What Happens in the Darkness (26 page)

“It was my dad’s,” he said quietly.

“Oh. Sorry.” She wished she had something of her mother’s to wear.

“S’okay.” There was silence, but it wasn’t awkward. It was strangely comforting for Janelle.

“I’m Thomas.”

“Janelle.”

Again silence. This time he leaned against the lion, and they enjoyed one another’s company without having to say a word.

*** 

The young guy they brought back looked pissed, and afraid. He struggled against their vice grips, but his eyes were wide and glassy. They dragged him inside the caves, to Martin, and pushed him to the ground beside the bed.

“Fuck you! Fuck you!” A string of saliva dangled from his lips, but his head hung dejectedly. He cocked his head up and scowled. He was surrounded, and seemed to be admitting defeat in a defiant way—as if resigned to his fate but not willing to go down without a fight. “I don’t want to be a goddamned vampire!”

“You’re not,” Martin said. “I really am sorry. I know it’s unfair to sacrifice one so another may live, but such is the way of things.”

“
Sacrifice
? Fuck you!” the guy screamed, scrambling away on his butt.

Martin nodded, which set the vampires in motion. Dagan chased after the human, and he and a handful of others dragged the victim back.

“Over here,” Martin said.

They picked him effortlessly up off the floor and held him over Jeff’s prone body.

“I want his neck over Jeff’s mouth,” Martin said breathily, closing in on the human, Martin’s claws unsheathed, his fangs glistening with saliva.

Jeff tried to open his eyes, which were crusted over with dirt and fungus. They were sunken into his head, giving him an ancient appearance, a look of death and suffering many times over. A thick slab of tongue popped out of his mouth, and he tried to lick his withered, cracked lips. “Don’t …” he gasped.

“Don’t try to talk,” Martin said, clasping Jeff’s hand.

The human, staring into the face of the diseased vampire, began to wail. He bucked and thrashed, but Dagan and the others held him.

“Let me die …” Jeff moaned, sounding ancient, tired, suffering so much. “Please … die …”

But it was too late. Martin’s claws were in the human’s throat, ripping it open, blood pouring from the wound, splashing Jeff’s face and neck and hair. He lapped it up, not meaning to, not wanting to, unable to control his bloodlust. He moaned at his salvation, cried at his damnation.

The drained, dead human was taken away, and Jeff sank back against the pillows.

“Is he okay now?” Dagan asked.

Martin looked up and slowly licked the blood from his fingers. “I hope so.”

“Do you know who did this to him?”

Martin shook his head. “I strongly suspect Patrick.”

Dagan thought for a moment and then nodded. “Makes perfect sense. Unfortunately. What are you planning to do?”

“If it’s true … I don’t want to think about what I’ll do.”

*** 

A little while later Martin met with Dagan, Nelson, Rebecca, Lana, and Paula. Too many of his original family were still unaccounted for—the twins, and now Patrick. He didn’t want to think about Patrick.

In the large cave, several thousand vampires waited for Martin to speak. Waited for his guidance, his leadership. To tell them what was next.

Martin was aware of this as he paced the living room. “Are you waiting for me to say something?” he asked, stopping abruptly. “Well don’t. Don’t hold your breath—as it were.” He resumed pacing.

“We knew this was bound to happen,” Lana said quietly. “Why are you so upset?”

“Why am I upset? Lana, you remember what it was like. You go back almost as far as I do.”

She nodded. “I remember.”

“What is it?” Dagan asked. “What’s the matter?”

Martin finally sat on the sofa, his long legs stretched out and crossed at the ankles. “Lana and I remember what it was like, hundreds of years ago. We sacrificed much when we allowed ourselves to be captured.”

“Allowed?” Rebecca leaned forward in her chair. “Why would you do that?”

Martin closed his eyes, his long lashes dusting his high cheekbones. “We were defeated. It was that or death. And I wasn’t yet ready to die. A permanent death I mean, of course.

“There isn’t much to tell. Lana and I knew each other in life, and when I sired her, to join me in our deaths and undeaths, she and I planned to spend eternity together. And for several hundred years we traveled together, and we survived. We made the unfortunate mistake of visiting this country about two hundred years ago. At that time, there were seven of us—Lana, me, Patrick, Tim, Luke—and of course Dagan and Rebecca. I expected the loyalty to be endless, and without defiance. What Patrick has done is unimaginable. I never expected this to happen.”

“None of you knew this? You didn’t know what Patrick was like?” Nelson asked. “I mean, you spend two hundred years together, yet this was a surprise?”

They nodded
yes
, all but Paula, who shrugged. She said, “I’m new too.”

“Well,” Nelson said, scratching his short, kinky beard. “I have to say, not needing to shave after all this time is going to be a pleasure. Still, I’m kinda torn about all this. It’s not like I was given a choice. The dudes who sired me and my people invaded my assisted-living residence. I’ll tell you, Martin, I’d much rather have done this twenty years ago.”

“Why?” Martin asked. “Age has no meaning anymore. You’re the same as the rest of us.”

“I know, but I just don’t
look
the part. A little too much gray in the old beard.”

Martin smiled. “You’ll be fine.”

“Okay,” Dagan said, clapping his hands together. “So now what? We won their blasted war for them, didn’t we? What happens next?”

“Easy, Lucky Charms,” Rebecca teased. “Don’t get your panties in a bunch.”

“I hate that expression,” he said, shoving her.

“Good question,” Martin said. “That’s why I’ve asked you to join me. You’ve each proven to be exceptional leaders, and I think it’s time we come up with some plans.”

“This isn’t going to be good. Is it?” Paula asked, planting her face in her palms. “I mean, the humans aren’t going to just accept us back.”

“Probably not.” Martin shook his head.

“I saw my daughter,” Paula blurted, sounding wistful. “She recognized me, wanted to come to me. But then when she saw what I am, she threatened me with crucifixes.”

“That’s how humans are,” Lana spat. “You were human just a short time ago. I’ll bet you didn’t even believe vampires existed.”

“No, I didn’t,” she said. “Not outside of Bela Lugosi movies. But I remember what it was like. If I’d seen one, I doubt I would’ve believed it anyway.”

“Should we approach them?” Nelson asked. “Maybe try to work something out?”

“First things first,” Martin said. “I have to find Patrick, find out what he’s up to.”

“I told you what we saw,” Rebecca said. “It looked like he was trying to kill Jeff.”

“Yes he was,” a voice said from the shadows near the entrance. “That’s exactly what he was trying to do.” Jeff joined the group and sat across from Martin.

“How do you feel?” Martin asked, and Jeff turned away.

“What did he do to you?” Rebecca asked, taking Jeff’s hand.

“He threw me out at sunrise. I was able to avoid the direct sunlight, which is the only reason I survived. When he came outside at sundown, he saw that I was still alive—sort of—and began to kick the crap out of me. That’s when you came along.”

“Patrick’s the one who sired you,” Martin said. It wasn’t a question.

Jeff nodded. “Yes, it was Patrick. He blamed me for everything that’s happened to all of you, especially for waiting so long to let you out.”

“That’s crazy,” Dagan said.

“I need to know where you stand,” Martin said to Jeff. “You were changed against your will. I understand if you have no loyalties to me, but I need to know. Where do you stand in this fight?”

“I stand beside you,” Jeff said. “I have a loyalty to Patrick, but I’m fighting it. But you’ll always be my friend, regardless of the circumstances. This wasn’t your fault. I know you forbade this—Patrick disobeyed you.”

Martin smiled. “I’m happy to hear that.”

Paula cleared her throat. “So how do we fit in out there? How do we get humans to accept us?”

Martin, Dagan, and Rebecca exchanged glances and then burst out laughing.

“Not going to happen,” Rebecca said.

“But we saved their asses!” Paula cried. “If it wasn’t for us, they’d all be speaking—” She scratched her head. “What? I don’t know, anything but English, goddammit.”

“I know,” Martin said. “But it doesn’t change anything. They fear us. Hate us. Want us dead. Yeah we saved them, but that doesn’t matter. We’re monsters.”

Jeff rubbed his healing, bloodshot eyes. “We should try, I think.”

“He’s right,” Rebecca said. “Some people out there actually seemed grateful.”

“Okay then,” Martin said. “We try. But first—I have some vampire ass to kick.”

Chapter 22 

“My mom’s a vampire.”

“That sounds like a bad movie title or something.” Thomas handed Janelle a candy bar. The store they raided was dark and stank from the food that had begun rotting weeks earlier. Cloying scents of decayed fruits and meats hung thick in the air. The walls were almost bare, but they found a handful of food everyone and everything else had overlooked. Rodent droppings were an inch thick on the floor.

“I wish. But it’s true—I saw her. She’s one of them.” Janelle remembered her face—how it had been the same yet different. There was something very different about her mother. Something terrible and frightening.

“I saw my folks get killed,” he said, chewing on his Snicker’s bar.

“I saw mine get killed too. But I guess Mom didn’t get killed enough.” Janelle frowned, suddenly no longer in the mood to eat her Milky Way.

“Where do you suppose they go? During the day, I mean.”

“I know where they go,” Janelle said.

“You do?”

She nodded and wiped the chocolate on her fingers on her pants. “One of them told me. She was really nice till she became one of
them
. Then the head vampire—Martin—he wanted me to go with him. I told him no way and shoved my crucifix in his face, and he got pissed off.”

“No kidding? That really happen?”

“Uh huh. He saved my life though.”

“Now way! A bloodsucker saved you?”

She nodded. “Enemy soldiers caught me. One was tryin’ to do nasty things to me, you know? Martin broke the jerk’s neck—”

“That his name? Martin?”

“Uh huh. He snapped his neck like a chicken bone. Snap! Broke the other guard’s neck too. Snap! Snap! It was kinda cool. In a scary way.”

Thomas shuddered. “So where are they? Where do they sleep?”

“Some army base upstate.”

“But where?”

She shrugged, and stuffed candy bars off the rack into her backpack. “I forget. If I hear the name again, I’ll remember.”

“If you hear the name again you won’t have to remember.”

“Duuuuh. You know what I meant.”

He laughed. “So you wanna go?”

She stopped cramming candy into her pack and considered his question. “I guess. I do wanna see Mom again … but I’m scared of what she might do. You know? I mean, she’s a vampire and all.”

He nodded and jumped up on the counter, swinging his legs. “I know. But what else are we gonna do anyway?”

She shrugged and cautiously moved toward another aisle, wary of possible rodents. Damned rats were huge in the city, and the last thing she needed was a rat bite that could take off her arm and give her rabies. “I don’t know. Things are getting back to normal around here. Do we really need to go?”

“It would be an adventure.”

“Right. Do you really need more adventure?”

He stopped swinging his legs. He leaned back and looked behind the counter. The register was wide open, and he grabbed a fistful of dollars.

“What are you doing?” she asked. “It’s not like we need cash!”

“No, maybe not, but maybe someday!” He slid farther back and started pulling packs of cigarettes from the overhead racks.

“Cigarettes, Thomas? Really?”

“You ever seen prison movies? Maybe we can use them like money, or trade them. Can’t hurt.”

“I guess.” She shrugged, heading back up front. The store shelves were almost bare, and the boxes had been picked through by mice and rats. She reached another aisle and started packing canned foods into her bag.

“So would we try to stop them?” he asked. “Run stakes through their hearts?”

“I just got done telling you my mom’s one of them!”

“Oh. Right.”

Most of the bags of potato chips had been chewed open, but Janelle found a few intact and pushed them into her backpack. “No one around here will even talk about them.”

“I know. I saw.”

“We have to make them talk. Because we need help.”

“Help with what? You just said we can’t kill them.”

“We can’t kill my mom.”

“We can kill the other ones?”

She stopped packing her bag and stood for a moment considering his words. She stared at the ceiling. Then she resumed packing, ignoring his question because she had no idea how to answer. 

*** 

Traveling the hundred miles over a countryside layered with newly fallen snow took minutes. The bleached whiteness outlined the hills and silhouetted the trees, and the almost-full moon spotlighted the landscape.

Still, they moved with such speed they were invisible, were sensed by the animals and surviving humans they passed. They perhaps smelled the vampires’ scents—musky and earthy and frightening.

Rebecca led the way, bringing Martin, Jeff, and fifty other vampires back to where she had last seen Patrick. Several hours remained before sunup. Plenty of time.

They arrived at the cabin, and Martin smashed his fists against the front door, breaking through like it was kindling. His entourage followed as he made his way downstairs.

No one was there. No indication they were returning from a hunt. No personal belongings, no candles burning, nothing. It looked as if no one had been here at all. But telltale signs told a different story: desiccated human husks were stacked in the corner like a cord of firewood. Blood lay a new pattern on the floor and adorned the walls like a Pollack painting.