Midnight Squad: The Grim (46 page)

           
Penny grumbled a bit, and she tried for a few more
moments to be the scary vampire, but when she realized we weren’t buying it she
growled, “Okay, I like skunks. They are cute, cuddly, and awesome! I’m sorry to
disappoint you all, but I love skunks. They are amazing animals, and if you
give me any crap about this…” Danika wrapped her arms around the little
vampire, then Katy, and even Janine. She just stood frozen in the middle of a
big group hug. She certainly hadn’t expected this moment of…sisterhood, and the
relief showed in her face. Penny just soaked in all the affection. The only one
that wasn’t a part of it was Ally. She just stared at us menacingly.

           
Penny finally snapped back to reality and hissed, “What
are you
people
doing?” Nobody gave an inch, we all
called her bluff. I said, “We’re hugging you. You’re part of our family. We
aren’t going to think less of you just because you let us see you for who you
are. That’s not how family works. You let us see the real you, and we love you
for it. You should try it more often.” Penny sniffled a little then hugged us
back, and then Danika hugged harder. It was a touching moment, but for the
record, never be in the middle of a vampire werewolf hug. Katy and I were
gasping for air before Penny and Danika realized they were slowly crushing us.

           
Penny put the painting and the skunk back in the
backpack, and we started walking down the road. We needed to find a room, we
need money, and we need new transportation. The owner would be reporting her
van stolen soon so we just left it. I took one more look at myself as we were
walking and froze. Everyone else stopped and looked at me. I growled, “Katy.”

           
“Yes?” She sounded nervous.

           
“Can I ask you a question?”

           
“Yes?”

           
“Where is all my body hair?”

           
“Oops! Oh shit! I’m sorry about that. I should have been
more careful. In my defense, I was drunk.” She apologized.

           
“It will grow back right?” I asked.

           
“…”

           
“Right?!?!”

           
“There’s no need to yell. I’m sure it’ll grow
back…eventually. You still have your hair on your head, and your eyebrows.”
Katy didn’t sound particularly confident about that. The other girls started
snickering again.

           
I pulled my shorts open and took a quick peak, “Oh shit!
I look like a ten year old boy down there now.”

           
Penny laughed, “Oh come on Grim, I’m sure it’s not that
small.”

           
Janine joined in, “Either that or Grim knows some really
well-endowed ten year olds.”

           
Danika jumped right in, “Grimmy knows well-endowed ten
year olds? Grim is there something you’ve been keeping a secret? Do we need to
keep you away from schools, and parks?”

           
I started to open my mouth, but Danika interrupted, “I’m
just angry because that means he’s got all the good candy, and he’s been
holding out on us.” They all started laughing. I just gave up and grumbled to
myself. There were five of them and one of me, so I guess I’d better get used
to them ganging up on me. I kept grumbling under my breath until Penny finally
gave me a hug and a gentle kiss on the cheek. “You’re a good man, do you know
that?” I kissed her forehead, “No, I’m not good…but I’m trying.”

           
We found a hotel. Of course with our current financial
situation it was one room in the cheapest, nastiest hotel ever. When we flipped
on the light, the cockroaches didn’t scatter. They just turned to face us, and
seemed to say, “Fuck you…this is my house! I’ll cut you!” I half expected a few
of them to be carrying switchblades.

 
After we settled in, I made everyone that had
family call them. They were in just as much danger as we were. Danika called
her parents. Her father said he’d keep them safe, and he wanted her to come
back to the pack as soon as possible. Danika was nervous about that, but she
calmed down when he explained he just wanted to see her because it had been so
long. He had to promise her twice that he wasn’t going to make her stay. She
promised she’d come back, and even said she might bring us to meet them. Then
they said their “I love you and their goodbyes.”

           
When she finished Danika looked up at me and said, “Dad
said that they have satellite T.V. and you are all welcome to visit, and we can
even have the remote while we’re there.” I must have looked confused because
she explained, “We’ve never had a television. We are more of the outdoorsy types.
In some ways werewolf packs are a lot like the Amish. We just don’t have a lot
of use for electronic stuff in general. We do many things outdoors, and we like
to play and socialize together. Apparently we’re catching up with the times.
It’s kind of strange to think I’m missing all that. He was even helping mom
cook, and that’s just weird. Males usually never do anything but hunt, work,
and…well you can probably guess that other thing.” I just shrugged my
shoulders. I didn’t know what to tell her. Maybe even werewolves have to adapt.

           
Penny called her parents. She took the phone into another
room. Whatever they were about to discuss wasn’t something she wanted us to
hear. It was about a half an hour before she came back out. She didn’t look
happy. “I’ve been ordered back home.” I stared in shock. She came over and
hugged me, “I have to go. Otherwise they will come looking for us, and that
won’t end well for any of you.” I felt like my whole world just burnt to ash. I
could feel the tears welling up in my eyes. Penny looked up and kissed me, “It
doesn’t mean I can’t come back. I just have to go for a while until I can
persuade them that it’s okay for me to be here. It might just be a few days,
maybe a week at most.”

           
“Maybe I could come with you?” I asked. I didn’t want to
lose her, not even for a little bit. She shook her head and hugged me again,
“No. Father wouldn’t like you. He wouldn’t like you one bit.” I tensed, and she
just laughed, “Silly man, if my father liked you then I certainly wouldn’t.”
She kissed me one last time before leaving the hotel and walking off. I guess
she needed to think, or something. I was angry that they were taking her away,
and desperate. So I did what I always do when I’m angry and desperate…something
stupid.

           
I hit redial. It rang a few times, and then some man with
a very strange accent answered, “Yes?” I tried to sound as calm as I could, but
I know the desperation was just oozing out with every word. “May I speak to
Penny’s father please?” The man cleared his throat and asked me if I knew what
number I’d dialed. I snapped, “I need to talk to Penny’s father!
Now asshole!”
I was strangling the phone. The man cursed
back at me and then said, “This is Kung Fu Wok. We make Chinese food asshole.
Now go fuck yourself!” I heard the phone click. He hung up. I just glared at
the phone. Finally, I tossed the phone over to Katy so she could call anyone
she needed to and went looking for Penny.

           
Penny hadn’t wandered far. I found her crying behind the
hotel. “Ok? Care to explain why when I hit redial I get a Chinese restaurant?”
Penny was startled, which is almost impossible to do. Clearly she’d been
seriously distracted by whatever she was thinking. She scurried to her feet,
and started moving away from me. “I can’t do it. Grim I just can’t do it!” I
stood my ground and waited for an explanation. Finally, she sobbed, “I can’t
deal with all of you. Don’t you understand how hard it is for me to be so close
to all of you? I can’t hide like this. I have to have time to relax, and having
every one of you around me makes it next to impossible to be me for a while. I
could fake it when I had a place to go to where there were no prying eyes. I’m
sorry Grim, but I just can’t pretend that I’m what you all think I am twenty
four seven.”

           
“How do you think we see you?” I asked. I felt my teeth
grinding in anger. Penny took another step back and cried, “You all think I’m
perfect. I know that. I have to be perfect. It’s how I survive. I stay alive by
being so perfect in everything so that no one ever questions anything. I have
to know when to blend in, and when to stand out. It’s how vampires have existed
so long. You saw my stuff. You know how much time I spend just learning trends,
and fashions. I have to keep up with everything, or I might stick out at the
wrong time, and then someone might kill me. Have you ever considered just how
fine a line I have to walk to keep you people satisfied? I have to walk a
perfect balance between being human enough that you won’t be afraid, and being
scary enough as a vampire that you won’t pry. Now I don’t even have a sanctuary
to be myself. I have to get out of here Grim. You’re all closing in on me, and
I love all of you. Well except for that Jinn. You’ve all become like a second
family to me, and if I stay around I’ll hurt all of you.”

           
“No you won’t. What makes you say that?” I took a step
closer, and she took two more steps away. “Grim. I’m a vampire because my
father is a vampire. He loved all of us so much that he couldn’t bear to walk
the earth without us. So he made us what we are. You’ve felt what my venom
does, and you have to know the pure sexual arousal that we get when one of us
sinks our fangs into one of you. Don’t you understand? My father made me…can
you even begin to fathom just how screwed up I am because of that?” She was
screaming at me and crying at the same time. My heart just hurt for her. I
didn’t want to startle her. She seemed so skittish, but I couldn’t stop myself
from comforting her. I ran to her and fell to my knees. My arms wrapped around her
waist and I buried my face into her breasts. I was aiming for her stomach, but
I’m a lot taller than she is. “I’m so sorry about everything that you went
through. Forgive me for not being sorry that it happened, because otherwise I’d
have never known you. I love you. If you have to go then I can’t stop you, but
please take me.”

           
Penny’s hand touched my cheek, “Grim? You can’t mean
that?”

           
“I do. If you’ll have me, I’ll go anywhere you want. I
just want to be with you.” The floodgates opened up and I was the one crying
now. “I don’t love you because of the act you put up. I love the person. If you
have to act around everyone else then fine, but be yourself with me. I love
you. I know what I’ve seen when you think no one’s paying attention. I love
that woman, er…vampire.” My arms held tight around her waist. She finally
pulled my arms from her and stood me up.

           
“Are you saying you want to be like me? Do you want to be
a vampire?” She asked, her whole body trembling nervously. “No, I don’t want to
be a vampire. I want to be just the way I am, but I want to be beside you. I
don’t want to have to become something else just so you can love me. Just like
I want you to just be yourself and let me love you.”

           
Penny leaped onto me, pinning me onto the ground. “Is this
what you want? Don’t you know I can tear you apart on a whim? What if I decide
one day that I don’t love you anymore? What if I decide I want you just for
food instead? Don’t you realize how razor thin the difference is between food
and friend for things like me?” I wrapped my arms around her again, “I don’t
think that’s how love works. I’m pretty sure you don’t get to decide when you
are in or out of love. You only get to decide if you’ll act on it. But either
way…I trust you.”

           
Penny’s bottom lip trembled. She fought against a sob,
but there were no tears. It required mental effort to do simple things like
making tears, and she was so upset that the color was fading from her skin. The
life was just fading away from her body. She was forgetting to make herself
look normal by doing things like making her heart pump blood, and her breathing
had stopped early into this conversation. “You…you really do love me don’t
you?”

           
“With all of my heart, and most of my spleen, but I think
one of my testicles has a thing for Katy.”

           
“Oh shut up you big idiot!” She kissed me, and we both
lost ourselves in the moment. I lifted up and put her onto her back. We fumbled
with our clothes, but eventually we were able to get them moved out of the way
so that I could enter her. There was no foreplay. There were no whispered words
of love to coax one another’s desire. There was only need, and rough
animalistic rutting. The gravel scratched up my arms and legs, and it had to be
shredding her back with every pump of my hips.

           
We couldn’t stop, and just kept going as fast and as hard
as possible. Her nails ripped down my back. My flip flops kept slipping all
over my feet until I finally kicked them off. Now I could plant my feet and get
some real traction with every surge into her. I slid my hand up under her shirt
and lifted her bra up so that I could feel her nipple harden in my palm.
Without any warning, I bit down on the side of her neck and heard her fangs
snap open as she moaned. My hips took on a mind of their own and I kept
slamming into her at a hellish pace. Each thrust was an attempt to get even
deeper. I finally got enough control of my faculties that I looked her in the
eyes. They were blood red with black centers. She was as out of control as I was,
and that turned me on even more. Clearly, we both still had issues, but what a
way to start working them out. I gripped her hip with my other hand so that I
could get her to quit sliding across the gravel with every thrust, and held her
in place and while working like a piston.