Abby's Vampire (10 page)

Chapter 23

Mary sat in the back office at
Bloodlust.
Her sire, Enri, put her in charge of all the accounting and the club website. She enjoyed helping in any way she could. She had always been good with numbers. Her golden brown hair was in a plain ponytail and she wore khakis with a red blouse. As Enri entered the office, Mary smiled and looked up from her mountain of paperwork. Enri looked as handsome as usual with his goatee and black hair. He wore a custom designer suit, and he was handsome as ever. She never could figure out why he was interested in her. Unfortunately, she didn’t feel that way about him. He was her sire and friend, and nothing more.

“Mary, my sweet. How is everything?”

“Business is good.”

And boring, as usual.

“We have a situation I need to talk to you about,” Enri said, his face turning sullen suddenly.

Oh please, not another declaration of love.

“Enri, you look very upset. What is it?” She noticed that he sat and started fondling his goatee, not looking her in the eye.

“Javon got in touch with me. There is a rogue Vampire that has taken his mate.”

“How terrible for him. Is there anything I can do?” she asked.

“No, but I appreciate the offer. I have something to tell you and it may come as a shock. I have been keeping something from you since your turning. It’s something that may upset you.”

Mary never saw Enri so nervous and worried-looking in her entire existence. She took his hand in hers. “Just tell me, Sire.”

Enri took a deep breath and began. “I'm so sorry, Mary; the rogue Vampire is your Maurice from France.”

“What do you mean, my Maurice? You don’t mean the man I was engaged to?”

“I know I should have told you. I thought you would leave and go back to him if I did.”

“Are you telling me my Maurice is alive?” She couldn't believe it; he had lied to her all this time. “I can't believe you never told me!”

“I’m so sorry, Mary. Please understand. Your father shot him and left him for dead. Javon found him and saved him. Shortly after that they moved to Greece, and Sally asked me to look after you.” The look on Mary's face was the one he had been trying to avoid and dreaded all these years.

“Oh, Mary, I have waited all these years; hoping you would see me as more than your sire, but it just never happened. I knew if you knew about Maurice I would never have a chance. Please, forgive me!” Enri pleaded. “Please don't look at me like you hate me.”

“Enri, I don't know what to say. Right now, I need to speak with Javon.”

“I will take you.”

***

“Sally! Where are you?”

“I am here.” Sally ran across the room and gave Javon a reassuring hug. “I am so sorry. We will get her back; I promise. I am going to tear out his balls and feed them to the pit bulls.”

“I called Enri on the way over. He will do whatever it takes to help”

“Connor from the VC Office has issued a warrant for questioning. It was the best he could do under the circumstances.”

“Every little bit helps.”

“Come;let's get you some blood.” Sally led Javon into the kitchen. She opened the fridge, unlocked the special compartment, and retrieved two bags of blood. “Do you want it warmed up?”

“No; cold is fine.” He took the bag and bit into it, drinking it down quickly, but he took no pleasure in it. Sally warmed hers up in the microwave and put it in a cup. She sat down and sipped it through a straw, savoring it until it was gone.

“You drink that fast and you'll make yourself sick.”

“I don't care.”

The doorbell rang. Javon knew it must be Enri; he said he would be coming by. Sally got up to answer the door.

“I'll get it, and meet you in the family room.”

Javon walked off and Sally went to answer the door. She opened the door, took one look, and promptly fainted.

Sally was coming out of a fog. So many people were standing over her, arguing. All she remembered was answering the door and finding Mary standing in front of her. But that couldn’t be.
Mary hung herself, Enri told me himself.
Sally slowly sat up. There were people all around her; Javon, Enri, Connor, and Mary. Sally ran over to Mary and immediately hugged her.

“I can’t believe you’re alive, Mary. I cried for a week when I heard you were dead.”

“Oh, Sally, I didn’t know you were one, too. Enri never told me. I missed you so much,” Mary cried while hugging Sally.

“Ladies, I hate to break up the love fest but we have more important things to discuss. Let’s take this in the next room,” Connor said, as he walked into the living room.

Sally couldn’t believe her dear friend had come back from the dead from so long ago. Sally hadn’t been able to make too many friends in the modern era and was very lonely. She was thinking of how fun it would be to have a close girlfriend again. They all sat down in the formal living room. Sally wondered what Connor was doing here and when he had arrived.

“Okay, now that everyone is seated and revived, we need to figure out what we are going to do about Maurice,” Javon stated.

“I just can’t believe my sweet Maurice, who used to bring me a flower every day, is so evil,” Mary said with sadness in her face.

“I'm so sorry, Mary. I know you were so in love with him. He kills like it’s nothing; I don’t think he came out of the turning completely sane,” Sally said as she comforted her long lost friend.

“So let me get this straight: Javon turned Maurice and Enri turned Mary and nobody knew what the other had done?” Connor asked. Everyone nodded his or her head in agreement. Connor got up from his seat and began pacing the room. “Well, we need to lure Maurice out before he hurts Abby.”

“How do we do that?” asked Javon.

“I have an idea.” Everyone turned to look at Enri. Connor sat back down as Enri got up from his seat and moved to sit next to Mary. He placed his hand on hers, but she pulled away from him.

“Maurice loves Mary more than anything, so in order to lure him out we need to get him a message that Mary is alive. Once he’s out, we can follow him back to Abby”

“This would be where my special set of skills may come in handy,” Connor began. “Every Vampire leaves a unique scent behind. I’m a werewolf, so I can follow it without being detected, and we’re sneaky like that.”

“I will send Mary’s picture around to all the Vampire bars with a message to call to set up a reunion,” Enri responded.

“Okay, it’s settled. We have a plan to get Abby back and to arrest Maurice for his crimes,” Sally said as she hugged Mary, still excited to have her friend back. Everyone began to disburse to get ready for the plan. Mary and Sally remained in the room alone. Mary began tearing up.

“Why are you crying, Mary?” Sally asked.

“Everything. I feel like this whole thing is my fault.”

“There is nothing you could have done. Enri should have told me about you. If we want to find someone at fault, it’s him. Maybe Maurice would have been okay with you by his side,” Sally pointed out.

“Please don’t blame Enri. He loves me. I just never felt the same for him,” replied Mary sadly as she looked down at the floor.

“Let’s forget this nastiness for a while. You will stay with me for now, okay?”

“That would be great.” Mary laid her head on Sally’s shoulder; they immediately fell right back into their friendship.

Chapter 24

Maurice paced the floor of the house he was staying at. He knew he had no choice. He was going to have to turn that fucking bastard. He knew an old abandoned factory that would work for the turning; Detroit was full of them.

He pulled out his phone and dialed Brian’s number.

“Brian!” he barked into the phone. “I’m texting the address. Meet me in one hour. Don’t be late.” He shut the phone and then kicked the wall in frustration. “UGH!”

Maurice sent off the text to Brian and headed off to one of the Vampire bars he liked to troll for food. There was a blood whore he used often who worked there. She let him do things the others wouldn’t. He thought he could pay her to work as food for the turning. He would also need to stop at the hardware store to get chains, rope, duct tape, and a few other supplies for the turning.

Maurice walked into
Hunger
, another Vampire bar.
Bloodlust
was tame compared to this place. It was where Vampires went when they wanted to be
Vampires,
to give into their more primal nature. The place was very dark and the music was thumping through the building. All the Vampires that routinely visited places like that were like him. He was a Vampire and liked to kill and hurt humans. There were some rules: you couldn’t kill the donors but everything else was pretty much every man, or vampire, for himself. He walked to the bar and ordered a drink and saw some acquaintances of his. A woman walked up—he knew her from past dealings. Her name was Audrey and she was sired by a bastard named Carlos. She wasn’t evil like most of the Vampires there, but she did and went where her sire wanted her to. Her hair was a short brown and she had hazel eyes. She wore black leather pants and a leather crop top. He knew she hated the outfits Carlos made her put on; she wanted something more feminine and simple.

“Maurice, my friend,” Audrey gushed. She grabbed for him and hugged him despite the lack of response on his part.

“Don’t tell anyone; I have a reputation uphold.” Maurice wasn’t friends with anyone but Audrey managed to cut through his evil exterior. She was probably the only one on the face of the earth, besides Mary, he had ever cared about. The way he felt about her was never sexual; it was pure friendship he felt for her, perhaps even felt like she was a little sister. “I’m here to get a donor. I don’t have time for you right now.”

“But Maurice, I haven’t seen you in so long. Carlos took me to Holland, Michigan for the Tulip festival in May and decided to stay and feed on tourists for the summer and fall.”

“Yes. All those pretty flowers and lakeside breezes must have been very difficult to deal with.”

“It was actually very nice, but I still missed you. Eventually Carlos got bored and wanted to come back to slum it with the degenerates again.”

“Audrey, I have a turning I need to attend to and I need a blood donor.”

“I saw Andrea a few minutes ago; she likes you and I’m sure she would do it.”

“That what’s I was thinking.” Maurice drank the rest of his drink with one last gulp and got up from the bar. “I will see you soon.”

Audrey smiled and she walked off toward the dance floor.

Maurice found Andrea with all the other blood donors. She looked up at Maurice and smiled.

“Are you in need of me?”

“Yes, my dear; I am buying you for an extended period of time.”

Andrea smiled even bigger. “That’ll cost you.”

Maurice scowled. “I figured as much. Come on; you will be paid more than you make in a year.”

***

Brian waited at the empty factory where he was meeting Maurice for his turning. The place was worse than the house they had stayed at in the ghetto. All the windows were broken out and it smelled like someone used the whole place as a toilet. There were rusted out metal pieces everywhere and empty beer bottles and other garbage.

“You ready?” Maurice said, startling Brian as he suddenly appeared behind him.

“Shit…you scared me. Who is that?”

“This is Andrea. She will help you through the turning.”

Andrea was a robust woman with a pretty face and wavy auburn hair.

She rolled her eyes.”Hi, Brian. I feed Vampires all the time; this will be cool to see an actual turning.”

Brian scowled at Andrea, not in the mood for chitchat.

“Okay, I have prepared a room with what we will need. This way.” Brian and Andrea followed Maurice to a small room that must have been an office at one time. It had a couple chairs, a sleeping bag on the floor, and some rope and duct tape in the corner.

“What’s all that for?” Brian asked, looking at the supplies on the floor.

“New Vampires are dangerous; you’ll be tied up until you can feed without killing.”

Maurice told him what to expect: extreme pain, constant nightmares for the first day, and then extreme blood hunger throughout the process.

“Are you sure you are prepared, Brian? This is the worst pain you will ever have, and I guarantee you will never forget it.”

“I am more positive than ever.”

“It’s not too late to forget this whole thing; return the girl and you can walk away from this whole life forever.”

“I have nothing to go back to. I want eternity.” Brian bent his neck, giving Maurice access. Maurice bit down on his neck, drinking down the blood. He continued drinking until Brian started to pass out. Then, he pulled out his fangs as he lowered Brian onto the floor. He bit down on his own wrist and placed it up to Brian’s mouth. Brian was barely able to drink, then latched on and started drinking greedily. Maurice pulled back his wrist.

“The exchange is complete. My blood will work its way through your system and you will start feeling pain shortly. I wish you the best.”

Brian lay on the sleeping bag on the floor and within minutes he began clutching his stomach and writhing in pain. “I feel it. Oh my god, it hurts…. It feels like every nerve in my body is on fire,” Brian screamed.

“My end of the bargain has been completed. Give me the address. I will return and check on you in a few hours. I will leave Andrea to look after you.”

“I will take good care of you, Sweetie. Just let me know when you get hungry.”

Brian began screaming louder, tearing at his skin. Maurice restrained him by tying him up with some rope.

“The address—now, or I leave you to starve of blood hunger. You aren’t strong enough to escape.”

“My front pocket; it’s in my pocket,” Brian said between moans.

Maurice grabbed the piece of paper. He read the address and was getting ready to walk out the door when Andrea stopped him.

“I’m supposed to show this to you.” She shoved a text with a picture in his face. He grabbed it and couldn’t believe what he saw. It was a picture of Mary with a number to call. He grabbed Andrea by the throat.

“Who sent this?” He released her throat enough for her to talk.

“It was a mass text from a bouncer at one of the clubs. I don’t know anything.” He released her and she fell to the ground and began coughing while trying to catch her breath.

“Watch over Brian. When he needs to be fed, give him the wrist only. If he tries to take too much, hit him with this taser gun; he’ll recover.”

Maurice threw the taser to Andrea and left.