Primacy of Darkness (20 page)

“Jesus Christ! You murder three or four people every year?”

“Murder is not a word we like to use. Is it murder when a cheetah kills a gazelle? Like I said, I have to do it more often when people are putting holes in me, so we can round it up to an average of five.”

“The people you kill don’t give a fuck about semantics!”

“The people I kill don’t give a fuck about a lot of things.”

“What people? Who do you kill?”

“We try very hard to limit our prey to people who won’t be missed—criminals and the occasional homeless person.”

“People who won’t—! Wait, how old are you?”

Her questions are beginning to make me uncomfortable. “I was born in 1916. I became a vampire in 1933.”

“Jesus Christ,” she mutters then leaps from her chair. “Jesus Christ! You’ve been killing five people a year since 1933? I can’t even do the math! It’s in the hundreds!”

“I’ve also been in three major wars and a few mercenary gigs, so it’s a lot higher than that.”

I’m almost positive she’s going to shoot me now, but she’s a good cop, and her training overrides her emotions. “This guy, Jack, he’s one too. He’s killing people too, and not for food.”

“It’s a game to him. He does it for sport.”

“And he’s been doing it longer than you have.”

“By about fifty years.”

“You are trying to kill him.”

I nod. “I am. It’s what I do when my kind get out of line, when they break the rules and bring attention to us.”

“So, what, you are like some kind of vampire cop?”

“I used to be, officially, but I bucked the system. I refused to play politics and did my job. Some people didn’t like that, so they fired me. I’m what we call a warder now. It’s kind of like being a mall cop. It’s my job to keep people in my district in line and deal with trouble before the Sheriffs have to get involved.”

“Sheriffs?”

“That’s the vampire cops. I used to be one.”

“But they fired you for doing your job. Just like me.”

“Crazy world, ain’t it?”

“You’re a fucking vampire. Oh my God, is Katherine?”

“No, she’s a werewolf.”

“Seriously?”

“Yeah, and Angel is a Mexican leprechaun. Mexichaun.”

“Eat shit. You just made me believe in fucking vampires. I don’t know what’s real anymore. Does she know what you are?”

“Yeah.”

“And she’s okay with it?”

“Sadly, being a vampire barely makes my top ten most undesirable traits.”

“That’s for sure,” Castillo scoffs.

I’m glad that she seems to be coping with the revelation. It gives me hope of a decent outcome. Then again, she might just be in shock and lose her shit come morning.

She sits back down in the chair and props the shotgun up next to her. Another positive sign. “How many times have you been the monster beneath the monster’s bed?”

“I don’t know. Quite a few. It usually just takes a stern warning, if they haven’t screwed up so bad that I just take them out. Sometimes, there’s an extreme situation.”

“Like Pennsylvania?”

I nod. “Like that, but that was mostly a rogue element in the government. They wanted to weaponize the virus that creates us. It went pear-shaped, as you can imagine, and they needed me to clean it up.”

“What did you do?”

“I cleaned up the mess. Then I cleaned up the ones who made the mess.”

“Are you telling me that the government knows about you?”

“Someone in the government found out about us. As far as we’ve been able to tell, the knowledge is not widespread.”

“Is it possible someone else in the government knows?”

“Definitely possible.”

“If they do, why haven’t they said anything?”

“For the same reason I’m hoping you don’t.”

Castillo drops her head into her hands and rubs at her temples. “My brain is not working at full capacity right now. Mind telling why I shouldn’t?”

“We are predators, almost indistinguishable from our prey, picking off the weak and undesirable from the far fringes of the herd. What would happen if the herd found out that there were killers in their midst but didn’t know who or where?”

She groaned. “They’d panic and stampede. They’d start killing anyone they thought was a killer.”

“We are one out of every, shit I don’t know, million? Who do you think would rack up the bigger death toll, us or you?”

“God, humanity is so fucking stupid.”

“Good thing for us. It presents quite the buffet.”

“Don’t even…” Castillo holds up a hand. “Just don’t.”

“Sorry, too soon. I get it.”

“So what happens now? Other than for my own good, why did you decide to tell me all this now?”

“I needed you to know just in case I’m not able to put Jack down. I need you to know so that you are better equipped to deal with him or other similar situations in the future.”

“Do you think he’ll beat you? Kill you?”

“It is not beyond the realm of possibility. Besides, I have another problem I have to attend to first, one that could take me out of the game.”

“Oh, shit, the woman who attacked you. I forgot all about her.”

“It’s understandable. I’ve given you a lot of information that’s probably hard to digest all at once. Kind of like eating a fat guy.”

She cocks her head and glares at me.

“Sorry.”

Castillo acknowledges my apology with a grunt. “So what is her deal? I’m guessing she’s another vampire problem.”

“Not exactly. You recall me mentioning a certain drug problem I had in Nam.”

“Yeah.”

“Blood isn’t just food for us. It’s like if you had to shoot up just a little bit of heroin every once in a while or you would die. It wouldn’t take much to go over the edge.”

“Go over the edge in what way?”

“Do you remember that thing in Miami where the guy hopped up on bath salts ate another guy’s face? It’s like that, only the druggie has the strength of a five-hundred-pound gorilla and the speed of a cheetah.”

“Holy shit.”

“Yeah, holy shit. That’s what happened to me. I attacked an entire village. She was there.”

“And now she’s a vampire?”

I sigh and shake my head. “Not exactly. She didn’t get a full dose of the virus. She’s like a half-vampire.”

“Half-vampire…and I’m supposed to be the idiot for falling for your mexichaun?”

“Yeah, it’s starting to sound a little silly to me too.”

“So if she is a half-vampire, does that mean she’s only half as strong? What’s the problem?”

“Not even half. She should not be nearly as strong as she is. I don’t know what is going on with her on that level, but she is exterminating my kind with great prejudice, and now that she found me, she is determined to kill me.”

“Is this where I’m supposed to sympathize with you, because…”

“Absolutely not. I don’t even sympathize with me. What I did has given me nightmares for more than forty years. Maybe it’s time we both found some peace.”

“But Jack…”

“That’s the problem and that’s why I told you everything. I don’t know how my next encounter with her is going to turn out, but I cannot have her at my back the next time I face Jack.”

“Like she did in the alley and shot you in the head.”

“Exactly, so she and I are going to have to settle things.”

Castillo’s voice is soft. “Settle it how?”

“There is only one of two ways it can end. One gives me the chance to take Jack down before he kills again, the other lets him run amok until he gets bored and leaves or someone else kills him.”

“What am I supposed to do?”

“I need you to give me some room to work. I’m on your captain’s good side right now, so you might be able to convince him to talk everyone into staying out of my way.”

Castillo leans back and shakes her head. “There is no way he, much less every cop in the city, is going to sit back and let some vigilante shoot up the greater Brooklyn area.”

“I think he will. I think that the other cops will if he tells them that there is a special federal task force in play to deal with Jack and that they are only to report sightings, and under no circumstances are they to engage or even pursue.”

“I don’t know.”

“Look, I might be dead in half an hour, so the whole thing might be moot. If that’s the case, you can all deal with it as you see fit. I will no longer have a dog in the fight.”

“Do you really think she will kill you?”

“Under the current circumstances, I don’t like my odds.”

Castillo sits, silently running scenarios through her head. “If it comes down to it, how do I kill him? I shot that woman
after
she shot you in the head, and you are both still alive, and acting as though nothing happened.”

“If it makes you feel better, it did knock me for a loop.”

“It really doesn’t.”

“Body shots are almost useless unless you sever the spine. We have no vital organs. I mean, we have them, but we don’t need them. A head shot can kill us depending on the severity and the vampire’s age. At the very least, it will fuck us up pretty good, no matter how strong we are, at least for a moment. Severing the spine will cripple us just like anything else. That will buy you a few seconds or several minutes depending on the vampire’s age and ability. Take out the legs to slow them down then put a few in their brain. The only way to make sure a vamp is dead is to cut off the head and/or incinerate them. We don’t have to breathe, and we don’t have a heartbeat, but we can fake both when we want to appear human.”

She starts laughing a little on the maniacal side. That’s not a good sign. “So you’re nearly impossible to kill, strong as a gorilla, and fast as a cheetah. Great. Just fucking great.”

“Well, jaguar, cheetah. Some fast and scary cat. Seriously, it’s not impossible or even close to it, but being human, it is one hell of a challenge.”

“You mean being slow, weak, and mortal.”

“Don’t forget stupid.”

“That’s selective.”

I bob my head from shoulder to shoulder. “Meh.”

Castillo lets out a long breath. “Okay, I’ll call Starks and see if we can give you room to take this guy down.”

I stand and drop a leg through the open window. “Thanks.”

“I do have a perfectly functional door.”

“Not how I roll. It destroys the illusion.”

I clamber down the fire escape and drop the last three floors to the street below. I straddle my bike and make a phone call.

“Hey, Kat.”

“Leo, what’s going on? I just got off the phone with my boss. He said a police precinct was attacked.”

“Yeah, the same psycho who shot up Jamaica and blew the hell out of Vincent’s office building decided to use it to make a point.”

“Jesus Christ.”

“I think he’s staying out of this one. Listen, Kat, I have to do something.”

“Yeah, you need to take this lunatic’s head.”

“I do, and I plan to, but I have to do something first.”

“Okay,” Kat replies, her voice hesitant.

“I chased Jack out of the precinct, but my annoying little shadow jumped me and he got away.”

“That little bitch!” Katherine snaps.

“I know who she is now.”

“Who?”

“The girl from the village. I must have infected her, made her a bloodling, or someone did.”

“Oh, God, Leo.”

“Yeah, it’s fucked up, but I have to fix this before I can deal with Jack.”

“I’m so sorry. I know this must be horrible for you.”

“Probably more so for her.”

“What are you going to do?”

“I came out to Castillo.”

“Came out… Is that why I have such a hard time getting you to have sex with me?”

“Don’t be a smartass.”

Katherine sighs. “Don’t blame me. Obviously your coping technique is wearing off on me.”

“I think she has Marvin and is using him to set me up. With Jack running around and the enclave having its nuts cut off, she’ll need to know what’s happening in case…in case I’m not around to take him down.”

Suppressed panic laces Kat’s voice. “What do you mean not around? No, you’re going to deal with this woman then kill Jack.”

“I’m saying just in case. And if I’m not there to do it, I just want you to know how much you mean to me.”

“Leo, please…”

“Being with you has made me feel the closest thing to human since Lesile turned me. You made me feel things I thought were dead and gone, but they were just buried, and you were able to dig them up for me and bring them into the light.”

“Don’t you start eulogizing to me, Leonard Malone!”

“I love you, Katherine.”

“Leo!”