Vamp-Hire (9 page)

“They don’t see it that way. These guys have
been working tight with each other going on a few months now.
You’re the only change, and then Snoop goes down and Emilio gets
his face broken.”

Okay, now he had to say it. “But you did
that.”

“Yes, I did. To protect you.” Nick opened his
mouth to protest. “Don’t look for it to make sense. Some things
just… suck.”

“So what do I do?” Nick had enjoyed the work
he had done today. There was something about working with his hands
that was rewarding. If he had stayed on it would have been a means
of supporting himself too. Also, he probably couldn’t keep up the
ruse about not living here for too much longer.

“Don’t worry, you’ll get your pay for today.
Even though you weren’t on the books, I’ll speak to Hector and make
it right.” After a pause, Dolph said, “Would you be interested in
helping me with something?”

“Like what?”

“Something from my former life. I do a little
consulting for the military on occasion.”

That intrigued Nick. He wanted to know why
this man was familiar to him. “Sure.”

Something changed in Dolph’s body language.
He shifted his shoulders, looking uncomfortable. “That brings me to
another thing. Bunny is a bit uncomfortable with me driving at
night and I’m not comfortable with her driving you to wherever you
live. So she wanted me to ask you to stay the night. It’d be in the
basement, and there’s only the mattress that was already down
there. It’s not much, but it’s either that or the floor.”

Ah, home again. Nick made a show of mulling
it over. He didn’t think Phoebe had a problem with her grandfather
driving Nick for his own sake, and he was grateful to be home for
the night all the same.

“I guess I’ll take it.”

The old man gave him a look like he’d rather
be punching something than be in this situation and nodded. They
watched the remainder of the sun set, the sky a pretty
scarlet-purple, although Nick didn’t think he could say the word
‘pretty’ in front of Dolph and live beyond the next three
seconds.

“You’re going to need to look presentable for
tomorrow,” Dolph said. “I don’t suppose you have any suits?”

“No.”

Dolph made a sound that was half growl, half
grunt. “I may have something that’ll fit you.”

They sat quietly for the next ten minutes
until Phoebe poked her head out. “Pop-Pop, I’m going to put Randy
down for the night. He’s super tired.”

“Wait a minute, I want to say goodnight to
the little monster.” He hefted his bulky frame off the porch and
stepped inside. Nick stood up and looked over his shoulder before
following; Phoebe was lingering by the door. That thing that had
been at the edge of the property hadn’t shown up yet. He passed by
Phoebe, who looked like she was trying to ask something with her
eyes.

A smile sneaked across his lips. “Your home
is very lovely, Bunny,” he said. She narrowed her eyes at him and
he smiled even more. It was either joke at her expense or be pissed
off that Dolph was fixing up the house. She slid a quick elbow into
his side as he walked passed her.

“Thanks,” she said.

It turned out they did have a minute or two
to talk when Pop-Pop took Randy upstairs to use the little boy’s
room.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Phoebe
whispered.

“I got your texts. And your voicemail. I
wanted to come see what they were doing. The foreman guy thought I
was one of the workers so I hung out.”

“Okay, but why are you here now? Everybody
else is gone.”

“Long story. I’ll sum it up: Dolph saved my
life.”

The toilet flushed and they took a step apart
from one another.

“Dolph?” she mouthed at him, her eyebrows
raised. Nick shrugged.

The sink ran for about twenty seconds and
then the door opened.

“Success!” Dolph said in his big voice.

“What?” Phoebe was doing an over-the-top
cartoonish voice too now. “I think it’s time for the peepee
dance.”

“The peepee dance?” Dolph asked with a
comically cocked eyebrow.

“The peepee dance.”

What the hell is happening? Nick thought as
the two of them began arrhythmically thrashing their limbs to
tunelessly hummed music. Nick thought his eyeballs would have
melted before seeing a guy as tough and old as Dolph do what he was
currently doing. Randy joined them, a big smile on his face as he
hopped from one foot to the other. He was proud of what he’d
accomplished.

“Why not?” Nick said and joined them.

* * *

Other than being a little damp, Nick’s
mattress wasn’t much worse for wear. He and Dolph had managed to
get it back down to the basement and Phoebe had given him sheets to
put on it. He’d dressed it while Dolph had showered, Nick
mistakenly assuming he’d have a minute or two to talk to her. The
former Marine had showered fast. Nick had barely put down his
pillow when he heard the water shut off.

After getting cleaned up himself, the old man
had caught him in the hall. “We’re going to leave around nine, so
that’ll give us plenty time to have something good for breakfast.
Take this.” He’d handed Nick some clothes on a hanger and now Nick
looked at them. A sharply pressed pair of khaki pants and a blue
shirt.

Nick cleaned off his shoes in the sink in one
of the rooms. As worn as they were, they’d have to do. He’d put up
a couple sheets of plastic wrap and taped them down to cover the
open hole in the wall where the egress window was going tomorrow
and shut the door to that room. Some genius had noticed his loose
window and fixed it. He wouldn’t be able to use that anymore.

He wasn’t certain what tomorrow had in store,
and would have to play it by ear. He had to find some means of
earning a living, and if that meant getting a little too close to
officialdom then he’d have to live with that.

Dolph seemed like he might be an okay guy.
Maybe he could tell him that this had been his house as a child. It
might be a funny story they could laugh over. However, Dolph seemed
the type to value honesty. Nick not being straightforward with him
from the start meant he was already in a trust deficit. Nick had to
figure a way out of this hole. Maybe he could take that plastic off
the wall, climb out, and not look back. Dolph didn’t know anything
about him except his first name and what he looked like. Nick could
hide and wait for him to leave. No, that didn’t seem like it would
work, either. Once you started running you had to keep running.

Nick lay down on his semi soggy mattress. He
was actually tired. Normally, by this time if he had laid down to
sleep it was a fifty-fifty shot whether or not he would actually be
able to. As his mind drifted, he wondered for a moment what
tomorrow would bring.

He has been following the small crowd for
several blocks. These would-be partygoers have assumed he is
another one of them, looking for an all-night party. He smells his
prey and traces his tongue across the fangs behind his teeth. It is
well after midnight and every single one of them is violating
curfew.

He walks faster, stepping on the shoes of the
lambs directly in front of him, roughly shouldering the others out
of his way.

“Hey!” a lamb bleats. He doesn’t turn to
acknowledge her and smiles when her boyfriend calls him a name.
There is only one between him and his prey and he places a hand on
a bare, muscular shoulder and shoves him to the ground. The lamb
climbs off the ground, a few of the others coming to his side as he
gets up.

The prey stops and looks. They are all
watching him. They curse him. Threaten him. One lamb steps forward
and shoves him. He is in a crowd of about fifteen and he could
easily kill them all. He turns to his prey, feeling the bones in
his hand begin to shift.

He keeps it in check long enough to make a
fist and punch his prey. The lamb stumbles back, though the blow
was nowhere near as hard as he could have hit. The lambs surge
forward, hitting him, knocking him to the ground. The blows hurt
like flashes of light at the other end of a long tunnel. He covers
his head and allows them to go on, letting the change wash over
him.

Some begin to notice something is wrong and
their blows become lighter. One of the lambs screams and jumps
back. Several begin moving away until only one or two are standing
within arm’s reach.

“What the hell?” one says. He doesn’t give
them another moment to think about what is happening. He reaches
out, impossibly fast, knocking a lamb aside and seizing his prey.
He fastens his fangs on its neck and shakes him like a rag doll,
splashing the lambs closest to him in his prey’s blood.

He drops the body and glares at the ones who
are still here. He roars and the last of them run away. He will get
them. He will get them all.

Soon.

Chapter 3

Tuesday

Breakfast was bland, this time not because of his
malfunctioning taste buds. It was steel cut oats with toast and
coffee. Nick suspected that had his taste buds been functioning
properly, his pill would have tasted better. The kitchen didn’t
even smell like anything good outside of coffee, which of course,
Dolph had black. He seemed in a mood so Nick didn’t ask for cream
and sugar for his own and choked his down. Phoebe and Randy were
already gone. She had to be to work by nine, which meant having her
son dropped off by a quarter after eight. Nick wasn’t supposed to
know that and said nothing.

They ate in silence while Dolph read the
paper. Well, near silence anyway. Dolph would grunt sporadically at
whatever article he was reading. Nick noticed he took a deep sip of
his coffee before eating his oats, then his toast, then sipped from
the cup. It looked almost ritualistic. He wondered if Dolph had
OCD. Perhaps he felt off-put at not smashing the opposite side of
Emilio’s face to make both sides match.

Despite being exhausted last night, Nick
hadn’t slept well. He’d dreamed, only remembering corners of it.
Someone was chasing someone, but he couldn’t remember if he was the
chaser or the chasee. He kept rubbing at his neck like it hurt.

Dolph slapped his paper down. “It’s time to
go.”

Nick followed the bigger man outside,
noticing he had his own keys to lock the door. Nick didn’t even
have his own key. He could go as he pleased, even though he could
only come when Phoebe was home and could open the door; a
concession he’d made because of her son. Now he didn’t even have
his window exit even though technically he would be able to walk
out anytime through the egress window once that was installed.

The sun was high up in the clear blue sky,
but it felt painted on. It was much colder than yesterday and Nick
zipped up his jacket. As they crossed the walk to the driveway,
Dolph thumbed the key fob to unlock the Hummer’s doors. Their next
door neighbor came out; a fortyish-looking man in a tan suit
carrying a briefcase.

The man spotted them and came halfway over.
“Hi, neighbor. I’m Tom Palmer. We just moved in the day before
yesterday.” Tom had a gap between his front teeth and blond hair
that was graying at the sides. He looked slovenly in a short sleeve
checkered shirt and pants that looked like they’d never seen an
iron before.

At least his shoes looked clean. Nick
preferred to think something positive about people whenever he
could.

Dolph grunted a response and Nick said hello.
The man offered a hand and Nick shook it, then Palmer reached
toward Dolph. The old man slowly grabbed his hand, gave it one firm
pump and released. Even though it was a little early in their
relationship, Nick could sense he was angry.

“So welcome to the neighborhood, huh?” he
said as if they were the ones who’d just moved in. “Saw you were
doing some work yesterday.”

“Yeah,” Nick said. “Welcome, welcome. So
where are you and the missus from?”

“Toledo. The job transferred me and the
missus up here for the Great Rebuild and all. How about you
guys?”

“We’re gay,” Dolph said. “And we’re late.”
Nick felt his face flush and Dolph climbed into the Hummer. Nick
couldn’t bear to look at Tim and hopped in the passenger seat,
tossing his duffel bag in the back.

“Why the hell did you say that?”

“That’s the other thing I’ve been meaning to
talk to you about,” Dolph said. “Shut up.” They peeled out of the
driveway and accelerated to the corner. Dolph made a rolling stop
and cut in front of a car.

“Okay, at the risk of having my head chopped
off I’m going to ask. What’s your problem?”

“That man beats his wife. Maybe he didn’t
have time to do it between his morning shave and his Cheerios, but
he likes to slap her around on occasion.”

“You saw him do that?” Nick turned his head
in the direction of the rapidly receding house.

“No. If I saw him do that, he’d be dead
already. I didn’t need to see him do it to know he does it. You
didn’t notice how wrinkled his suit was? The ring around his
collar? His bruised knuckles?”

Nick hadn’t. “So what?” he said. “Just
because the guy’s a slob doesn’t make him a woman beater.”

“I’m going to let you in on two secrets you
wouldn’t know about as a bachelor. One—no self-respecting woman
would allow her husband to leave for work looking unpresentable.
Two—women are typically smaller and physically weaker. So when they
get us back it’s sometimes in ways we don’t even realize. Did your
good friend Tom look a little green around the gills?”

Nick had noticed something was a little off
about his complexion, he didn’t know that Tom didn’t look like that
all the time, though.

“So what are you saying? She’s poisoning
him?”

“Exactly. Maybe she’s called the police,
maybe she hasn’t. Maybe she feels like she’s in a place where she
can’t rely on anybody to help her out of a bad situation. The way I
see it, it’s a wash, a race to the finish line to see who kills who
first.”