Sophie Morgan (Book 1): Relative Strangers (A Modern Vampire Story) (8 page)

"I thought you said your degree was in business management? How come you know so much about this sort of stuff?"

"Shark Week", I explained, but Mickey's expression remained vacant. "The Discovery Channel," I added. "I’ve watched a lot of TV lately. Anyway, I think that rather than acting as replacement teeth, they probably walk around with these normal-looking teeth most of the time; then, these bad boys pop down out of as and when required."

"They?" Mickey asked. "You think there’s more than one of this thing?"

"This thing here has to come from somewhere, from something. This can't be the only vampire in the world, I know it."

"I know, you're right," he replied," at least I think you're right."

"What’s the alternative?" I continued, "Think about it, if this was some evolutionary blip, then why materialise now and why here of all places?"

"It could be a blip you never know, or something else," Mickey replied with forced optimism.

"Possibly," I countered," but I can’t imagine that evolution suddenly created something which we’ve been talking about in books, films and folklore for several hundred years."

He agreed that it was a fair point, but it didn’t solve our immediate problem - what should we do with the body? Neither of us had ever been in this sort of situation before and I, for one, was in an entirely strange place. I wasn’t sure if I’d be any better equipped if I were on home turf, but at least I knew the area and I’d have a car. But there we were, two strangers in a strange country without a plan, transport or anyone we could turn to for help.

After a brief debate, we agreed that going to the police was not going to be an option. We didn’t want to get locked up, either for murder or for being crazy. Besides, we weren’t sure that the law would even be equipped to deal with this sort of situation.

Mickey theorised that vamps were wandering around, and had been doing so happily for who knows how long. If so, then it was possible that the establishment would know. We didn’t know if we could trust the police or anyone else.

However, we were confident of two things. One, we would need to get rid of the body somehow. Two, we would have to make sure that there was nothing to track it back to us, what it was or what had happened to it. Mickey was particularly resolute on this issue as he was ultimately going to be the one left there to pick up the pieces of any fallout. After all, I was going to be heading back home in less than two days; if there were going to be any accusations of foul play, they would probably be levied solely on him.

Neither of us had a car and that was going to present us with a bit of a problem. We had no way of transporting the carcass, something that seriously restricted our options. Not that we were sure what those options even were; neither of us were experts in 'disappearing' people or vampires. The more we discussed the matter, the more it seemed like we might just have to leave the body there. Not an ideal situation admittedly, but neither of us wanted to go back and ask Maggie for her car keys, agreeing that she shouldn't have to be involved in the mess we'd created.

"What are going to do with it then?" Mickey asked, "Between us we could probably manage lifting him, but we couldn’t carry him far. I don’t even think we’d make the canal".

"We’re going to have to try; I really don’t think we should leave him here. We should at least try to get him out of the way, somewhere a bit more discrete. People are going to be getting up and about in a few hours, not to mention anyone could walk past here anytime. We’ve been lucky as it is."

"Lucky?" Mickey was astounded.

"You know what I mean." I huffed, " I’m surprised that nobody’s come by already."

"Okay, well, we need to make sure that this doesn’t look like there’s any trace back to us." Mickey frowned as if in deep thought.

"How could there be?" It was me being optimistic now." We’ll take the tools and clean them off. There’ll be no reason to search the pub or anywhere else for them,”

"I think we should dump them," he declared. "It’s too risky your way. Besides, there’s plenty of circumstantial stuff to connect us, we don’t need any tangible evidence." I didn’t know what he meant, but Mickey caught on to the fact that I wasn’t following him pretty quickly. I must have been wearing my perplexed face. "The bite," he explained, "your neck and his teeth. There’s probably some way of matching them or DNA or something. Plus your clothes - look at you!"

I touched the dressing on my neck. Although it had inexplicably healed, I had the strangest sensation there, as if the cells in my skin were somehow trying to get my attention to tell me something. Anyway, I’d watched enough detective shows to know that Mickey was right; we had to dispose of as much of the evidence as possible. That meant the bodies, weapons and probably our clothes.

"What about you," I asked with concern," you’ve got blood on you. Where did he get you?"

Mickey inspected his shirt. It was splattered with blood and dirt. He patted himself down until he struck upon a sore patch on his shoulder. Pulling the neck of his tee shirt to one side, he tried to see what the source was. Witnessing his struggle, I pulled his top up and took a closer look at him. Thankfully, all that was there were some grazes and scratch marks. The majority of the blood must have come from the creature.

"You’ll live." I wondered if it would be an inappropriate, to wrap my arms around his pale, bare skin and nuzzle my face into the safety of his flesh.

"We’ll have to do something out about them, won’t we?" he said pointing to the creature’s fangs. Without speaking, we were both on the same page.

Mickey held onto the handles of the mole wrench and tugged, causing a distinct popping sound when he pulled the tool out of the eye socket. They were the biggest set he had in his tool kit, but they were perfect for the intended job. He twisted the locking bolt around until the jaws of the wrench were clasped tightly around the first canine. Once the wrench was locked in position, he pulled hard and fast in an out and upwards direction. It took a couple of attempts, to rip the tooth away from the stringy ligaments which secured them in place. Having perfected the technique, it didn’t take long to get the other canine out.

While Mickey set about disposing of the canines down a drain in the gutter, I smashed at the remaining dentures with my hammer. I felt the need to vomit with every swing, but I swallowed it down and kept at my work. It was one thing to hit something in self-defence, but it somehow felt wrong attacking something that was just lying there, even if it was dead. I hoped I wasn’t turning into a serial killer or something. By the time I had finished, there wasn’t much left of the creature’s face at all. I sat on the ground and cried.

"It’s alright Sophie; it’s going to be alright". Mickey's words were comforting. He gently lifted the hammer out of my hands, wiped it off on his tee shirt and dropped it into the drain. He then did the same with the wrench to make sure that there were no fingerprints on it either. I just sat there watching him. It was nice to have someone else take charge. I didn’t protest when he took my hands and pulled me up from the kerb. He said that we had move the body. I nodded in silent compliance,

"It’s alright Sophie," He reassuringly wrapped his arms around me and cradled my head on his shoulder. "We’ll sort this out. We’re going to get rid of this, this thing, and it’ll be like nothing has ever happened."

I was close to believing him when I heard the screech of tyres coming towards us.

The van careered to a halt in front of us. The nearside door slid open and a man, dressed in a dark sweater and trousers jumped out. Another man, similarly attired, got out of the driver’s seat and made his way around to the front of the van. Mickey released me from his embrace and turned his back to me, shielding me from whatever was going to happen.

The two men stood in front of us, taking in the situation. They looked down at the body on the ground and my first thought was
crap, I don’t want to go to prison
. But I didn’t have to worry about that for long. These guys weren’t the police and they weren’t honest civilians, good Samaritans stopping to assist at the scene of a crime. I should have known better after the night I’d had; I should have recognised them straight away. These were the guys who had taken Tracy’s bag, the men who had started all this in the first place. Although this time, they didn’t look confused by my bravado, they looked angry, really, furious.

"Now I get it," Mickey muttered under his breath.

"I don’t," I replied. I tried to peek over his shoulder to see what was going on, but he kept ushering me back with his hands. I wasn’t giving up that easily though and managed to break free by taking a step back and then nipping up to his side.

"Jesus," he explained, "do you have a death wish or something?"

I was going to ask him what he meant, but I stopped myself. As I processed the information before me, I understood everything. It was the eyes that gave it away – the dilated pupils which locked on mine as if studying my every skin cell, analysing every movement, waiting for any sign of weakness. When their lips curled back to reveal sharp fangs, what I suspected was confirmed.
Vampires.

"If I had any doubts before," Mickey said, "I sure as hell don’t now. They’re vampires all right, actual dyed in the wool fecking vampires. Looks like you were right Soph."

"Perhaps we should have kept those tools now."

"Sophie, I’m going to try and keep them busy here. I’m handy if I need to be." He clenched his fists tightly and I believed him. "You run, okay? You run the hell out of here. If you make it to the pub, wake up Maggie. Tell her we got attacked, tell her anything, and just get me back okay? Whatever happens, don’t let them take me, dead or alive."

"I’m not leaving you," I stated, my tone even and determined.

"Just run, will you!" As Mickey barked his command, the first of the two vamps made his move. It was the one who had handed the bag over to me earlier, but he didn’t look so non-threatening and sheepish now. We were the sheep, lambs going to the slaughter. He was confident and apparently incensed about the dead body on the floor; he may as well have had venom dripping from each pour. Hatred radiated from him with every step he took in our direction.

It was obvious to me now; they were some sort of gang. It couldn’t be a coincidence that three random vamps happened to be hanging out within a half-mile radius of each other. They were all in together. Had we been set up, or was this just bad luck?

I had to admit that as ploys go, it wasn’t a bad one. They go to a bar and case out a likely victim, ideally a girl who is preoccupied. They steal her bag or use some other ruse to get her outside. When she least suspects it, she gets jumped by another. Perhaps if Mickey hadn’t come to my aid the plan was for the other two to get back with a van and haul me off somewhere. I doubt many people would be as stupid as me and chase after a couple of robbers though, but perhaps that part was just coincidental. They could have just been after the money. After all, surely even vampires had expenses to cover.

Whatever their initial plan had been, they certainly seemed determined to get back on track now, including making a square meal out of us. The larger of the two men lurched towards Mickey, who quickly pushed me away from him in an attempt to protect me. I stumbled but quickly regained my footing, while the driver of the van followed his partner’s lead and headed in my direction.

Even if I’d wanted to run, it was too late. Besides, there was no way I was going to let Mickey face this on his own. He’d saved my life twice in one night, I was going to do whatever I could to repay the favour now. Furthermore, I was feeling angry, really bloody angry. Stuff crying! I decided I wasn’t going to feel sorry for myself anymore, This was not how things were meant to end for me, and I was damn sure that I was going to let this be the end of Mickey either.

I’d never thrown a punch in my life, but I’d seen enough films and scraps on a Saturday night in town to know what to do. I slid my right foot back and shifted my weight onto it, in what I hoped would resemble a boxing pose, and raised both fists in from of me, mirroring Mickey’s moves. He looked at me. In that brief moment, the world seemed to stop. Something passed between us, a kind of quiet recognition that this was perhaps it, the end of everything. A wish that we had met in different circumstances. I smiled at him as if to say,
I know
. I wanted to reach across and touch him, to hold his hand and run away, but we both knew that we would be unlikely to make it. The few metres between us may as well have been miles.

All these thoughts flew through my mind in the few seconds that it took for the first of the vamps to cross the cobbled square. Mickey did his best to push him back, but it was useless. The vamp hardly moved, staggering back only a few feet before lurching forward once again. By the time he made a second lunge at us, vampire number two had caught up and was coming at me as well. I attempted to swing a punch, but missed miserably and I ended up just swatting the air. Mickey lunged over at me, swung his arm back around me and cradled me into his back. I wished he wouldn’t, it was actually creating a fight of two very strong vamps against one reasonably built Irishman. All he had was bravado and determination to keep me safe; enviable it may be, but who knows what other powers or skills his opponents would have. It felt wrong to cower behind him, and there was a part of me which felt frustrated at him for it; frustrated and grateful.

As the two vamps approached again, I saw my opportunity. When Mickey swung a right hook in the first one, I shoulder charged the second one, wrapping my arms around his waist as I bolted forward, forcing him back with my speed and sheer determination. After a few metres, I released my arms and let him fall to the ground. I’d managed to cover most of the road and was almost at the van when I stopped.

A moment of panic ensued – I had no idea what to do next – all he had to do was get up, clock me on the head and throw me in. I’d learned that I could run quite quickly, so I figured I should probably head back to Mickey. With luck, his punch could have knocked vampire number one out, but I guessed it probably hadn’t. I was getting to be right about too many things that night and this was going to be yet another thing. Rather than knock the vamp out, it just seemed to aggravate him even more. Although he had momentarily lost his footing, it had done nothing but stall proceedings for a few seconds.

I felt totally helpless as I watched the vamp grab Mickey with both shoulders and sink his teeth into his neck.

"Noooooooo," I shrieked across the street.

I felt the tears well up again in my eyes and I couldn’t control them this time. Mickey resembled a rag doll being thrown around in the jaws of a very angry puppy. His eyes looked at me across the distance; it was the saddest thing I’d ever seen and yet I could offer him no comfort, no safe harbour. His eyes glazed over as his body surrendered to shock. The only hope I would have of aiding him would rely on me dispatching my own vamp and that wouldn't be easier. He had jumped up from the floor and was holding me in a choke hold.

Driven by my desire to save Mickey, I performed the only self-defense move I actually knew. A former housemate had taught it to me in an attempt to encourage an interest in going to a kickboxing class with her. I may not have been able to throw a decent punch, but I sure did know how to use a pair of heels when I needed to. I wasn’t off guard this time. I knew what I was fighting and what was likely to happen to me, and to Mickey, if I just sat back and did nothing.

Rather than blindly panicking, I was going to bloody well take charge of the situation. I brought my hands forward and grabbed the arm wrapped around my neck. I knew it would be pointless to try and pull them off me, they were like a vice ensnaring me, but I could certainly give this ass-hat enough motivation to let me go. I clung to my opponent’s arms, lifted my right knee up and planted my shoe down hard on my opponent’s foot. Although my boot heels were only a couple of inches high, they had a decent point and I forced them into the vampire's canvas shoe and into his foot
. No time to be squeamish, Sophie
. I twisted my foot around, driving the heel in further.

The vampire lost its balance and yelped in pain and anger. I used the time wisely, pulling my arms sharply down, simultaneously pulling the vampires forearms with me. He loosened his grip and although he didn't release me entirely, it created enough space for me to wriggle my shoulders forward, bring my head down and then sharply back. I was in luck; with him being the shorter of the two vamps, I avoided the really hard parts of his head and made contact with his nose.
Crunch
. I shook myself free, pushed him to the side of the van and raced across the street to Mickey. He was doing well to stay conscious, but I wasn’t sure how much longer he had; he’d probably pass out from the pain alone soon.

"Get off him", I yelled charging. I scanned the street as I ran, scouring the surroundings for anything I could use as a weapon. There was nothing. "I said get off him, you bastard!"

Probably figuring that Mickey wasn’t going anywhere the vampire the turned his attention to me, dropping Mickey's limp body with a smack.

Shit.
I didn’t have any type of plan at all. I’d managed to stop him feeding off Mickey, but now I’d just served myself up on a plate instead. There was no guarantee that I’d survive another brutal attack, especially unarmed. There was no time to weigh up my options, I had to do something and do it fast. But all I could think to do was bring my arms up to cover my face and close my eyes as the thing before me crouched like a runner at the starting blocks. In a split second, he’d be on me and I’d be sandwiched between the two vamps. I knew I wouldn’t survive that. Mickey and I were doing to die
. I’m sorry Mickey.

Then came the bang and everything went quiet.

When I turned in the direction of the noise, Maggie was the last thing I expected to see. She was wearing a loose cotton nightshirt, a grey skirt and a raincoat. The look was finished off with some sensible pull on boots and, oh yeah, a shotgun. I’m not familiar with Belgian gun laws, but I’m pretty sure that they don’t allow you to wander the streets at night brandishing a firearm.

"Get back, you." She ordered.

I thought at first that she was talking to me. I stood completely still, too afraid to move. I’d never seen a gun before, apart from on the TV or in a film.

"Walk towards me Sophie, there’s a good girl." Her tone was warmer this time, but still determined. I did exactly as I was told; hurrying past the vamp who had staggered to his feet despite the hole in his foot. He looked more confused by the whole situation than I did; trying to weigh up what would be a better option – stay put, attack or run.

I looked behind to the other vamp to see if he would take the lead. It was only then that I realised what the bang had been, and what it had done. Amidst all the chaos, I’d completely missed the fact that Maggie had let out a round from her shotgun and had shot the other vamp squarely in the face. I’d have to admit, she had remarkable aim.

Although there was a small part of me which would have been happy to cower behind Maggie for protection, I needed to see that Mickey was okay.

"I need to go check on Mickey," I whispered. Maggie nodded. I crept away from her side and sprinted across the street to where he lay on the ground.

Mickey was not in a good way. He was covered in blood and his clothes were dirty from several impacts with the ground. If there’d been a mirror to hand, I’d have seen that I looked even worse. I knelt down beside his body and gently touched the side of his face.

"Michael Kelly, you better not die on me."

His eyes fluttered open, squinting in an attempt to focus as he tried sitting up. It wasn't easy for him and he settled for resting on his elbows, at least giving his head some respite from the cold ground. He reached for his neck and felt the wetness on it. Blood was slowly trickling from the wound, but it looked like the flow was slowing down; it was unnatural. My limited knowledge of first aid told me that he should have bled out by now, but I had decided to listen to the voice in my head and believe in vampires. Usual rules didn't apply anymore. I pressed my hand down onto the wound.

"Are we dead Soph?" he asked weakly.

"No Mickey, not yet anyway. Try to sit up; it’ll slow the bleeding". I helped him sit up, squatting down behind him so he could lean into my body.

From across the street, Maggie held the vamp in place with a stern look and the even more persuasive gun. "Everything alright over there?" she asked.

"He’s hurt," I yelled back, "but I think he’ll be okay. He’s lost quite a bit of blood, but he’s talking. We need to get him out of here."