Dark Corner (56 page)

Darkness rendered the grocery store-a place where Nia
had shopped frequently over at least the past ten years-as
unfamiliar and mysterious as a moon cavern. Her miniature
flashlight did little to alleviate the feeling that she had wandered into a strange new realm.

She had crossed the storage room without incident and
entered the main floor of the market.

She was at the back of the shopping area. On her left,
there were six dark aisles; on her right, the produce area, the
open-air coolers filled with cantaloupes, lettuce, watermelons, oranges, bananas, tomatoes, and other items.

The store was crypt-silent.

She edged to the first aisle. Swept the flashlight beam
across it. Nothing but shelves packed with cereals, pasta,
grits, rice, and more-she knew the contents of the shelves
like she knew the inside of a cupboard at her own house.

She moved forward, to the next aisle. No one there, either.

At the end of the third grocery aisle, she spotted King. He
was at the end of the row, positioned behind a revolving rack
full of packets of Kool-Aid. The dog appeared to be hiding
from someone.

When her flashlight beam touched King's flank, he looked
back at her, big brown eyes shining. But the dog did not
move. He turned back to whatever had captured his attention.

What was he doing up there? She had never seen a dog
behave so oddly.

But the dog's obvious alertness to danger nearby had
made a ball of ice form in her stomach. The iciness spread
from her stomach and throughout her limbs, until her entire
body was chilled.

She lowered the flashlight. Clutching the revolver, she
lightly tread across the aisle, stopping just behind King.

She rested her hand on his furry back. His muscles were
bunched up.

"What's wrong, boy?" she whispered. "What's bothering
you?"

King peered through the rack, and whined. He licked her
fingers. His tongue was like sandpaper.

She peeked between the bars of the rack. It gave her a
peephole view of the meat department, which occupied the
whole wall on the east side of the store. She didn't see anything of concern. But it was dark and nearly impossible to
make out any details.

She inched around the rack. She flicked on the flashlight.

Mr. Morgan walked through the passageway at the end of
the meat counter.

She gasped.

This time, Morgan did not have a knife. He had a handgun. It was much bigger than hers, too.

Behind Nia, King growled.

"That mutt's got a nose like a bloodhound," Morgan said.
"Followed me all the way in here, just like I've been following you, Miss James."

Her hand trembling, she shone the light beam at him. He
was not a vampire. He was still human. But he was out of his
mind and relentless, and that was as bad as him being a
bloodsucking monster.

,.There's some weird shit going on in this little hick town,"
Morgan said. "But I don't care about that. Nothing's going to
stop me from having you. We're meant to be together. Stop
resisting and give yourself to me"

"Never." She raised the gun.

He raised his revolver, too. He aimed at her head.

It was like looking into the tube of a cannon. She swallowed dryly. But she did not lower her gun.

"Drop it, Miss James," he said. "You don't have the nerve
to shoot me. You proved that earlier."

Nia felt King tensed behind her, like a coiled cobra.

She decided to take a big risk.

"Okay." She blew out a breath, and dropped the gun on
the floor, and the flashlight, too. "You win."

"I knew you didn't have it in you, bitch," Morgan said. He
laughed. "Get your fine ass over here. I'm gonna take you
behind the counter so we can get properly reacquainted."

Bowing her head, as if defeated, she shuffled forward.

She counted on Morgan relaxing his grip on the gun, and
she counted on the darkness coming to her aid.

Most of all, she counted on King.

When she had taken about three hesitant steps, she suddenly dashed to the right, into another aisle.

"You bitch!" Morgan yelled.

He swung the gun around, trying to regain his aim on
her, but in the near-blackness, it would be difficult for him
to see.

Then King roared.

"Get him, boy, tear his heart out!" Nia urged.

The dog tackled Morgan. Together, they hit the floor.
Morgan's gun spun out of his grasp.

"Get off me, you fuckin' mutt, get off me!"

King was on top of the man, snapping and biting. Then
the dog yelped in pain, and scrambled away.

Morgan bellowed triumphantly. A blood-smeared switchblade glinted in his hand.

Oh, no.

King staggered into the wall. The dog's legs gave way,
and he settled heavily against the floor, tongue lolling.

As Morgan got back to his feet, smiling maniacally, Nia
charged him.

"Back, bitch." Morgan swiped at her with the blade, making her stop in her tracks to avoid being cut. "Don't make me
carve up that pretty face of yours"

Nia drew herself into a fighting stance. Her gun was on
the floor, out of easy reach. She had only her bare hands to
defend herself.

But she had trained for a moment like this. She clenched
her hands into fists.

Morgan circled her, like a swordfighter.

"You're all mine," he whispered. "The more you fight me,
the more I love you. Keep fighting me, baby, it's gonna make
fucking you that much sweeter."

This man was sick. Insane. But she did not lose her cool.
As she'd been taught, she skipped backward, light on her
feet, as if she were a fencer. She rolled her hands in a dogdigging motion, to distract him and protect her vital areas.

He feinted a thrust. She hopped back, then fired a sharp
kick into his shin.

"Dammit!" His face contorted in agony. He gritted his
teeth. Then he swiped at her, wildly.

She ducked out of the knife's looping path, and blasted
his shin again, in the same tender spot.

He wailed, his leg crumbling under him.

Nia was about to wade in, to knock him out with a blow
to the head. But he lunged at her, and this time, she moved
too slowly. The blade sliced across her arm.

Crying out, she fell, her arm burning as if doused with
gasoline and set aflame.

With only one good leg, Morgan crawled after her.

She whimpered. Holding her arm, blood seeping between
her fingers, she scooted backward across the floor.

"I'm gonna fuck you till you bleed, just like you're bleeding now," he said. "Gonna take my time and give you the
sweet love you've been missing."

She could not imagine the horror of allowing Morgan to
have his way with her. She'd rather die before that happened.

He crawled forward. Saliva foamed from his lips. The
switchblade was drenched in gore.

My gun has to be around here, somewhere.

She glanced over her shoulder. The .32 lay near the flashlight, which speared the darkness with a pale yellow beam.

Biting her tongue against the pain in her wounded arm,
she scrambled like a crab after the weapon. Got it, gripped it
tight.

"For the last time, you won't shoot me, bitch," Morgan
said, mockingly. "You're too weak"

Nia took aim.

Twice, she had declined to shoot this man. But as far as
she was concerned, he was hardly a man anymore, and circumstances had pushed her way over the line and made her
capable of doing anything to protect herself. There was only
one way out of this, and it was not the sadistic rape and torture that Morgan suggested.

"Put it down!" Morgan commanded.

"It's over," Nia said. "Finally."

She squeezed the trigger.

The bullet drilled him between the eyes. His head lolled
to the side, and his mouth gaped in a silent howl. He fell
backward and struck the floor like a lead weight.

She released a sigh that came from the depths of her soul.

Colin Morgan was finally dead.

She threw away the gun. A choked sob burst out of her.
She forced herself to hold back her tears, though doing so
made her chest swell painfully.

She went to the dog. Lying against the wall, legs drawn
under him, King had watched everything. Blood dampened
his breast.

"Oh you sweet, poor thing." She gently brushed the dog's
head. King feebly licked her hand. "We're going to take care
of you, understand? You're going to be okay."

She got her cell phone out of her fanny pack and called
David.

With Jahlil trailing him in the patrol car, David screeched
to a stop in front of Mac's Meat and Foods.

I never should have let Nia go off on her own, he thought.
When she called him on her cell phone and told him what
had happened, such anxiety had struck him that his stomach
ached. He could have lost her. She had come within a thread's
width of death.

While Jahlil waited in the car with his father, David got
out and banged against the store's front entrance. Nia pushed
open the door.

"You got here fast," she said.

Her hair was disheveled. Dried blood spattered her face,
and she had wrapped a thick bandage around her left arm.

He had never been so glad to see anyone. He pulled her
into his arms. She squeezed him, digging her fingers into his
back.

"God, I'm so glad you're okay," he said, his face buried in
her hair. "How're you feeling?"

"Awful, but glad I'm alive. I found King. He saved my
life, David."

They went inside. King lay against the wall. The dog
raised his head when David came near, and his tail swished
back and forth.

"You crazy mutt," David said. He blinked away a tear and
rested his hand on King's back. "Look what you went and
got us into, trying to be superdog. We're gonna get you all
patched up, boy. You'll be all right."

King licked his fingers.

Nia knelt beside them. "I moved Morgan's body. I
dragged it into the meat freezer, behind the counter." She
shook her head, sighed. "I killed a man, David."

"It was in self-defense. You had no choice."

Her face was haunted. "I know, but that doesn't make me
feel any better. I feel sick, really sick. I wish I hadn't done it
... but you're right, I didn't have any choice."

"I'm sorry, Nia."

"Mac is going to go nuts when he sees what happened in
here," she said.

"He won't be around to complain. Mac is gone"

"Gone? You mean ... dead?"

He nodded slowly. "Jahlil told me. Kyle and his army of
vampires ... they were too much for them. The patrol teams
are gone. Everyone either was overwhelmed in the fight, or
said to hell with it and ran away to save themselves. We're on
our own"

"Me, you, Jackson, and his son," she said.

"Yeah. But Jackson can't help us. He's in the car with his
son. He was stabbed-not bitten-and lost a lot of blood. I
want to get him to Pearl's, but I'm afraid she won't be able to
do much for him."

"She's worked miracles before, so people say."

"Then I sure hope she can work another one," he said.
"But we're going to need more than one miracle to get
through this alive, Nia. We're going to need a night full of
them"

A golden glow radiated from the windows of Pearl's
home, like a lighthouse on a night-veiled sea.

Pearl answered the door before David could knock.

"Thank you so much for letting us come here," David
said. "We hate to impose on you like this."

"Nonsense. It's my duty to help," Pearl said. "Come on,
I'll help you bring your dog and Chief Jackson inside."

David and Jahlil carried Jackson, who was still unconscious, into the guest bedroom; Nia and Pearl took King to a
cleared-out space in the living room.

Candles throughout the house provided warm light. Although Pearl lived on the outskirts of town, she too had lost
electrical power due to the storm.

Pearl attended to Jackson, while David worked on King.

Because David had taken a first aid class for dog owners
a couple of years ago, and had treated King for minor injuries in the past, he competently administered care to the dog. Fortunately, he had the foresight to always keep a canine first aid kit in the truck, too. He gave King a small dose
of Benadryl, to help him relax. Then he used scissors to trim
the fur around the knife wound. The blood had clotted, a good
sign, and the cut did not appear deep or to have touched a
major organ. David cleaned the wound, using a mild soap
and warm water, then he applied a Telfa Pad, which he'd
coated with Neosporin. He added two more layers of bandaging, securing the final layer with tape.

"There, all better now, Mr. King," David said.

King blinked sleepily. The Benadryl would keep him
drowsy for a while.

David went to check on Jackson.

In the bedroom, Pearl sat at Jackson's bedside, and Nia
and Jahlil sat on chairs that surrounded the bed. David knelt
beside Nia.

"What do you think, Pearl?" David said.

"He is in shock," she said, "due to having lost a tremendous amount of blood. I cleaned and redressed his wound.
However, to have the best opportunity to recover, he needs a
transfusion."

"A blood transfusion?" David asked. "We'd have to take
him to the hospital for that, and you know-"

"-the hospital has been overrun with vampires, and the
blood supply doubtless raided," Pearl said. "I understand that
the circumstances are not in our favor, David. I will do the
best I can"

"What if we take him to another hospital?" Nia said.
"There's one in Hernando. It's only a fifteen minute drive."

"We can't leave town " Jahlil shook his head. "I tried. The
bridge is torn up, and I bet the other roads out of here are
blocked, too. They've thought of everything, man." He sniffled, wiped his nose angrily with his blood-stained shirt.
"My dad ... he's not gonna make it, is he?"

"I have witnessed many miracles in my life, child," Pearl
said. She held Jahlil's hands. "Please, keep hope"