Never Have A Vampire's Baby (10 page)

              As she neared the back of the shack, she saw that the door was wide open. Kim stopped just before she rounded the corner, looking around wildly for some kind of explanation; there were no other trails, though, so she knew she had to suck it up and go in.
Why did I do this? Why didn’t I just call the cops and report him missing? They have vampires on the force.

              But she was here now, and there was an irresistible compulsion compelling her forward. Kim needed to see what was in that shack, or she would have come here for nothing. Whether or not Luke was lying dead in there, this was the reason she had come out, and she hated waste almost as much as she hated being ordered around. Kim steeled herself, took a deep breath, and trotted over to the doorway, ready to run into the shack with only the brights of her car shining on its walls for light.

              She ran straight into Luke, hogtied, gagged and suspended from the doorway, his face a mask of horror at first. Then his eyes focused on her face, and his eyes widened as he started to shout through his gag.

              “Ssh!” Kim said, still not sure why quiet was so important. She pulled out the small pocket knife she had brought along and started sawing through the ropes, working as quickly as she could as her hands trembled like leaves in the wind. Luke kept grunting, and she dropped the knife once, but after two tense minutes, he collapsed to the dirt, tugged his arms loose, and ripped out the cloth gag.

              “Kim,” he said hoarsely, but she knelt in the sand and pressed a hand to his lips, wincing at how raw they looked.

              “Let’s get out of here,” she said quietly.

              Luke shook his head, looking lost and broken. “It was a trap,” he said.

              Kim hooked her shoulder under his arm and boosted him up, glad, for once, that she had some kind freakish vampire strength from the bond. “I know, baby.”

              Luke was still shaking his head. “Kim, he’s in there. He might not be dead yet.”

              She looked at him, trying to figure out if she’d missed a word or two. “Who?”

              A long, shaky breath issued from the shack just as Luke answered. “Anton.”

              Kim stared at him for a second, unable to believe her ears. “You said he was dead.”


              Luke shook his head again. “Trap,” he said weakly. He nodded in the direction of the shack, his eyes pleading. Kim paused, then helped him walk in, painfully aware of how dark it was when they got inside.

              The dark was merciful, because whatever had happened to Anton had not been pretty. One of his legs looked deboned, and the other was bent out and to the side as though it had been snapped at the knee. Anton was gasping for air, his chest oddly sunken in, one of his arms attempting to reach for them both. Kim knelt beside him and grabbed his hand without thinking, Luke flanking him on the other side.

              “Anton,” Kim whispered. “What happened?”

              Anton looked at Luke, who struggled to speak normally.

              “They told him I was dead,” he said flatly. “Got him to the shack, same way they got me. He got here first, and they….did
something
to him” Luke said. “I think they meant to kill him, but then I showed up.”

              Kim’s blood ran cold. “You saw them? You saw the killer?”

              Luke shook his head. “They had a hood, and a bandana around their face,” he said. “Attacked me, knocked me out immediately. I came to, and they were speaking through one of those voice modulators.” His eyes were blank, and Kim realized he was in shock.  “They told me I would watch Anton die. Then they said they were calling someone else, and that person would watch
me
die.”

              Kim fought the urge to vomit. “Why did they leave?”

              “To call,” Luke said simply. “I don’t know who. I don’t even know if they really called anyone.”

              Kim was looking down at Anton, panicked by his immense pain and the realization that she could do nothing about it. “Do you think they’re coming back?”

              Luke shrugged. “I heard running. Then you pulled up.”

              Kim groaned.
I probably drove right past them.

              Both vampires tensed at the same time, and Luke turned toward the door, trying to stand. Kim helped him, looping an arm around his waist, and was surprised when he found the strength to step in front of her.
Vampires heal so quickly.

              “Footsteps,” Anton croaked.

              By the time they were just outside the shack, Kim heard them, too. She gripped her pocketknife, dimly aware that it would be useless against whatever kind of creature it was. Luckily, it was another vampire and not a monster.

              “Holy shit!” Sonia’s face was the picture of disbelief. She looked around the shack, unable to settle on anyone. “Oh my God –
Luke? Anton
! Kimberly--what--?”

              “Anton needs healing,” Luke said hurriedly. “Help me. I’ll explain.”

              Kim was more than confused as they both dove to the floor and lifted a floorboard. Luke reached in and brought out what looked like an IV pack filled with blood, and Sonia had an identical one in her hand. She watched as Sonia placed both hands over Anton’s midsection and screwed up her eyes; Luke broke the IV open and started to dribble blood into Anton’s mouth. The temperature in the shack started to creep up, causing Kim to unzip her hoodie and start to fan herself with her hands.

              They’re using their auras to heal him,
she realized.
Thank God.

              Anton’s eyes grew clearer and brighter and Sonia looked up at Kim and then back to Luke. “Want to tell me what’s going on here? I got a call saying two of my vampires are dead. I get here and there’s two living vampires and a human, clearly worse for the wear.”

              “It was a trap,” Luke said grimly. “Anton and I got the same call, regarding each other. They ambushed both of us. Anton only survived because I stumbled upon him while the thing was trying to kill him.”

              Sonia frowned. “Thing? So it looked like an animal?”

              On the ground, Anton was shaking his head and trying to speak,  but Sonia shushed him.

              “He was humanoid,” Luke said. “Human-like eyes, at least. No trace of vampirism.”

              “Did he speak?” Sonia said. “The voice I heard sounded weird. Too gravelly.”

              “Modulator,” Luke answered. “He’s covering his tracks well.”

              “Shit,” Sonia muttered. She looked at Kim. “Look, I hate to ask this, but none of our homes are safe right now. Leshaun was killed in his own home, and I think they know where the rest of us live. Could Anton and I bunk with you until he’s ready to get back on his feet again?”

              Luke stared at Sonia incredulously. “Are you kidding? Kim and Evan don’t need to be exposed to this--”

              “They’re already exposed,”  Sonia shot back. “You don’t think this guy knows all about them already? They’ll be safer with two healthy vampires in their home. And one healing one,” she added. “Who will soon be healthy.” Sonia squeezed one of Anton’s hands.

              “No,” Luke said heatedly. “No way. Not after--”

              Kim cleared her throat, and they all looked up at her.

              “I have a sofabed and a cot,” she said. “You can stay with us.”

              Luke glared at her, and she glared right back. “Sonia is right. We’re already in this, Luke. Besides, don’t you think you owe me a little bit of autonomy by now? I saved your life,” she said angrily.

              Luke’s face softened, and he looked ashamed. “Yes. Yes, of course, Kim. You’re right.” He sounded defeated, but Kim tried not to feel guilty. She
was
right, after all.

              “Okay,” she said, clapping her hands together. “Let’s get this show on the road.”

***

              Daisy fled as soon as Kim pulled into her parking space, looking venomously at the car full of vampires. Kim had called ahead to give her warning, but she hadn’t expected her to leave so suddenly. After Kim got Anton and Sonia set up in the living room, she led Luke into her bedroom to lie down, thankful that Evan was such a heavy sleeper.

              She stood over his crib, gazing at his peaceful face as he slept. How close had she come to being killed tonight? What would have happened to Evan? She was sure Suzanna would want to help take care of him, but she’d never ask her to give up her life to raise a child. Her parents were retired, and there was no way she’d ask them to raise
another
child. Her cousins were too estranged. Kim sighed. Her brother and Daisy were the only people fit to take care of Evan, and likely the only people who would be happy to take him. It wasn’t the best choice, but it wasn’t the worst.

              Hands encircled her waist from behind, and she relaxed into Luke’s strong embrace, feeling the tension start to drain out of her body as his lips touched her neck. She smiled.
Is this what a soul mate is? Always in sync, magnifying all our emotions, showing up in the nick of time?

              “Thank you,” he said in her ear. “I wouldn’t be alive right now if it weren’t for you. Thank you, Kim.”

              She turned around and wrapped her arms around his neck, pleased to see that he looked perfectly healthy again. “You’re not mad?”

              “No!” Luke said. He paused. “Are you mad?”

              Kim sighed. “That was a dirty trick you played on me. I didn’t like it, but I understand why you did it. Don’t do it again, please.”


              “I won’t,” Luke promised. He kissed her, and Kim had to try very hard to calm her body as his hands drifted up and down her curves, gracefully avoiding her round backside with visible restraint.

              “I love you,” he said simply.

              Kim pressed her nose to his. “I love you, too.”

              “Ahem.”

              They both jumped and separated, looking at an embarrassed Sonia in the doorway of their bedroom.

              “Sorry. I have some pertinent information,” she said. “Anton remembered something.”

              Luke’s whole demeanor changed. “What is it?”

              “Just a general description,” Sonia said. “And this is shocking. She’s human.”

              Luke gawked. “
She?”

              “Human?” Kim echoed.

              Sonia smiled grimly and nodded. “Yep. About 5’5, 145 pounds.”

              “Anything else?” Luke asked breathlessly.

              Sonia read from a small notebook. “Uh...freckles. Girlish voice. Painted red nails. She had a face like a rat – slim, pointed, almost pinched. Red hair. No,” she corrected. “Red-orange, heavy on the orange. Like a carrot. Green eyes.” She flipped the notebook closed. “And a gap between her front teeth.”

              Kim gasped, feeling like she’d been hit in the chest with a sledgehammer.

              Luke had turned to stare at her in concern, but Kim wasn’t paying attention to the room. She’d been building a sketch in her head, and it had been remarkably easy to do as Sonia spoke. When she finished, it only took Kim a second to realize why she had such a perfect model in her head; the model had been there that very evening, in fact, and nearly every day for the past month.

              Anton was talking about Daisy.

Chapter 7

“What do we do?”

              Luke’s first question had been posed to Kim, and she was as shocked by this as she was to find that she had no clue what to do.

              “I don’t know,” she said dumbly. “I don’t know, Luke.”

              Sonia shot her a look covered in pity. “She has to sit this one out, Luke,” she said under her breath. “Look at her. She’s in shock.”

              “To be fair, so am I,” Luke countered. “Daisy doesn’t seem like a murderer.”

              “Well, she is,” Sonia said shortly. “And we can’t have someone who is related to a murderer tagging along, anyway – it could complicate things.”

              Kim broke out of her daze long enough to be offended by the implication. “I can help,” she said firmly. “Just give me a minute.” Truthfully, she felt like she needed more than a minute; her knees were about to give out from under her.

              Luke crossed the room and pushed her gently to the bed. “You don’t have to come,” he said urgently. “I know you want to, but you don’t have to. You’ve already done so much for me.”

              Kim looked at him, trying to gauge his sincerity. His eyes were locked with hers, but there was an odd vibration rolling off of him.

              “You still think I’m going to run,” she realized. “You think I won’t fight on your side because it’s Daisy.”


              Luke’s face took on a pained expression, but he didn’t deny it. “I don’t know if you realize how shocked you are. It’s going to affect your judgment as long as you’re not fully here.”

              “Then
give me a minute,”
Kim repeated, gritting her teeth. “Or just tell me where you’re going, and I’ll be right behind you in the car.”

              “What about the baby?”


              “You’re leaving Anton here, aren’t you?”


              Sonia hesitated, then nodded.

              “He can watch Evan, and I can text Suzanna with an SOS to come keep an eye on them both.”

              “I don’t want to involve another human,” Luke said desperately.

              “She’ll want to be involved,” Kim insisted. She was looking around the room for her shoes, ignoring Sonia’s cagey looks. “She’s family too, Luke.”

              Luke didn’t say anything, just nodded once and turned back to Sonia. While they discussed a plan of action, Kim texted Suzanna a brief rundown. Surprisingly, she got an immediate answer; she said a silent prayer that her best friend was both a night owl and the most loyal person she’d ever met.

              She inhaled and stood up, actively tuning back into the room’s conversation.

              “I understand how we can take her down,” Sonia was saying impatiently. “I just don’t know how the fuck we’re supposed to find her.” She was pulling her black curls back into a ponytail and letting the locks bounce back around her shoulders, apparently a nervous tic.

              “We know who she is, all we need is something of hers so we can track her,” Luke said impatiently. His nervous tic was similar to Sonia’s – ruffling his hair with one hand every few minutes, as though it were helping move thoughts around in his brain.

              “That takes too long,” Sonia complained. “We need to know a good starting point. We can’t go to her house because she’ll know we’re on to her.”

              “How do we know she doesn’t already know?” Kim cut in.

              Both vampires looked at her. Her cheeks burned, but she kept talking.

              “She knows Anton is alive, and that he was healed enough to be moved. That’s probably why she was already out of the apartment when we arrived. She wanted to see if we’d give chase, but didn’t want to be cornered.”

              Neither of the vampires said anything, and then they both swore at the same time.

              “
Shit!”

              “But where would she have gone?” Sonia asked desperately. “Back home? To some kind of base camp?”

              “Where would a base camp be?” Luke wondered aloud. “It would have to be near our outposts, because she disappeared very quickly each time she killed in one.”

              “One of the other shacks, maybe?”

              “Humans can’t cross our lines,” Luke reminded Sonia. “It would have to be her own structure.”

              A light bulb went off in Kim’s head, and she started to jump up and down. Sonia’s look was withering, but Kim was too ecstatic to care.

              “I know where her base is,” she said breathlessly. “And you’re right. It’s not far from your outposts. It’s basically right in their backyard.”

***

              Sonia was crouched in the back seat of Kim’s Fiat, peering out the rear window while Luke scanned their sides in the passenger seat. Kim was pushing the car as fast as it would go, using her heightened eyesight and her memory to navigate the dirt road. Daisy and Mark’s sprawling house sat on an acre all its own, a Spanish-style dwelling with a long stone driveway leading to its front. Kim picked out the driveway nearly a mile before they got to it.
I hope this never goes away,
she thought.
No more contacts.

              “What was that?” Sonia asked suddenly.

              Kim’s heart jumped to her throat, but Luke waved his hand in the air. “A rabbit.”

              “Are you sure?”


              “
Yes.”

              Sonia sighed. “Everyone clear about the plan?”

              “Yes,” Kim and Luke said together. He had one hand on her thigh, and the weight was comforting in a way nothing else was right then.

              “We’ll only have one shot,” Sonia continued. “And if she’s killing people the way I think she is, the hematite stone is going to be too small to see in the dark. And if she touches us, the draining starts, and there’s no way to stop it besides removing it from your aura.”

              “We know,” Luke said tensely. “But she likely has some other magical stones with her. It might not be that simple.”

              The Fiat finally reached the long stone driveway, and Kim turned sharply, the butt end of the car swinging wide before she was able to right it. “Sonia, we’re going to be fine.”


              Kim knew the other vampire could read the terror in Luke’s aura as well as she could, but neither woman said anything more.

              “Turn off the lights,” Sonia suggested.

              Kim shook her head. “She already knows we’re here.”

              She stopped the Fiat and put it in park, staring at the two-story house, its cream-colored bricks stacked on top of each other like so many boxes. There was nothing around it except a ring of dense green bushes, the same ones that dotted the scenery a few hundred yards behind them, on the way back to the main highway. Kim turned off the car, and the familiar silence of the desert flooded the vehicle, though it didn’t comfort her as it normally did; it was so deafening that she opened the door and hurried out, thinking she could escape it by being in the open air.

              Luke was by her side in an instant. Sonia was on her other side, staring straight ahead with her jaw set and her muscles rigid.

              “Call her,” she said tensely. “Let’s get it over with.”

              Kim pulled out her cellphone and selected Daisy’s number, feeling sick to her stomach. It only rang once before she picked up, and her voice was so cloying that it intensified Kim’s nausea.

              “Hi, Kimmy.”

              She bristled. “Don’t call me that.”

              Daisy laughed; t was so high and cold that Kim wondered how she ever managed to laugh like a regular person. “I don’t think you’re in any position to order me around, you harlot.”

              Sonia and Luke, who were both listening with ears leaned toward the phone, looked at her apprehensively.
Don’t let her bait you,
Luke seemed to be saying.
Focus on the plan.

              “Okay,” Kim said slowly, forcing herself to sound calm. “Just tell me something.”

              “Hmmmm,” Daisy intoned. “I’ll think about it, I suppose.”

              Kim ignored her simpering tone. “Why the fuck are you doing this? You raise vampires in your daycare. Why go around murdering their parents?”


              When Daisy spoke again, the sweet facade had melted, revealing a razor-edged hatred Kim now knew had always been there. “Are you being serious, you idiot? I did it
because
of those children. Those poor, sweet, innocent babies, so perfect and pure. They didn’t ask to be brought into this world, and they certainly didn’t ask to be born to such
freaks.”
She spat the word out like it tasted bad on her tongue. “I give them stability, normality….wholesomeness,” she said in a satisfied tone. “But that cannot last with those disgusting pieces of trash serving as parents.”

              Sonia was shaking with rage, glaring at the house with tears in her eyes. Luke held out a hand as she took a step forward, stopping her from charging.

              “So...you think you’re a better parent?” Kim asked furiously. “A bigoted, hateful, delusional old twat with a gap tooth bigger than Texas?”

              Daisy was silent for a moment. “I’ll be a better mother than you. Especially to little Evan.”

              Kim’s mouth was bitter all of a sudden. “Don’t you fucking go near my baby! You’re the freak, Daisy, that’s why my brother never wanted children with you!”

              “You take that back!” Daisy screeched. “Mark didn’t want to pass on that minefield you Moodys call genetics, that’s the only reason he had that vasectomy!”

              “If my genetics are so bad, why do you want my baby?”

              Daisy laughed. “Halflings are special, Kimmy. They have powers, and those powers can help me out
a lot.
They have healing powers, you know, and they
are
vampires. Vampires don’t get the same kinds of diseases we do. And when you turn, your body is wiped of all imperfections.” She sounded smug, and Kim finally got the full picture of her insanity.

              “You want them to turn you,” she said, her voice slowed by her dawning horror. “You’re going to turn – and then what? Get knocked up by a vampire somewhere?”


              “Don’t be silly,” Daisy said. “I’m going to turn Mark, and he’ll knock me up. It’ll work, I’ve asked around.”

              Kim backed away from the house, her eyes still on its darkened windows. “My brother would never agree to this.”


              “He doesn’t have to.”

              Luke was now struggling to keep Sonia by his side. He looked back at Kim, his expression a mixture of anxiety and doubt.
I need you to believe in this, Luke,
she thought.

              “You’re going to
make
him turn,” Kim said breathlessly. “Oh my God. You’re sick. You’re disgusting, Daisy. I regret ever letting you back into my life.” She looked at the front of the house, making sure all the blackout curtains really were drawn shut. “You deserve whatever hell you’re going to.”

              That was the vampires cue to start moving toward the house, attacking separate entrances. She couldn’t attack both of them with the hematite stone, and whoever was left would take her down and then heal the other. That was the plan, anyway; Kim didn’t feel too good about it, but she had no other ideas.

              Daisy had begun to laugh on the phone. Kim frowned as she watched the vampires move toward the house, slinking through the shadows with silent feet.

              “You think this is going to work?”


              Kim was startled. She’d counted on Daisy to be in her basement, as all the shades were drawn around the windows, and it was the most reinforced room in the house. “What are you talking about?”

              “Don’t play dumb, Kimmy. I can see them running toward the house. I have to say, I’ve never noticed what a nice ass Luke has.”

              Kim started to speak, but something in Daisy’s phrasing tripped her up. “How can you see his ass?” Then she gasped.

              Oh, my God.

              Daisy just laughed again. “It helps having a husband who’s a contractor,” she said. “He’s got all these detonating devices for blasting out the old and bringing in the new.” The smile audible in her voice was like a stab in the heart. “This double teaming thing is really rather cute. It’s too bad you’ve put all your eggs in the same basket.”

              Kim pulled the phone away from her ear. “
Luke! Sonia! It’s a trap! It’s a fucking trap, come back!”

              Kim started to run toward them, unsure of her plan of action. Sonia stopped and looked at her, and Luke did, too, but they both just gaped at her as she flailed her arms toward herself and screamed.