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I let myself into my apartment and sank to the couch. My mind was in a tailspin and I was fighting to keep it from crashing. How could all of this be possible? The strange thing was that it made sense in a really sick kind of way.
A dream that I’d had many times over the years filled my mind. I was on an old fishing boat, which had never made sense because I’d never gone fishing in my life. The waves had been rough and were splashing over the side. Something broke, a large pole of some kind that had heavy ropes attached to it. One of the ropes sailed through the air toward me, a large hook on the end of it. The knot on the rope had knocked me back as a wave had me off balance, and the hook had dug through my side as if I were soft butter. I had screamed, and the hook yanked back as the pole that the rope was attached jerked the other way. The hook had ripped me practically in half. My body falling back against the side behind me, as another wave tossed the boat and I went right over into the water.
I rubbed my hands down my face. Was it possible that dream was how my great-grandfather had died? If what they said was correct, then that could possibly be a memory from my soul and not a dream at all. My great-grandfather hadn’t been put to rest at sea, he had been lost at sea.
This was ridiculous. Was I really believing this crap?
I went into my bathroom, striped down and got into the shower, and my phone began to ring, “Speaker.” I said without even thinking. “Hello?”
“Hugh?”
“Yeah, Tom. Why are you calling me so late?”
“Because I just got word that some of Portage’s people showed up in Philadelphia. They were causing a scene down at that club that the Mistress had been seen in.”
“When was this?”
“About an hour ago. Some video showed up on the news channels. I guess they were sending a message to her.”
“What was the message?” I asked as I lathered soap over my face.
“They attacked a few of the creatures there, said they were looking for a certain dance partner. They killed four of the vampires, on camera! Plus, they killed nineteen humans on the streets, bled them out right there for everyone to see.”
“That was on the news?”
“No, thank god, they didn’t show the human deaths.”
I winced. The news had been banned from showing those particular types of scene. “How did the other ones get on the news then?”
“We don’t know. The news station stated that it showed up and they had nothing to do with it. Someone took over their airwaves and posted it without them knowing.”
“Is it still out there?”
“No, but I have a copy of it. I just sent it over.”
“Alright, let me finish my shower and I’ll look at it.”
“Have you spoken to the Mistress again and gotten anywhere? Is she willing to start helping us?”
I almost laughed, “I’m still working on her. I’ll give her a call later after I watch the video, see if she has anything to say about it.”
“Let me know after you do. I’m afraid that this is going to escalate quickly. If they would just work with us, we might be able to deal with this together and keep harmless people from being caught in the crossfire. In the meantime, tell her to stay the hell inside, and stop causing scenes. It’s like she was inviting them to come here and cause trouble. We don’t need this shit here!”
“Yeah, I’ll tell her.” Not that I thought it would do anything. I was pretty sure she wasn’t going to listen to me anytime soon. He hung up after muttering about our world going to hell in a handbasket and I finished my shower.
Back in my room, I called out for the video that he had sent over and watched it on my large television screen. The deaths of the four vampires were violent, and I noted on each one of them how they not only had their throats slashed, but their hearts staked. It was like it was snowing around the club with all the ash the filtered through the air. The strobe lights glistening one the flakes as they drifted through the air like confetti.
I sat there watching it over and over again, studying the people in the video. I recognized two of them as being henchmen of Portage, but the other five that were on the video weren’t people that I knew. Most likely, underlings that carried out the dirty work.
I picked up my phone, “Call the Mistress.” I said to it and then put it to my ear. It rang twice and went to voicemail.
“Hey, I’m not sure if you are aware, but someone was trying to send you a message tonight—at least I think they were. Nineteen humans were killed before your friends showed up at the club. I was just calling to make sure you were aware of it. I’m assuming that you are, but just in case. Right now, my office and ICE are up in arms. I’m sure it’s going to be hell tomorrow. Can you give me a call back, after knowing what I know, I’m having a hard time trying to figure out what I’m supposed to do with this come tomorrow?”
I hung up the phone and waited as I went through a few emails, several of them about the incident tonight. My phone rang and I answered without looking at the screen.
“Yeah?”
“Hey, lover boy.” A seductive voice came over the line and I frowned.
“Angelina?”
“Ah, I thought maybe I could confuse you for a moment.”
“No, your voice is rather distinctive. Where is your sister?”
“She’s busy, as you can expect. She told me to call you and tell you thank you. We were already aware of them showing up at the club. We were not aware of the human carnage that they left in their wake.”
“What is she going to do about it?”
“Who wants to know? The cop, or the bad vampire boy?”
I laughed slightly, “Maybe both. Is she going to do something about this?”
“Of course, she is.”
“Well, what is it?” She didn’t reply right away so I continued, “Look, the people I work with know that I’m in contact with her. They wanted me to try and form a relationship with her so that she would come to trust us.”
“Is that the only reason you’ve been hanging around?”
“No, I happen to like Kristin, but I do have a job to do.”
“For how much longer, I wonder.” Angelina said softly. “I mean, you’re going to be dead soon if you stay with your job.”
“Thanks for the reminder. Right now, my concern is for the people that are being tossed out like garbage into the middle of the street. I need to know what she is going to do to stop that. If I don’t learn something, this task force that I head up is going to come banging on her door in a not so nice way.”
“Is that a threat, Hugh?”
“It’s not a threat, Angelina. It is what will happen.”
“And you’re in charge of this task force, huh?”
“One of the people in charge.”
She grew quiet again, “I’m sorry that she can’t speak with you right now, but she’s getting ready to go out dancing. Strange isn’t it that she would want to do that when all of this is happening?”
“She’s going out to meet them?”
“I didn’t say that. I said she was going out dancing.”
“Dangers in the Darkness? That’s where she’s going?”
“Yep, she loves to dance.”
“Why are you telling me this?”
Her voice grew lower as if she didn’t want anyone else to hear her, “Because if you want to see firsthand what this war is about, then you might want to be there to watch.” Her voice grew louder, “Well, you have a good night. I’ll let her know you said hello. Hope to see you soon.”
She didn’t even give me a chance to respond before the line was dead. I thought about it for a whole two seconds, and then jumped up and got dressed. Before I left, I made sure to put my gun on, and grabbed and extra magazine to slip into my coat pocket. Because of my job, and the task force that I worked on, I now had that special ammunition that could put a vampire down. It wouldn’t kill them, but it would hurt like hell.
I was out the door ten minutes later and grabbed a transport. I had it drop me off a block away from the dance club and I moved into the shadows to wait. Hopefully, they weren’t here yet.
It was twenty minutes later when a larger transport pulled down the street and stopped in front of the club door. They started to climb out and I saw Angelina step out and put her nose into the air, she smiled and looked right at me. Damn, I was hoping that I could have watched from a distance without anyone knowing I was here.
Kristin was right behind her with Joshua, and she took two steps toward the club before she spun around, and her eyes lightened so much that they almost glowed in the darkness. “What the hell are you doing here?”
Well, no use hiding now, I stepped out of the shadows and Joshua and another guy I didn’t know stepped in front of her. She pushed them aside and met me halfway.
“I asked you why you were here.”
“I told him to come.” Angelina said as she joined us.
Kristin spun on her sister, “Why would you do that? Are you trying to get him killed?”
“I thought he should know.” She said quietly and looked behind her at the group on alert.
“Jesus, Angelina, this is not his business.”
“Yes, it is.” I replied. “I’m trying to help you stop a war. If there is something that I, or the people I work with can do to help, then we need to do it.”
“You humans cannot do anything to stop this war, and if you try to get in the way, you will all be killed.”
“Then tell me how I can protect them. How I can protect the humans?”
“Why should I care about them?” She snapped and I shuffled forward slightly.
“Kristin, you were a cop once. To me that means that you cared about people, that you wanted to help them. Are you trying to tell me that after all these years, you no longer have any of that blue blood left in your veins? Has it all been burnt away with violence and control?”
Her eyes actually darkened slightly, and she averted her gaze for a moment, “Of course, I care, but I care about my people, too.”
“Then let me help you. Let me stay here to see what happens, see if there is something that I can do to help protect my people. I need to understand this.”
She stared at me and I wondered what she saw. After another two seconds of quiet she stepped toward me, “I’ll let you stay, but you have to do something for me.”
“What?”
“You have to take my blood first.”
“What?”
“Kris, is that a good idea to do right here?”
“Of course not, but I need him protected. This is the only way I can do it.”
“How is that going to protect me?”
She pulled the sleeve of her blouse up and bit her wrist. “Drink and you’ll find out.”
I stared at her wrist, a part of me wanting to drop to my knees and lap at the crimson on her wrist, the other trying not to freak out.
“Do it, Hugh.” Angelina said softly. “You’ll be okay.”
Kristin’s eyes glowed almost silver for a moment and I heard the next word slip over her lips, “Now.” I didn’t have any other thoughts as I lifted her wrist to my mouth and licked at the blood.
It burned the inside of my mouth, but the flavor was nothing like I’d ever tasted before. It wasn’t the metallic taste of normal blood; it was sweet almost creamy. I sucked once hard, and then she pulled her wrist away from my mouth and licked the holes. My body began to tingle, but it wasn’t in a bad way, it was as if it were coming alive.
“Watch him,” Kristin snapped at her sister and turned to the head into the club.
“How do you feel?” She whispered toward me.
“Not bad.” I answered. “I think.”
Angelina hooked her arm in mine and turned me toward the door, where eight pairs of eyes were staring at me in a mixture of confusion and awe. Ah, shit.