Tainted Blood (12 page)

There was only one person in the room that gave off that scent, so he was easily picked out. With a shrug of his shoulders, and a wave of his arms, the crowd of humanity was thrown off of him.

Brian’s fangs sunk into the stunned man as he tasted the sweetest blood in the room. He lifted the man from off the floor, completely holding the man's entire body up high enough so that he could drink the sweet nectar that now burned into his body without resistance. His wounds even now closed and sealed themselves as he drained the man of his life giving blood.

“This is impossible!” He could hear Jason shouting from a short distance away. “No one should still be conscious after what I did to you! How are your wounds healing?”

Brian’s mind cleared as he finished the last of the man's blood. The madness that so easily gripped him left just as quickly, as his strength returned.

“This is your fault, Jason!” Brian shouted as he dropped the body and pointed at all the wounded people. “Your arrogance has brought this on you!”

“You're not a vampire!” Jason shouted, “you're one of them!”

“What are you talking about?” Brian asked. Of course he was vampire. Hadn't he survived all the knife wounds? Didn't Jason see him drink the man's blood? What else could he be?

Brian almost asked the man exactly that, except for the fact that Jason ran back to his table and pulled out a small black carrying case, which he flipped open and grabbed what looked like sand, as it was falling out the sides of his hand everywhere.

“Where's Heather!” Brian shouted at him. Whatever he was planning on doing with that handful of sand, Brian could care less. He was tired of messing with the guy. Enough was enough. If he had to, he would rip the guy in two and then tear the place apart stone by stone until he found Heather.

“Tell me where she is now or--” Was all he got out before Jason threw the sand in his direction, and shouted what sounded like Latin. Glowing red symbols like triangles inside a circles appeared all over the cloud of sand he threw. The entire scene was surreal, and even as Brain was dragged outside the building and deposited on the sidewalk by the sand, his mind refused to believe what had happened to him.

In a rage, Brian jumped up and began to beat on the open doorway barrier as he shouted for Jason to let him in. Eventually, Jason walked up to the entry way and smiled at him, chuckling. “Aren't you full of surprises?”

“Give me Heather!”

“I think not. Especially not after what I've learned about you today .”

“What are you
talking
about? I'm a vampire just like you!” Brian waved his fist at him. “Stop with all your word games!”

“Like me? No, Brian, I became a vampire the old fashioned way. By drinking blood. I dare say you were
born
, and that makes you an abomination, neither vampire nor human.”

“What?” Brian stared, abruptly sidelined. Where had that come from?

“Now, run away Nephilim. I've taken the liberty of calling the local police. I don't think you're going to want to explain the mess you made in here.” With that, he shut the door. Brian was too stunned to do anything but stare.

From the moment he arrived to now, he wasn't sure what had happened. Too many things were said and happened, and none of it made sense to him. Like that cloud of sand. What the hell was
that
? If he didn't know better, that had been the closest thing he'd ever seen that might be magic. Not fake magic, but real magic.

That couldn't be. There was no such thing.

Sirens echoed in the distance: Jason hadn't been lying after all. He needed to go. Still, he wasn't giving up. His goals were still the same, just a few things were different now...like whatever magic crap Jason had. He was going to need a way around that.

Also, he couldn't do it alone, it was time for some help, and there was only one person he could think to ask that of.

It took some time for him to get his rattled nerves calm enough for him to dream walk again. He wanted with all his might to go see Heather again, and he would, once he was finished.

The cab of Bobby's truck was still familiar from the last time he had seen it over six months ago, though from his dream state he could see that there were some changes made. Like, for instance, it looked like doodads now hung from the roof of the cab almost everywhere. He had no idea why Bobby would start filling his place up with junk, but hey, who knew what got into that truckers mind. From what he could make out through the windshield, Bobby was on the road.

Brian never liked trying to wake up in a moving vehicle. Something about it was just unnerving.

He supposed he was being stupid, as he never did have a single accident doing it, and besides didn't he just survive being stabbed a hundred times? What’s falling to the ground at seventy miles an hour going to do to him compared to that?

“Well, it's now or never.” Brain mumbled.

Placing himself into the passenger seat, he tried to make himself as comfortable as possible so that he would appear right where he was now. Then, closing his eyes, Brian concentrated on going to sleep. The cab around him began to shimmer and waver. Once or twice it began to come in focus, and then blurred back to the grayness of dream land.

“What the hell?” He frowned, glancing around the dream-cab again.

This is weird
he thought.
I never had this much trouble before. I must be more nervous than I thought.
Brian closed his eyes again and then concentrated even more. He called back old memories of his prior rides with Bobby, when Heather was there as well. He could hear Bobby's gruff voice telling a joke, and Heather giggling at it.

A thin layer of 'skin' stretched across his conciseness and then ripped and tore.

The next thing he saw were headlights as the truck swerved into oncoming traffic. Bobby began to swear loudly as he struggled to wrestle the truck back into the proper lane. Horns honked, and Brian was slammed into the door and then into Bobby as the entire cab thrashed back and forth.

“What in the nine hells are you trying to do kid? Get us both killed!” Bobby finally got out of his mouth. Well, what was coherent between all the trucker swearing.

“Need your help, Bobby.” Brian said, as the trucker pulled off the road into a nearby parking lot.

“What is it this time? Are we going to storm a military base?” Bobby snorted as he reached into his shirt, and then pulled out the biggest cross with a little Jesus hanging on it that Brain thought he had ever seen tucked into a shirt. “HAH! Take that!” Bobby yelled as he stuck it in Brian’s face.

Brian brushed Bobby's hand out of the way so he could see the old man's face.

“No, it's Heather, she needs your help.” After a moment, Brian began to realize what all the junk was that hung from the ceiling. “What...is all this junk Bobby?” He asked, as he pointed at all the various religious paraphernalia, such as dream catchers, pentagrams, crosses, stars of David, and so many things that Brian had never even seen before.

“Oh, they're nothing.” Bobby said as he looked around the cab in disgust. “Just a dumb hobby I picked up.”

“Alright then...” Brian coughed.

Hey, who was he to criticize what some people wanted to believe?

“A vampire is holding Heather hostage, and I need your help to get her.” Brian said, just as water hit Brian in the face from a small bottle that Bobby had been opening while Brian spoke. He sighed.

This was going to be long ride.

“Well. I have to finish this run, I have bills to pay, you know.” Bobby snapped, as he bit into a large greasy hamburger. The thing had what looked like liquid cheese pouring out of its sides as he bit into it. Brian wondered absently how he used to love those things. These day's all he really needed was blood. He could
eat
normal food if he wanted to, but it really didn't do very much, in fact he suspected he would starve if that were all he lived on. Once or twice, he had been forced to do just that, and quickly watched all his vampire abilities disappear as each hour passed by. It was not a thing he wanted to think about or try again.

Still, he had to convince Bobby to help, and for once, he wanted to do it the normal way.

“Listen, I understand that,” Brian tried to reason with him. “But this is Heather we're talking about.”

“I heard you the first dozen times you told me. You think I'm going deaf?”

Brian shook his head in confusion. “I don't understand, Bobby. I thought you liked her. You two seemed to get along really well the last time we were together.”

“
Kid
.” Bobby threw down his hamburger. “The girl's not the problem here.
You
are.” He pointed straight at Brian. “I don't know who you think you're kidding, but you ain’t natural, and I don't need you mucking around up in my head again. Darn near lost myself the last time I hooked up with you two.”

“But that wasn't her fault.” Brian began.

“No, it was yours. I almost died then, too. Eaten by a Godforsaken werewolf for God's sake!” Bobby's voice rose so loud that a couple passing by turned and looked at the two as they talked.

Bobby lowered his voice so he couldn't be overheard as he continued to speak to Brian. “I love the girl. I really do, but I'm not getting involved in all this insanity again. I swear I'm going to have nightmares for the rest of life already.”

“I can't believe I'm hearing this.” Brian said as he watched the trucker pick up his burger and take another bite. A large coke sat next to him, which he sipped between chews. “You'd just leave her to the mercy of a vampire?”

“I don't see what difference it makes. Him or you, you're both vampires.”

“The difference is I
love
her and would never let anything bad happen to her!” Brian slammed his fist on the table.

“Well you sure managed a great big failure on that one didn't you?”

Brian shook his head in confusion. “What?”

“You said you wouldn't let anything bad happen to her, and yet here she is needing my help. I'd say that has failure written all over it.”

Brian hadn't thought about it that way. He'd known he was somewhat responsible for her predicament. But he'd done nothing to endanger her. In fact, he had kept as far away from her as he possibly could. Yet still she got caught up in something he hadn't even had any intention of involving himself in. The irony was kind of sad, really. In fact, had he been there, she most likely would not have been taken, bringing into question if he had done the right thing by letting her leave. He might never know the answer to that, only time would tell, if anything could.

Still, if Bobby wasn’t going to help him, then he would have to go at it alone. He wasn't going to suggest the guy again. The only reason he came was because he thought the man was his only real friend in the world. Brian figured he guessed wrong.

“Fine. If that’s the way you feel, I guess I'm in this alone.” Brian stood up and looked around to get his bearings. He was going to have to find a quiet place that he could dreamwalk back home. He supposed there had to be a motel around some place that he could rent for an hour.

“So what you going to do?” Bobby asked as he took a long drink from the straw.

“What I should have done from the start. Rescue Heather, and make that dirty bastard who took her pay.”

“So, you're just going to do this alone, are you?” Bobby queried as he took another bite.

It seemed to Brian that Bobby was missing a key ingredient to his meal, fries. They were the best part of a fast food meal from what he could remember. He couldn't imagine eating a burger without them. “No other choices, Bobby, what else can I do? Oh and by the way, you need some fries.”

“I'm trying to cut back on the fat.” The old guy responded.

“Yeah, and eating big ass greasy hamburgers is the way to do that.” Brian chuckled.

“I said I was cutting back, not quitting!” Bobby snapped back at him. Brian smiled at him, and then patted him on the shoulder as he started to walk away.

“What? That’s it?” Bobby shouted after him. “You're not going to use your whammy to make me help you anyway?”

Brian waved back at him as he caught sight of a motel just down the road. ”Nope, not today, Bobby. You go on and enjoy that burger without fries. I'll figure out how to do it on my own.”

Brian heard Bobby's heavy footsteps running up behind him. The old guy roared at him to wait, as he sucked in gasps of air in an attempt to catch his breath. “Damn, you walk fast!” Bobby choked.

“I’m in kind of a hurry, Bobby, I don't have time to just stroll down the street. Besides, I thought you had a hamburger to eat.”

“You can't do this without me, Kid, you're just gonna get yourself killed if you do.”

“Are you sure about that?” Brian asked, as he felt a little camaraderie stir in his soul.

“Now, don't all go to tearing up on me now. I got nothing better to do anyways.”

Brian pointed back at the table where his coke and burger now sat alone. “What about your burger?”

“It tasted like crap anyway, let's get this rescue underway.” Bobby slapped Brian on the shoulder then turned and headed towards his truck. “What’s the plan?” Bobby asked as the two of them strapped themselves into the big rig.