that.  I guess it’s not so bad.  I should have known I could not be friends with the likes of Rayea and Grace.  Steve is right.  They are out of my league and that’s fine.  But I don’t want friends like Steve’s.  Pot heads who get high and handle snakes.  I’m fine in my room when that shit starts up.  I don’t think it’s very nice to blow smoke in an animal’s face either, even if it is a slimy snake.  Oh well.

Grace’s Diary

***

“
When I was 16... I worked in a pet store. And they fired me because... they had three snakes in there, and one day I braided them.
”
~
Steven Wright

***

I was ready to spit fire the moment Rayea shape-shifted into a cloud of mist and eased under the door of Steve’s apartment.  If there were any way I could get my hands around Steve’s neck, I’d kill him for sure.  Rayea’s shape-shifting powers amazed me and I wanted to learn how to achieve them.

She unlatched the door and swung it open.  Motioning for me to be quiet, she let me in.  It didn’t take us long to find Steve.  He was sprawled out on the living room floor, dead.  A pile of snakes, about a dozen were slipping and sliding over him, biting him again and again, even though his face and extremities had ballooned up and turned blue.

“Looks like Steve is no longer an issue,” I said to Rayea.

She laughed.  “Looks like it.  Check the rooms and see if you can find her.”

“Lynn!  Lynn!” I called.  As I turned to search down the hallway for Lynn, Rayea began killing the snakes.  I heard the zap and pop of a fireball whiz and zing as she targeted the head of each snake.  “Better throw some water on em when you are done,” I announced.

“Will do,” she yelled back.

“I’m here.  Here!”

When I heard Lynn’s cries behind the last door at the end of the hall, I tried the doorknob.  I pressed my ear to the door.  “Lynn, are you okay?  It’s me, Grace.  Rayea and I are here to get you.”

“Where’s Steve?” she shouted back through the door.

“Dead on the living room floor.”

“Excellent,” she sang.  “Get me out of here!”