Good & Dead #1 (6 page)

“Alright, I’ll come in after you with Michael,” Tanish said, placing a hand lightly on Michael’s shoulder.

“Great,” Joseph said gruffly, smiling ironically and shouldering Chad forward into the bar.

Michael watched them disappear into the laughing crowd.  He could see Joseph talking, but Chad seemed to be having trouble hearing him over the booming music.

“How is your head?” Tanish asked loudly.

“Oh,” Michael said, cringing, “I’m fine.”

“I can see that,” Tanish said, gesturing toward the bar, “Chad isn’t going to have as much trouble as you will with turning.”

“Why not?” Michael asked.

“I don’t think it was a very powerful vampire who turned him.  It takes a strong vampire to make a strong vampire,” Tanish said, scrutinizing a man leaving the bar alone.  “He hasn’t had a huge jump in abilities like you have.  Apparently he got excited because he could smell his magic markers without taking off the caps,” Tanish said, dark eyes twinkling in the florescent green light.

Michael hadn’t even thought of that.  Someone had turned him.  Someone had done this to him. 

“Let’s go,” Tanish said, ushering Michael forward.

Michael swallowed hard, but obeyed, stepping inside the bar. 

While Michael was nearly knocked down by the smell of alcohol, Tanish did a quick look around.  It seemed to Michael he was looking for something.  That something turned out to be the darkest corner with the drunkest woman.

A brunette sat alone in a corner seat, smiling to herself and draping her many gaudy necklaces around her beer bottle.  She seemed to be a forgotten member of the bachelorette party.  Tanish gestured for Michael to follow.

“Hi,” Tanish said, flashing a charming smile at the 30-something loner when he reached the long corner booth.

“Well, hello, handsome!” she said loudly, laughing behind her hand. “I just said that.”

“Where are your friends?” Tanish asked, sitting next to her and putting an arm around her shoulders like they were the oldest of friends.  Michael hovered on the edge of the table, feeling he was supposed to sit down but also feeling he had no intention of sitting down.

“Huh?” she looked around wildly, “Oh, no!  Ha!  I guess they were done!  I’m not done!” she proclaimed defiantly, taking a huge gulp of her drink.

Tanish gave Michael a thumbs-up as she drank.

Michael’s stomach was doing flips.  Tanish had decided to kill this woman, just like that.  How could Michael warn her? 

“What’s your name, girl?” Tanish asked, his dark eyes shimmering.

She giggled, then snorted, then took another drink.

Tanish eyed her exposed throat as the bottle went up, and the shimmer in his eyes turned cold.  Michael watched in horror as his posture went from flirtatious to threatening in an instant.  The arm that had been draped casually over her shoulder tightened, and she choked on her drink a little as he pulled her close to him.

He brushed the hair away from her neck, two white canines descending toward her exposed throat.

“Get them out of my bar!”

Tanish jerked around to see who had spoken.  His eyes turned back to brown, and his canines vanished instantly.

The bartender was holding Chad by the collar of his shirt, and a bouncer was crashing through the crowd toward them.

Without a word to his would-be meal, Tanish stood and pointed Michael to the front door.  “Meet us around back,” he ordered.

Michael didn’t bother walking.  He ran from that scene, relieved to be out of there. 

He found a dark alley around the right-hand side of the bar and entered it cautiously, shaking with nerves.  There was a pile of garbage bags and a stack of crates on the opposite wall.  He glanced at the dingy back door of the bar and sat on one of the larger crates.

He had to make a conscious effort to slow his breathing. 
Tanish was just going to kill her right there
. 
She had no idea she was about to die.

He nearly fell to the ground when the back door of the bar slammed open just feet in front of him.  An enormous man with shoulders like a linebacker held Chad off the pavement with one hand, and shoved Joseph forward with the other.

“Clear out now or I’ll call the cops!” he shouted with his booming New York voice.  He threw Chad to the ground like he was throwing a bag of garbage.  He landed hard on a pile of hefty bags.  Joseph was shoved forward, too, but he did not fall to the ground.

“Are you kidding me?” Joseph yelled, turning toward the man with lethal purpose.  Tanish’s face appeared over the bouncer’s shoulder, and Joseph lowered his fist.  “You’ve got to be KIDDING me!” Joseph yelled down at Chad.  He stalked off down the alley.

Michael bent to help Chad up.  His elbow was bleeding freely, having landed on a bag of beer bottles.  It was a deep cut, they could see that even through his warm flannel shirt.  Michael rolled up Chad’s sleeve, trying to remember the words of his sixth grade first aid instructor.  Okay, ABC, right?  Airways, bleeding, something...no, that wasn’t right….

“Woah!” Chad said, staring at his arm in astonishment.

The wound had vanished.  It was like a scene from a science fiction thriller.  The sides of the open gash had closed, scabbed over and then faded into a thin white line in moments.

“What the…?” said the bouncer from over Chad’s shoulder.

“I told you!  I’m NOT lying!  I’m a vampire!” Chad said, turning to Michael. “This is awesome!”

The bouncer stepped back in alarm, his face filled with fear.  He turned to run back inside…but Tanish was standing right behind him, blocking his escape.  Michael heard the man gasp in surprise.  Tanish lifted his perfectly manicured hands and placed them both firmly on the man’s broad chest.  Michael watched in astonishment as the man’s eyes rolled into the back of his head.  He tottered dangerously back off the step for a moment, then fell hard, landing with a mighty thud on the cold pavement.

Tanish stepped over him as if nothing had happened.

“Did you—did you kill him?” Michael asked in alarm.

“No,” Tanish said, “But he won’t be telling anyone about this.”

“That was awesome!” Chad said in astonishment, gazing from Tanish’s barely 6 foot tall frame to the unconscious man’s nearly 6 foot wide frame.   “What did you do?”

“I made him forget your stupidity,” Tanish said, walking past them out of the alley.  Michael hadn’t realized he was still kneeling on the ground.  He stood, seeing that both his knees were soaked with rain, dirt, and some of Chad’s blood. 
Great.  Mom will kill me when she sees the stains
.

“Let’s catch up with Joseph,” Tanish said, beckoning them onward.

Michael was quick to get out of the alley.  He could hear voices approaching the still-open back door from inside the bar.

“Where are we going now?” Chad asked with excitement.

“Home,” Tanish said, directing his answer at Michael instead of Chad.  “I wouldn’t say anything to Joseph if I were you, Chad.  He does not have the kind of patience that you apparently require.”

Chad swallowed audibly. 

They met up with Joseph nearly three blocks away.  He was cleaning his hands and face in a water fountain, the water running down the drain a familiar red color.

“You found something, then?” Tanish asked tersely.

“Yes,” Joseph said darkly, avoiding eye contact with Chad.  He had the look of a man who was putting all his faculties toward self-restraint, leaving little else for talking.

“Shall we?” Tanish asked.  Joseph only nodded.

Tanish resumed his grip around Michael’s arm, ice cold fingers stinging him through his thin pink shirt.  Joseph pulled Chad over to him in the same manner.  Chad’s eyes grew wide and he looked down at his arm in pain.  The corners of Joseph’s mouth twitched upward slightly.

“Yes,” Joseph answered, “we shall.”

They took a step, and as their feet touched the pavement everything whipped out of sight.  Browns and reds and the yellow street lights all raced past them.  Michael was pinned to Tanish’s side by the vice-like grip he had on his arm.

As they sped along, Michael felt somehow light and heavy at the same time.   He was dimly aware that Tanish was running, but it felt more like they had engaged warp drive.  The reds and browns of the brick and blacks of the pavement turned slowly to green and orange.  Michael reeled and wondered if it would ever end.  They were moving so fast he could barely breathe.  It felt almost like being underwater.  Sickness was rising in his throat as they moved on relentlessly.

And then they stopped.

Michael and Chad both fell flat on their faces.  Chad threw up spectacularly, orange chunks spraying the ground four feet in front of him.  Michael managed to keep all his contents inside himself.  He took a huge, involuntary breath of air.  It felt wonderfully clean and fresh.

“What…was…that?” Chad asked from the pavement, still a little green in the face.

Joseph chuckled.

Michael steadied himself and tried to get his bearings.  Underfoot was an intricate pattern of gray stone, lit by the sparkling light of tall green iron lamp posts that lined the driveway.  Darkness completely enveloped the spaces between lights, and in the distance Michael could just make out a tall, many-peaked structure.  It would have been a very beautiful spot if Chad wasn’t vomiting all over it.

“Stop it,” Joseph said, kicking Chad to encourage him to his feet.

“What was that?” Chad said again, coughing.

“It’s called running,” Joseph said flatly.  “Haven’t you ever run before?”

Tanish put a hand on Joseph’s shoulder.  He shook it off angrily, but stopped kicking his vomiting charge.

“I know.  It’s fast enough that it doesn’t feel like we’re just running.  You’ll get used to it.  As your powers grow you will be able to run just as quickly…without falling over,” Tanish explained to Chad as Michael helped him up. 

Joseph came to a stop in front of two massive iron gates.  The path beyond turned uphill, leading their eyes to an elaborate stone mansion.

Tanish gestured to the elegant house on top of the hill.  “Our clan home.”

“Are you serious?” Chad’s jaw hung open at the sight of the many tall windows glimmering in lamp light.

“’What were you expecting?” Tanish asked, that bright smile only partially dimmed by annoyance, “A bar?  A sewer?”  Michael didn’t know what exactly he had been picturing.  A bar, he guessed.  A lot of leather jackets.  Beer.  Buffy’s vampires had a drippy cave sort of thing.

“It’s absurd,” Joseph said, turning down the long path, “how much T.V. affects you mortals.  Vampires are centuries old,” he said, picking up the pace. “Don’t you think we’d have figured out how to make a little money yet?”

“Cool,” Chad said as he trotted along beside Tanish, never taking his eyes off of Joseph.

A whole new wave of thoughts bombarded Michael.  Centuries old?  I am going to live for centuries?  A sense that he was in way over his head hung around Michael like a thundercloud. 

Chad punched Michael on the arm.  “We’re immortal and we’re rich!”

Joseph turned back from the gate so fast that Chad barreled into him and fell back to the ground.  “No.  You are not rich.  The clan is well funded, that is for sure.  But you haven’t done anything yet to earn your place in it.”  The color had begun to drain from his face.  His canines were inching toward his bottom lip.

“Dude,” Chad said, holding up his hands and backing away unconsciously, “my bad.  I’m sorry.”

Joseph’s dark eyes were on Chad’s frightened ones as he towered over him.

“Bell has asked to meet these two,” Tanish said, giving Joseph a stern look.

Joseph growled under his breath and turned back to the gate.

“And you’re not immortal,” Tanish said. “You can be killed.  It’s just harder than it used to be.  Much harder.”

“Not too hard,” Joseph called behind him.  “We’re here,” he said tersely in the direction of the house.

“So we don’t age, or what?” Chad asked from the stone drive, eyeing Joseph warily.

Tanish sighed.  “Get up,” he said, holding out a hand and helping Chad off the ground.  “That’s partially true.  You don’t see old vampires and that’s because you have to be very healthy to survive the transformation.  You also don’t see many young vampires for the same reason.  But we do age.  It is very, very slow, but we do.”

“Cool,” Chad said again.

“We’re here!” Joseph repeated. 

A tall woman appeared seemingly out of nowhere on the other side of the wrought iron.  She had dark skin, and brooding brown eyes.

“Holy crap!” Chad said in alarm.  “Where did she come from?”

Tanish glared at him.

“Joseph,” she said, nodding.  “Tanish,” she said with what was almost a bow.

“Nice to see you, Jess,” Tanish replied with a charming smile.

“Open the gate,” Joseph said impatiently.

The woman named Jess smirked at Joseph, and took her time with the lock, extracting an old fashioned skeleton key on a heavy chain from under her shirt.

“You look lovely tonight,” Tanish said as the gate swung wide.  Joseph rushed past them.

Her eyes brightened a bit at Tanish’s remark, but she didn’t respond, and instead stared appraisingly at Chad.

“New turns?” she asked.

“Has it ever been more obvious?  This is Chad,” Tanish said, gesturing to the stocky man next to Michael.  He smiled broadly and practically leapt through the gate in his excitement.

“A lady vampire,” he said, shaking her hand and looking amused.

“And this is Michael,” Tanish said.

“Nice to meet you,” Michael said quietly, with a respectful nod.

“Hmm,” Jess said in surprise. “Interesting.”

Tanish flashed his thousand-watt smile.  “You really do look beautiful tonight.”

“Stop it,” Jess said and shooed him like she would a fly.

Joseph reappeared behind them.  Michael didn’t think he would ever get used to how fast they moved. 

“Let’s go,” he said, “Bell won’t wait all night.”

“Alright, come in then,” Jess gestured to Michael.

Michael stepped over into the yard feeling foolish. 

The house was one hundred yards past the gate.  It was enormous. Even from this distance Michael could see that there were at least a couple of dozen people dancing on the well-lit terrace.  Jazz drifted across the smooth lawn.

The vampire named Jess closed the gate gently and locked it.  The five of them marched across the well-kept lawn toward the house.  As they approached, the music washed over them from the side of the house where hundreds of Chinese lanterns hung over the circular patio.  People with fancy clothes and sparkling wine glasses laughed and swayed with the music.

Michael could feel his anxiety rising.  His palms were sweating.  He tried to straighten the wrinkles in his pink button-down, and frowned at the dark stains on his dress pants. 
I hate parties.

But they did not go out onto the terrace.  Instead, Joseph led the group through the tall oak front doors.  The ancient-looking door knockers bore two bold letters—B and S.  They rattled angrily as Joseph threw the doors open.  They were in a large entry room with white stone floors, leading to beautiful cherry wood stairs, each step as wide as Michael’s whole apartment.  Joseph pointed them down a hallway that was just past the staircase.

“You good?” he asked Tanish.

“I think I can handle it from here,” Tanish replied, but Joseph was already gone.

The hallway was very wide.  Michael guessed it was a no-expense-spared kind of thing.  It was a beautiful space, but it was the kind of beauty that only impressed.  It did not invite.  There were several elaborately carved doors on each side, and paintings hung every few feet in between.  They portrayed various things—the English countryside, old photographs from when New York was young.  A large one pictured men on wooden scaffolding hanging the enormous numbers on ‘Big Ben’.

They passed several people in the hall, drinks in hand, talking.  Michael tried his best to become invisible.  It seemed everyone gave him the same piercing, appraising look.

The last painting on the wall was an oil portrait of a beautiful young girl.  She was dressed in a white and silver beaded dress with long strings of beads trailing from her ultra-short hem down to her knees.  Her flame red hair was cropped close to her jaw and styled in a perfect roaring twenties wave.  Michael stopped to stare at it.  He couldn’t help himself.  There was something very familiar about those eyes….

“Is that…” He said aloud.

“What do you think?” Tanish asked with a grin.

“What are you guys talking about?” Chad asked, backtracking to get a better look at the picture.  “Woah!  Who’s the hottie?”

Tanish’s smile evaporated.

Michael didn’t know what to say.  Chad hadn’t seemed to notice that he was walking around with his foot in his mouth. 

“That is someone who I would not disrespect,” Tanish said dangerously.

Chad glanced at Tanish’s face and swallowed hard.  Tanish held his gaze as he had done with the large man in the bar.

“You may be more trouble than you’re worth,” Tanish said after a few moments. He walked to the door at the end of the hall, and smoothed the wrinkles in his shirt.  He knocked twice.

“Come in.”

Tanish glanced at Michael’s mud-speckled shirt and wet knees, and Chad’s un-tucked shirt tails. He started to say something, then just sighed resignedly and opened the door.

The room was furnished with fine leather sofas and tall, ruby-colored armchairs.  There was ornate woodwork all around, and the walls were painted a warm caramel color.  An enormous fireplace spanned half of the far wall.  It looked like an exceedingly well-furnished country club. 

In front of the fireplace was an elaborately carved, glossy black desk.  There, in a wing-backed chair, sat Bell.   She was still wearing her smart business suit, but she had taken off her jacket.  The top three buttons of her blouse were undone, and she held a pale pink drink in her hand.  She looked very comfortable.

“Tanish,” she said with a small smile, setting down her glass. “And Michael,” she added with a nod.

She got up from her chair and walked around, gracefully sitting on the desk cross-legged.  Michael noticed she was barefoot.

Her beauty was alarming even though he had already seen her once.  He couldn’t seem to look anywhere else.  He could swear she was glowing but shook himself.  It must be his imagination.  Again he was stuck staring somewhere near her mouth.  Chad was staring somewhere slightly south.  His mouth was actually hanging open. 

“This is Chad?” she gestured to Chad’s gaping awe.

“Yes it is,” Tanish answered with the tiniest hint of ridicule in his voice. 

“And where is Joseph?” Bell asked.

“He…lost his patience.” They shared a meaningful look which caused Bell to smirk deeply.  Chad’s eyes were completely glazed over, staring at her ample curves.

She turned her attention to Michael.  “You look…” she searched for the right word, “less shocked.  Have you had time to sort things out since we last met?”

“I think he slept the whole time,” Tanish said quietly.  Bell held a hand up.  She wanted Michael to speak for himself.

“Um…I slept the whole time.”

Bell smiled.  It was so unsettling.  Her mouth curved up in the same open-mouthed smile every time, denting her ivory cheeks with the tiniest dimples, but her eyes were always doing something different.  “I think you’re going to be tons of fun.”

“Alright,” she turned back to Chad.  He was now staring at her perfectly pedicured, snow white toes.  “Hmm,” she said, smiling broadly.  “Well, Chad, I’m Bell,” she said loudly. 

Bell held out her slender hand, but Chad had completely checked out.  His eyes were glued to her perky chest like a fourteen year old boy who snuck in to a Victoria’s Secret fashion show.

Bell laughed a little melancholy laugh, and glanced around at Tanish.  “I can see why Joseph left us a little early.”

“Huh?” Chad said, coming back to reality.  He saw her hand waiting for him in mid-air and shook it hurriedly.  Bell’s posture changed the moment his hand touched hers.  The informal stance disappeared so quickly that Michael actually took an involuntary step back.

“Oooh, Chad,” Bell whispered, releasing his hand like she would have done a particularly nasty insect.

Tanish moved silently to stand between Chad and the door.  Michael braced himself.  Something was about to happen.

“You know, Chad,” she said softly, holding one perfect pale finger just in front of Chad’s clammy face, causing him to go slightly cross-eyed, “There is a lot a girl like me can tell about a man” she touched her finger to his forehead, “with just one touch.”  Her eyes were already growing dark, reflecting the orange firelight.

Then she changed.  From the crown of her head to her toes, she melted away.  And standing in front of Chad, in a pale blue school uniform, was a middle school aged girl.

Chad’s eyes grew wide.  “How—how did you—“

“You like them young, don’t you, Chad?” she asked with the sharp inflection of pre-teen immaturity.

“I haven’t done…anything—I” Chad spluttered, backing away slowly until Tanish closed his hands around his biceps.  Chad whimpered, his eyes locked on Bell’s, his bottom lip quivering.

Bell reached up to put both her small hands on either side of Chad’s face.  It was the gentlest touch.  Then her fingernails lengthened, biting into his chubby cheeks.  She pulled him forward with a quick side-step, slamming his face into the floor.  Blood sprayed across the highly polished hardwood from his cleanly broken nose. 

“Holy crap!” Michael yelled, shutting his eyes tight.

“No!” Chad screamed, “N—“

Michael turned completely around to face Bell’s large desk, and clapped his hands over his ears.  He began humming “Birdhouse in your Soul” as loudly as he could, blocking out all but the loudest shrieks.  But nothing could block out the smell.  A sickly mixture of salty sweat and a coppery blood assaulted Michael’s senses.  He tried tucking his ear against his shoulder and covering his nose with his elbow, but the moment his curls sprang free a horrible squelching noise broke through his defenses.  He swallowed a mouthful of vomit and settled for deafness.

He didn’t open his eyes until Tanish touched his arm. 

“I bet Joseph wished he had stayed, huh?” Tanish said.

“Is he…?” Michael asked, afraid to turn and look.

Tanish only smiled.

Michael turned around slowly, bracing himself.  On the floor where Chad had been standing were the remains of his clothes; shirt soaked red and torn to shreds, one shoe discarded in a tangle with what had been his jeans. Crimson claw marks ran up the wall and surrounded the largest pool of blood that glistened almost black on the hardwood.  Michael braced himself against the nearest chair.  He worried he might faint.  Bile rose in his throat for the millionth time that day.  He tried to close his eyes, but it was too late.  He had barely gotten to his knees before throwing up everything he had left, his throat burning with acid.