“It was Proctor’s idea. He knew the music scene, knew that after a night of dancing and drinking and drugs that we’d have easy pickings from the herd. Just scoop them off the floor like sleeping lambs. And he was right. We fed well. We had fun.
“Then we heard about a couple of DJs who were experimenting with music and mind-expanding drugs, trying to create a new reality, or open the door to a different one. We figured the feeding would be even easier. Back in the Sixties, I lived in San Francisco and I could do damn near anything I pleased in broad moonlight, thank you Timothy Leary.
“Proctor wanted to get directly involved. He missed being human. So young still, that he wanted to keep the connection. I was stupid and indulgent and I let him. So we found the DJs. Revealed ourselves, offered our services. The worst mistake we ever made.
“They were charming. Charismatic enough to con vampires. Janice introduced Eleventh Hour to Tally’s. Trixster got us to help him steal the…” The vampire paused, looked down, swallowed hard. “The flute. He’d gone hiking once near four corners and heard it calling to him. It spoke in his dreams, told him what to do. So he met us, met and befriended the flute’s guardians, got close to them using the same charisma, and we killed them.
“They didn’t stay dead.” Nadine looked at Amanda. “And that’s when our hell started.”
Trixster, like any musician, decided to master his new instrument. But it mastered him instead. Nadine told us how he’d play for hours, going without food or water. And so did anyone within earshot of the flute, the three hapless vampires included. They’d moved into the house by then. The flute would play and they would forget to go out and hunt, or to sleep if Trixster played during the day. They stayed in the pitch-black basement, listening, caught in a waking-dream. Nadine wouldn’t say what they dreamed, only that it made them scream almost loud enough to drown out the flute. Almost.
I don’t think I want to know what scares vampires that bad.
When it was night and the vampires could come upstairs, Trixster made them watch as he channeled more of Kokopelli with every song. He transformed, his body stretching and blackening, hardening into a shiny shell that reflected back everything that made them scream.
And Eleventh Hour changed, too.
“His mate,” Grandma said. “Kokopelli-Mana.”
“The drug-dealer.” Amanda had done a great job of not fidgeting while Nadine talked, though I could feel her desire to draw up magic. “The one responsible for Kokopelli’s offspring. Makes sense.”
“The former guardians, the ones we killed, they went back out into the desert and harvested the tobacco growing wild there. It’s tainted.”
“And made worse by Tally’s.” Amanda twined her long hair around her fingers. “Do you know what happened to the drugs?”
“No.”
While Trixster/Kokopelli played, he recorded the music. In human form he remixed the flute into other tracks. The music we’d heard at the rave. He and Eleventh Hour only transformed while he played the flute, so they could perform without giving themselves away.
“And still test the magic.” Nadine shuddered. “Create more recruits.” She looked at her dead family. “Like us. Helpless to do anything but what they want. To worship…” Her words trailed off into sobs.
“After their last show, we all came back to the house and took anything incriminating. They knew the police would have questions after the dancers didn’t wake up. We’ve been hiding out ever since. But it doesn’t matter. They’ll just charm the cops, too. They aren’t getting locked up. They have bigger plans.”
“More recruits.” I said.
Nadine shook her head slightly, looking at me like I was the slowest student in the class. “Worshippers. Slaves.”
“Zombies.” Brand said.
Nadine took one last look at Proctor and Janice. “I made them,” she said to herself. “I’m a monster, too.”
“Well, I’m glad this has been so therapeutic for you.”
Amanda shot me a hard look. “Kelly.”
Nadine touched Amanda’s bare forearm. I saw her flinch under the dead fingers. The vampire smiled at her, then looked at me. “Kelly’s right, I’m a monster. And all I have to look forward to is centuries of reliving a handful of torturous months, the mutilated bodies of my…of the ones I turned haunting my dreams. I’ll never turn anyone again. No matter how they beg. No matter how lonely I get.”
I golf-clapped. “Bravo. She’s cured.”
Brand laughed.
Ramona and Grandma kept their thoughts to themselves. So did Jessica.
Amanda shook her head and stood up. She motioned for Nadine to stand and walk ahead of her. “We’ll take care of Proctor and Janice. Do you have any specific wishes for their—”
Nadine lunged for my throat.
Silly vampire. In went the tonfa. I took her head off with one of the blades I keep on my walls for just such an emergency. Three little dead vampires, courtesy of this big bad wolf.
Amanda fumed at me. “You could have quit at the tonfa.”
I wiped off the blade. “Don’t be such a bleeding heart. I did what she wanted. Suicide by Sekutar.