Vamp-Hire (35 page)

A robust-looking Cain shook her like a
ragdoll twice before his head pitched back, that bone tooth punched
through the roof of his mouth, his upper body shot forward like a
knife, and he stabbed her in the chest.

By the time Nick got to them, Cain had
already dropped her and stumbled back to the doorway. His body had
shrunk considerably, like he’d lost fifty pounds in a matter of
seconds.

Even as Nick tended to Pearlanne, he’d
understood what had happened. Cain had been feeding the vamps
poison. It had made them feel strong, perhaps that had been a means
to facilitate feeding off them. Something had gone wrong. Maybe
they had been feeding as a means of sustaining themselves and Cain
and at some point the supply chain had been broken.

“I’m fine, I’m fine,” Pearlanne said, trying
to stand. She wasn’t. She had a hole in her chest big enough to fit
three fingers into. It had already filled with blood and was almost
spilling over. He pushed her back down and put his hands over it to
compress the wound. Had it been a gunshot or maybe even a bite,
Nick would have swept her out of here, Phoebe be damned. Maybe she
was fine, maybe she was dead; in this moment he was Pearlanne’s and
hers alone.

Her eyes remained clear and her voice strong,
but the life was draining out of her. Her face paled and she began
to sweat. She appeared not to notice, still trying to speak, still
trying to get up.

“What are you doing?” she said angrily. “We
have to save her. We have to save them all.” He didn’t know who the
‘all’ was Pearlanne was referring to. As far as he could tell, all
the other vamps were dead and there wasn’t anyone else in danger.
Nick was even stronger from the blood he’d had. All the other vamps
had had the same poison that was coursing through her now, coursing
through him, however he didn’t feel any of the ill effects they
had.

He wasn’t dying like Pearlanne was.

“Find my sister,” was the last coherent
sentence she said. Holding her in his arms, Nick understood the
relationship. They were empathically connected, it was a shared
Skill. Her sister, in a twisted way, had had some sort of feeling
for Nick which had lent itself to Pearlanne.

She felt less substantial in his arms as she
said things that made no sense, her speech devolving to single
words, to grunts, to pregnant silence.

Somewhere in the process she understood
something wrong was happening to her.

“Help me,” he read in her eyes. She was
unable to vocalize it and there was nothing he could do. He could
have fed on her, somehow knew in the feeding that he could have
wiped her mind of the confusion as she emptied into him and perhaps
a part of her in some distant respect would have survived. He felt
that was probably some instinctual, predatory aspect of him that
wanted to consume. That would consume everything in his path if he
allowed it.

“I can’t,” Nick said to her, tears streaming
from his eyes. He gripped her hand, feeling the strength in her
ebbing. He wept over her and she searched his eyes, trying to
understand why he was crying.

Then even her focus faded. Her breathing
shallowed and she gazed at him as if he were a million miles away.
She stroked his arm in a subconscious manner, as if comforting him.
When he couldn’t stand to match her eyes on his, he closed hers.
She didn’t open them, just went on stroking his arm for a moment
longer.

And then she was gone.

A warm hand grasped his arm. He turned to see
Cain’s eyes on him, on them. There was a look of surprise in the
creature’s expression, as if it had never seen an act of compassion
before.

It spoke with words the likes of which Nick
had never heard, but was all-too familiar.

“You are my ancient enemy. We were meant to
destroy one another.” Its eyes glazed and then hardened on him
again. “How is it you care for this lamb?” True confusion clung to
its face as it clung to life. Nick didn’t understand how if the
rabisu were supposedly unkillable that it could be dying now.

He put his hand on the creature’s where it
rested on his arm and pushed it away.

“I don’t know you,” he said. “You don’t know
me.”

“We have known one another for millennia,” it
said in their secret language. “We are brothers. We are
legion.”

“Legion of what?” Though Nick believed it was
lying, he paused in his grief, his curiosity rising.

It smiled. “You do not remember and perhaps
you should not. The reincarnation has always been a difficult
transition.”

Nick thought it must have been hallucinating
as it lingered on the edge of death. Perhaps it was recounting
something from its past, maybe it perceived Nick as something
similar to a being from a prior encounter.

“Who do you think I am?” he asked.

“You are...” It trailed off and it looked
afraid. “I cannot speak your name. Please do not consume me. I
relent; you are my master.”

Nick understood in that moment that Kim had
not been the creature’s true undoing. Yes, she had harmed it, but
the rabisu had truly believed it could have recovered. There was
something about Nick that had invaded that wound, had infected the
rabisu and its new kin.

Nick had destroyed this nest of creatures,
despite not knowing how.

There was movement somewhere behind him and
he turned to see a woozy-looking Phoebe tugging at a door. She got
it open and Leonard, a tremendous red knot on his head, stepped
out. They both saw him and held onto each other as they came
over.

“Who?” Nick pointed at his chest, looking at
the rabisu. It was no longer Cain. That had been a name it had worn
for a time just as it had been called something else in a time
before that and a legion of names prior.

“I spared her. I spared your lamb. Spare me!”
It licked its lips, the semi-forked purple tongue there and gone.
Nick grabbed its arm and it felt light and frail, like Styrofoam.
“Neph... Neph...”

It looked up at Leonard and opened its mouth.
The rabisu attempted to scream, but lost its voice. The old man,
who was suddenly a lot younger, knelt and placed his hands on its
chest. Leonard opened his mouth and breathed in a long breath that
seemed to pick up wind from the entire room. In seconds it was over
and the rabisu was nothing more than a gray, hollow shell.

“Everything he says is a lie,” Leonard said
after a long coughing fit. “It was how he tricked me into being his
receveur.” He looked at Pearlanne’s peaceful face. “We should leave
now.”

Nick opened his mouth to protest, decided not
to speak. It seemed wrong somehow to leave the place where
Pearlanne had died, though he had no real reason to stay here.

He still had strength enough to pick her up
and carry her himself. Phoebe kept glancing at him, nervously, he
thought, and Nick tried to tell himself he didn’t care. He was
carrying a dead woman in his arms. Someone he’d barely known and
for some reason had quickly grown to care about.

Nick felt something wounded inside him wall
itself away and he let it. Tears streamed steadily from his eyes
and that was the only indication even to him that Pearlanne’s death
mattered.

“Is he... is he safe?” Phoebe finally asked.
Nick felt relief at the sound of her voice instead of the white
noise in his mind.

“Yes,” he said, not looking at her. “Dolph
has him outside.”

“Oh, thank God. Thank God!” Phoebe clapped
her hands together once, putting them to her mouth. “Thank you,
Nick.” Her voice had dropped to almost a whisper.

Leonard led the way down the escalator steps,
looking taller and younger with each passing second. By the time
they reached the front door Nick would have guessed him at around
fifty.

Phoebe and Leonard worked on getting the
doors open so Nick could step through without cutting Pearlanne’s
body on the broken glass. They stepped through and were greeted by
a several teams of military-looking types in full gear and rifles
pointed in their direction. Nick scanned the crowd, looking for
Dolph and the others.

“Put your hands up and get on your knees!” a
voice shouted, though he couldn’t tell who had given the order. The
three of them looked at each other.

Leonard led by example, lacing his fingers
behind his head and putting a foot back as he lowered to one knee.
Phoebe licked her lips nervously, her eyes darting throughout the
crowd, but she did the same.

Nick knew he should have too. He wanted to be
far away from here. Unless Pearlanne’s mother was already dead, she
had no parents. She deserved better than whatever they would do to
or with her body. Nick had no presumptions that they would bury her
in some military cemetery. He’d seen enough vamps die in the Pens
in his brief stay to know how little respect her body would be
treated with. They would draw specimens for testing and leave her
body to the elements to see if it would decompose. He’d seen that
much with his own eyes and he’d heard the rumor that after they
were done, they would chop her head off. Just to be certain she
wouldn’t turn.

He was sure he had enough strength left to
fly, maybe even enough to survive being shot if they decided to do
that. Someone warned him he would be shot if he didn’t comply. Nick
barely heard. Instead, he glared at the soldiers in black. He would
get down on his knees and place his fingers behind his head. On his
own terms, though.

Nick began to walk down the stairs.

“Nick!” Phoebe whisper-shouted. “No!”

He ignored her and took the next step. He was
warned again and kept his expression iron, hoping he looked as
murderous as possible. He hated these perfect strangers, these men
and women who would facilitate the butchery of a human corpse.

Of a hero.

Nick took one final step. There should have
been words spoken here. She deserved a eulogy. He slowly anchored
her to the ground, unable to raise himself from his bent
position.

“I’m sorry, Pearlanne.” Nick kissed her
cheek. And then her lips. “I’m so sorry.”

Chapter 6

Friday

When he was released, Nick was surprised to see
Phoebe and Dolph waiting for him. It had been two weeks since he'd
seen them, three days after he'd been brought to this place. It
hadn't been as bad as he would've expected and Nick suspected Dolph
may have had something to do with that.

He couldn't help the smile creeping up the
corner of his mouth. Nick had a flash of memory of one Christmas
morning after all the presents had been unwrapped and his father
telling him to go to his closet. There had been something he had
needed Nick to grab and when he'd gotten there, Nick had seen a
brand new ten speed with a bow on it. He was probably smiling now
the way he had smiled then.

Dolph fixed him with those coal black eyes
and a blank face like he could spring into a flying knee kick any
second. Nick knew better. This was the man's version of a smile
even though it looked almost exactly like every other expression in
his arsenal. It was the way Dolph's eyes glittered and the extra
crinkles at their corners. Nick put his hand out almost at the same
time as Dolph and rather than a soul-crushing shake, it was gentle
and warm, two pumps and done.

Phoebe seemed to no longer be able to hold
herself back and threw her arms around his neck and squeezed.
Purple spots danced in his eyes before she let go and Nick was
positively grinning after.

He knew without anybody saying what was
coming. Still, he asked, if only to make it official.

“What are you guys doing here?”

Dolph slapped a meaty paw on his shoulder,
almost buckling his knees. The strength he'd gained from feeding
off those two vamps had faded entirely after two days.

“We came to take you home,” the man said.

Tears filled Nick’s eyes despite what he'd
known the second he'd seen them. The Olivia Cole-Carter Center
offered treatment for vamps and he was supposed to be getting on a
bus to a halfway house in Clawson. “I…I don't live there.”

Dolph squeezed his shoulder. It hurt, but it
was comforting, a good hurt.

“Of course you do,” Dolph said. “Phoebe told
me all about it.”

“Well, technically, I told you.” Nick swiped
his cheeks and smiled at him. “Are you fine with this?”

“No.” Dolph took a deep breath and looked at
Phoebe. “But my baby is a big girl and I guess I have to start
acting like it.” He sounded like he'd been trained to say that. The
words hadn't come off as natural in the slightest. “The way I
figure it, you lay your life down for this family, you may as well
be a part of it. Let's ride.”

Nick was happy to see the Hummer still drove.
Its formerly perfect black finish was marred and scratched like
someone had given a set of keys to an entire kindergarten class and
let them have at it. As they pulled out of the parking lot
something gave a chirping screech, but it was steady on its
wheels.

“You gonna get her fixed?” he leaned forward
and said to Dolph.

“I know a guy back home,” he said. “I
wouldn't let the hacks around here touch my baby.”

Nick hoped that was a sign that he was
leaving soon, though he didn't hold out hope. Dolph was a good
enough guy, but Nick didn't know how long he could be on edge with
him around.

He wanted to ask where Randy was, probably at
home. He sat back instead and listened as Dolph filled him in on
the goings on of the outside world while he'd been out of its
stream.

Lieutenant Leonard had been retired. Though
his discharge had been honorable he'd been considered an
embarrassment and a risk because the military's ranks had been
infiltrated by one of the monsters it had unofficially charged
itself with hunting.

Dolph guessed they would also be deeply
scrutinizing everyone he'd served with, particularly in Afghanistan
where it was suspected he’d contracted the rabisu. In the
meanwhile, Leonard had already been snapped up to fill the ghostly
and vague role of consultant by a military contractor.