* * *
They drove up to a furniture store, dark and locked up for the night. They parked in the empty parking lot under the lone streetlamp in the middle of it. They both got out of the car and looked around.
"Well, it should be somewhere around here," Will said, glancing at the GPS screen.
Just then an old truck drove by and slowed down to almost a crawl.
"Maybe this isn't the best part of town," Emily said nervously.
The truck turned to drive into the lot as Emily and Will inched back toward their own car to get inside it again.
The truck parked about twenty feet away from them and a man got out. Wearing a baseball cap and a red plaid flannel shirt. Henry.
"Oh, thank God," Emily whispered in relief.
Henry walked toward them looking determined. "I know this is gonna sound crazy," he said, "but I swear I really know you from somewhere."
"What are you, drawn to us like a magnet?" Will asked.
"What?" Henry said, looking confused.
"It's okay," Emily said. "Get back inside your truck and we'll explain everything." She put her hand on his back in a comforting way.
"You guys are really freaking me out," Henry said.
"Really," Will said, "let's just get you back in your truck and we'll all have a nice little talk." He put his hand on Henry's back too. The two of them led him back to his truck while he looked suspiciously from one to the other. He climbed in reluctantly and closed the door and rolled down the window.
"Okay, what?" he asked.
Will pulled out a pellet gun and shot him in the shoulder. Henry's eyes slowly closed and he slumped forward onto his steering wheel, causing the horn to blare.
Will quickly grabbed Henry and lifted him off the horn and leaned him back into his seat. "There's no need to be dramatic about it, Henry," he said.
They looked around quickly to see if anyone had heard the commotion. Apparently not. Emily climbed into Henry's truck to work on erasing his memory. Again.
Once she was done, she locked the passenger door. Then she went around and rolled up his driver side window. "To keep him safe," she said. Then she thought better of it and cracked the window open a little bit. "So, he can breathe," she told Will.
"He's not a dog," Will said. "What is it with you and this guy? You sure do mollycoddle him a lot."
Emily shrugged her shoulders as she made sure Henry had his keys, they were still in the ignition. Then she locked his driver side door and shut it. "Safe and sound," she said happily. Then she picked up Will's arm that had the alarm so she could look at the screen. "Where's our paranormal dot?" she asked.
He looked at it too. "Still around here somewhere," he said. Then he looked up and saw something that made him grab Emily's arm and pull her hard toward the ground as he ducked too.
"What the hell was that?" Emily hissed.
"That's the guy that bit me!" Will whispered back. "He's walking down that street!"
"The vampire?" Emily said.
"Vampire, yes, whatever," Will said.
"Well, that's our paranormal thing then," Emily said. "Let's look up vampires in the book and kill him right quick so we can go home to bed already." She dug through the backpack to get the book. She flipped through the pages to the vampire section.
"Oh," she said.
"What?" Will looked worried.
"Well, we don't kill him. We inoculate him. That's what they call it. Actually it's like an antidote to vampirism. There's a little gun thing that we shoot him with. See, here's a drawing." She showed Will. "Did we pack that one?" she asked nervously.
"Yeah, I have all the small ones in here," Will said, digging through the backpack. But by then the vampire had turned the corner around the parking lot and walked down the street far enough that he could see them huddled behind the truck. He paused for a moment and then changed his path and started walking right towards them with a confident lazy swagger.
"Oh, shit," Will said. He dug through the bag more frantically as he and Emily stood up, prepared to fight or run. Will had just found the inoculation gun when the vampire took a flying leap and jumped on him. The inoculator fell to the ground and the vampire pinned Will on top of it. Emily screamed.
The vampire covered Will's mouth to prevent him from screaming as he bit into his neck. Emily dug frantically through the bag, looking for the inoculator, unaware that Will had found it. She wondered desperately if she had anything like a cross or holy water or a wooden stake or anything she knew was supposed to stop vampires. She kicked the vampire and tried to pry him off Will. The vampire just shoved her away with his free arm. Then he stopped sucking on Will's neck and spit on the ground.
"Now I remember why I left you before," the vampire said to Will. Then he turned to look up at Emily, "But I haven't tasted you yet."
Her eyes got wide as the vampire stood up and looked at her menacingly. She started to back away from him, and he lunged at her. She screamed and ran. He chased her. She ran around the building and into the alley, thinking she could hide better in the dark shadows there.
Will watched them go as he staggered to his feet. He grabbed the inoculator from the ground, and started to stumble after them. Then he heard her scream.
Even though he was dizzy from blood loss, he made himself run around the corner where she had gone. He got into the alley and saw Emily pressed up against the old brick building's wall, with the vampire holding her there and sucking on her neck. She was struggling.
Will ran up to them and shot the vampire in the neck with the inoculator. Nothing happened. The vampire kept sucking Emily's blood. She had stopped struggling now. Her eyes had begun to close. Why was the antidote not stopping this guy?!
Will realized it must not be an immediate cure. It could take hours to work. He desperately searched his pockets for the pellet gun. He found it and shot the vampire once in the back. It had no effect at first. Then the vampire stopped sucking, went limp, and fell to the ground with a thud. Emily slumped to the ground as well, ashen and pale from blood loss, looking almost like a corpse, and with blood covering one side of her neck. Will thought he might be sick.
He caught her before she hit the ground. Even though he was dizzy himself, he felt as if he'd gotten a second wind. As if he was filled with adrenaline. He quickly picked her up and looked around, wondering what to do. He ran with her, stumbling as he carried her, to the nearest house he could find. He set her down on the front steps and pounded frantically on the door.
"Help! Please! Call an ambulance!" he shouted.
An overweight middle aged woman with curlers in her hair opened the door slowly with wide eyes.
"Please, call an ambulance!" Will said quickly to her.
She nodded and hurried back inside to make the call. Will looked at Emily's pale face. It was waxy with perspiration. She felt cold. He could not bear to take her pulse. He gathered her up in his arms and held her tight, trying to warm her up again. "It'll be okay, it'll be okay, it'll be okay," he whispered into her hair and rocked her. It was more a comfort to him than her, he realized.
* * *
About an hour later, Will and Emily stepped out of the emergency room doors, both stitched and bandaged, and Emily had needed a transfusion. Will helped her into a taxi waiting for them.
"Now we know why PAU has such a good insurance plan," Emily said feebly.
Will responded with a weak laugh.
The taxi drove them to their car, where they gathered up the backpack, still laying on the ground. Henry and his truck were gone. They got in their car and drove silently home, both afraid to say the words, "Home now?"
They walked quietly into their apartment, once home. Will set the backpack just inside the door, kind of hoping never to see it again. He dropped his keys on the little table next to the door. He dug the alarm out of the pack and set it on the table too. Emily watched as he quietly turned it off.
Then he took her
by the hand and led her into the bedroom. Too exhausted to change, they both collapsed onto the bed. Their clothes still had blood on them. They kicked their shoes off, and Will dropped his glasses onto the night stand.
Will was laying with his hands on his stomach, staring up at the ceiling. Emily scooted over to him and propped herself up.
"Nightmare protection shields up," she said to him.
He half smiled and opened his arms for her. She laid down on his chest and snuggled up to him. He put his arms around her.
"Goodnight, Will," she said sleepily.
"Goodnight, Em," he said. A moment passed. He heard a car go by outside, saw the flash of headlights travel across the ceiling as they shone through the bedroom curtains. A dog barked in the distance.
"We can quit if you want," he said to her seriously.
"Nooooooo," she said earnestly into his chest.
He chuckled. Then he closed his eyes and held her as they fell asleep. It was still dark in their room, but outside the sun was just beginning to peek up over the mountains. The night was over.
###
Other novels by Chris Slusser:
Mandra
(romance)
Fugue
(suspense/thriller)
Black Ribbons
(paranormal romance)
www.chrisslusser.com
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