Dark Corner (46 page)

David picked out the column against which his father had
leaned when he took the photograph. In spite of everything
he'd learned since he'd found the picture in the living room,
he wasn't much closer to understanding his father. He wondered whether it mattered anymore.

The front door of the mansion was like the entrance to a
vault.

"Here goes nothing," Mac said. He twisted the doorknob.

The door creaked open, like a parody of every haunted
house that had ever existed in a movie. A wall of blackness
greeted them.

They turned on their flashlights and stepped inside.

They were at the mouth of a long hallway. A spiral staircase was on the right, the ornate wooden railing dressed in
cobwebs. On the left, an arched doorway led into a sitting
room full of old upholstered furniture. Melted white candles
were spaced throughout the hallway and the rooms.

The stench of rotted wood and mildew clotted the air.
Underneath those odors, David detected, faintly, the coppery
scent of blood.

His stomach tightened.

"Hey, there's a tape player up here" Mac indicated a device sitting on a wooden table in the hallway. He shone his
flashlight over it; it was a small cassette recorder housed in
black casing. "There's a note on here. It says, `Play Me.' "

"Go ahead," David said.

Mac pressed the Play button. David and the others crowded
closer.

Static crackled from the speaker. Then came the crisp,
slightly accented voice of Kyle, the vampire.

"Good evening, David Hunter and friends! My father and
I had foreseen that it would not be long before you and your
crew of intrepid adventurers made an expedition to our temporary residence. We had grown tired of the visits by your
meddlesome kin, and have therefore found another sanctuary.

"Ah, David Hunter my dear mother has built a fence
around you. But my father grows more powerful with each
passing hour, and when he makes himself known to the
world, tonight, not even my ancient mother will be able to
protect you from my father's fury. Nor my fury, I might add.
Your ancestor shut my father away from me for all of my
life, and for that, you are responsible and bear the burden of
your ancestor's trespass against us. We promise you a fate
worse than death.

"And Nia James-how endearing that you are standing
by your man. But I've decided to seek a vampire bride, and
you would be a fine choice. Consider it carefully, my ladyor follow your doomed man to his demise.

"Chief Van Jackson-finally shaken off the crippling fear,
have you? I reached inside your puny brain before and shaped
it as a sculptor manipulates clay. To do so again would be
simple. But that would be too gentle a punishment for you. We have something better in mind. Make provisions for your
son, we advise.

"To all of you: you will not defeat us. My father lived as a
mighty warrior in Africa during his time as a man, and since
then, his prowess in battle has advanced to greater heights
than your mortal minds can fathom. Your wisest course of
action would be for you to leave this town, but that would
provide only a temporary respite, I must caution. Mason's
Corner is only the beginning for us, the launch pad of a bold
mission that will carry us around the world.

"By the way, before you leave the premises, please visit
the cellar. In our absence, one of your friends would enjoy
the pleasure of your company.

"We eagerly anticipate meeting you tonight.

"Until then, adieu."

Trembling, David shut off the cassette recorder. Jackson
and Nia looked furious. The faces of the others were taut
with resolve.

"To the basement," David said.

Jahlil hated being cooped up at the police station.

Yeah, Dad wanted to keep him safe and away from the
dangerous action that might go down tonight, but Jahlil wasn't
some little kid. He wasn't helpless. He knew how to use
guns, and he knew what these vampires were all about. He
should be out in the streets, not penned up in here with these
other people who didn't know what the hell was going on.
These people were glad that they were on the team that
would only get called in for backup. Cowards.

He had to get away from them. He and Poke were in the
tiny room in the back of the station. The room was full of
dusty files and papers. Poke was playing a Gameboy. Jahlil
was flipping through one of Deputy Dudu's tabloids. Dudu
had been a goofy dude, but he'd wanted to do the right thing.
Jahlil missed him.

In the main room out front, Jahlil heard the team members talking on the phone and speculating amongst themselves about what might happen that night. Boring, pointless
conversation. Jahlil needed to be taking action.

"Hey, man," Jahlil said to Poke. "We should break out of
here"

"For what? I kinda like chillin' here. I don't want to be in
the middle of no shit, know what I'm saying?"

"I want to be in the streets doing something, not laying
up in here like a coward. You know how to use a gun, man.
Your dad used to take you hunting."

Poke shrugged. "That was a long time ago. And it don't
matter, 'cause I don't wanna get bit by some motherfucking
vampire mutt like T-Bone did."

"Don't punk out on me, Poke. I need you to have my back
on this. We gotta go out there and do some damage. Get
some revenge for what they did to T-Bone"

Poke sighed. "Why you gotta be a hero? T-Bone's one of
them now; he might be coming after us."

"Then we owe it to him to put him out of his misery,"
Jahlil said. He stood and threw the magazine on the floor.
"I'm rolling out, with or without you"

Poke looked as though he wanted to hurl his Gameboy
against the wall. "Dammit, J, you a crazy motherfucker, you
know that? You been watching too many movies. You gonna
get us both killed."

Jahlil shrugged and walked out of the room.

Behind him, he heard Poke's chair scrape against the floor.

He smiled to himself. Poke could complain all he wanted,
but there was no way he would abandon Jahlil. They were
like brothers.

Out in the office, the patrol team sat around talking, looking nervous.

Jahlil walked to his father's desk like he owned the place
and pulled open a drawer. He fished out a set of keys.

"Hey, where you going, little man?" one of the men said.
Jahlil recognized the guy from the ball courts. His name was
Bobby. He had a long, dripping Jheri curl, a gold tooth, and
always wore faded basketball jerseys.

"Me and my boy got some business to handle." Jahlil
walked toward the door, where Poke waited.

"Hold on, the chief said you were supposed to stay here
with us," Bobby said. "I'm telling."

"Don't be a punk" Jahlil pushed open the door. "Later,
people."

Dad had parked his pickup in the corner of the parking
lot. Jahlil unlocked the doors and climbed in, and Poke rode
shotgun.

The engine revved up with a roar. Although Jahlil did not
have a driver's license, he had learned how to drive when he
was twelve years old. He grasped the manual gearshift with
confidence.

"Where we going?" Poke said.

"We're gonna drop by my crib to pick up some guns, and
make some of those Molotov cocktails," Jahlil said. "Then,
we're going vampire hunting."

The door to the basement awaited them.

David could only imagine what they would find down
there. Vampires? Corpses? Demon dogs? There was no way
to tell. The house was as silent as a morgue.

"Why are we going down there?" Ben whispered. "We
know the head vampires are gone, and they're the ones we
want. I'm telling you, we're walking into a trap"

"Could be a citizen down there, sick," Jackson said.
"We're the law in this town, y'all. We've go to do our duty to
protect and serve"

"The guy on the recording said a friend of ours was waiting for us in the cellar," Tanya said. "It has to be someone
that we know."

"Speculating isn't gonna do us any good," Mac said.
"We've got to charge down there and take control. Act like
soldiers." He grasped the doorknob.

"Be careful with old Suzie, Mac," David said. "We don't
want to set the house on fire. Not with us in here"

Mac grunted by way of reply. He pulled open the door.

A swamp of darkness lay below. A horrible stench roiled
from the room, too. When he was a kid, David had once discovered a dead squirrel that had gotten snared in an attic
crevice, and this stink was similar, only stronger. He tried to
keep from gagging, but a couple other team members
coughed, and Ben cursed softly.

Mac slid his hand across the wall inside the doorway. He
flipped a switch, but no light came on.

"Gimme some light, guys," Mac said. "Get those weapons
ready, people. It's show time."

They brandished their guns. Ben shone his flashlight over
Mac's shoulder, exposing concrete walls festooned with
cobwebs, and a narrow flight of wooden steps.

Mac began to descend the stairs, the tip of the flamethrower emitting a faint glow. The steps creaked under his
weight.

In tight formation, Ben followed Mac; then Tanya, David,
Nia, Bertha, and Jackson. David felt Nia's hot breath on the
back of his neck, and the sensation was absurdly arousing.
This was a hell of a time to be thinking about sex-

"Holy shit," Mac said. He was at the bottom of the staircase. "Chief, you ain't gonna like this."

The rest of them joined Mac below. And saw what he
meant.

On the other side of the basement, revealed in the flashlights, Deputy Ray Dudu hung from a ceiling pipe-hung
from his ankles. His eyes were closed. His gangly arms were
crossed over his chest. He looked like a grotesque human
bat.

He still wore his police uniform. The shirt was stained
with blood.

Id rather die than become something like that, David thought. He felt as if he were viewing a spectacle at a carnival freak show.

Suspended from the pipe, Dudu swung back and forth,
slowly, as if rocked by a gentle breeze.

"What wrong with him?" Ben said.

"He's a vampire," Jackson said. He stepped forward.
"Pearl said he was dead. I know what she meant now. He
ain't human no more. Old Mac, do it."

Mac wiped sweat from his brow. "Chief, he kinda looks
like a man. I don't know about this."

Dudu's eyes opened.

Someone screamed.

The creature who had once been Ray Dudu launched forward, flying across the room and into their midst. The team
scattered; David grabbed Nia's arm and pulled her away
from the melee. Flashlights clattered against the floor, light
beams swerving crazily around the room. As David fumbled
with his gun, a man screamed, and in a strobe of light he saw
the vampire crushing Ben in a bear hug. The vampire savagely bit into the man's neck.

"Mac, hit him with the flamethrower!" David said.

"Damn thing won't light up!" Mac said. David heard a
frantic clicking sound.

Come on, come on, come on, David thought. He had pressed
himself against the cold wall. He gripped Nia's arm tightly.
She was panting, too.

Another shriek a woman. David raised the flashlight,
moved it around, and captured the vampire in the act of tearing into Bertha's jugular vein.

"Someone, shoot him!" David said. He raised his gun.

But Jackson was first. Across the cellar, he fired his .357.
The bullet hit the fiend in the chest. The vampire stepped
backward, stumbled, but did not fall.

"How could you shoot a fellow officer?" the vampire said.
Its voice was raspy. It bared its fangs. "I never liked you,
Chief Jackass"

Jackson nailed the vampire with another bullet, this one
in the head. It staggered against the wall, but it would not go
down. Rage and inhuman hunger blazed in its reddened
eyes.

"Ready, get back!" Mac shouted. He aimed the flamethrower at the vampire. A jet of flames spat out of the
weapon with a whoosh!

The blast of heat sizzled the sweat on David's face.

Engulfed in fire, the creature screeched. It dropped to the
floor and rolled, as though to extinguish the flames.

"Hit him again, Mac," Jackson said.

Mac punished the vampire with another stream of fire.

The flames consumed the monster as though it were
made of dry rags. Howling, flailing its limbs, the vampire
struggled, but could not defeat the ravenous fire.

Finally, the creature lay still and quiet. Rancid gray smoke
steamed from the corpse.

David prodded the corpse with his foot. The vampire did
not move.

He looked around. Ben and Bertha lay on the floor, having collapsed after being bitten. Jackson, Mac, Tanya, and
Nia appeared as if they had crawled through hell and back.

They had only just begun. It was going to get much worse
before the night was over.

"Well, team," David said. "We've killed our first vampire."

Junior regretted that he had been assigned to the hospital.