Tomorrow's Dead: The Julia Poe Vampire Chronicles (26 page)

“Could he really be planning an attack on Los Angeles?” asked Poe, laying a hand on
Sainvire’s knee she’d shot so many times before.

“Oh, I wouldn’t doubt it.  SF needs a pick-me-up.  Victory over your city would’ve
impressed some, but not all.  The old man’s losing his grip as vampires starve and
humans die.  Nesbitt lives in this old world fantasy where he’s royalty and his subjects
question nothing.  I drive around everyday picking up dead bodies, and let me tell
you, it’s not looking good for humans.  Nesbitt needs to stop harvesting their blood. 
They’re dropping like starving wasps.”

“What can we really do?  We’re here to squash your city’s fighting capabilities. 
If we do get Nesbitt, you’ll be on your own.  You’ve got to map out tasks for your
captains to take care of.  You have to keep a lid on chaos and protect human slaves,
and there’s a lot of ground to cover.  For a compact city, everyone seems spread out.”

“Believe it or not, Poe, we have plans to protect humans and take command.  We also
have plenty of Plasmacore.  That will be the rallying point.  We just need the opportunity,
and Sainvire here is just the opportunity.”

Poe felt miffed.  Granted she had mostly slept while Sainvire did all the work, but
the mission was hers, and people like Li thought she was useless.

As if Sainvire read her mind, he explained, “Poe is the reason we’re here, Li.  She
is the tactician for this mission.  She also killed over 30 Revenents in the Mission
and nearly destroyed all 50 skinheads by herself.”

Li nodded his head as if to say, “Yeah right!” and turned to face the windshield away
from Poe’s expectant face.  “Okay, then.  I’m taking a nap.  Wake me up when the sun’s
out,” said the bitter man.

I hate that guy
, she thought.

Sainvire squeezed her shoulder and kissed her nose.  His mirthful eyes conveyed that
she should let the matter rest.  She pinched his nonexistent love handle then insinuated
herself in his arms.  If the jerk was going to sleep, then so was she.

Poe woke up on the opposite end of the back seat of the hearse.  With one eye open,
she watched Sainvire as he assembled the C4 attached to timers and a stick of dynamite. 
Morales had held a seminar about bomb making, and even Sainvire was required to attend. 
“So you’re finally awake,” he said without looking up from his dangerous work.  He
could read her heartbeat.

“You almost done with that?” she asked while stretching.  “Where’s the moron?”

“He’s sniffing around to see what’s up.”  Poe looked out the window and realized they
were at a different neighborhood.  She saw a hardscaped open plaza with a jumble of
stepped concrete slabs in the center.

“Boy, I’m taking on the sleep habits of a vampire.  Where are we?”

“By the Art Institute.  Li has some friends here.  Lookouts.”  He finally picked his
eyes up and took in the girl’s sleepy appearance.  Julia Poe with her lovely plump
lips and expressive brown eyes suddenly made him forget that he was holding volatile
explosives.  Framing her face, her hair fell to her shoulders.  Without the mustache
and the hideous wig, Poe looked gorgeous in a tan.  “I love you, Julia.”

Poe smiled.  “Love you, too, you crazy vampire.” 

Their flirtations were cut short when Li got in the car with his friend, a hairy-looking
beast with a beard that swallowed his face except for his eyes.

“This is Joel.  He’s a day vamp.” 

Joel seemed giddy to be in the company of two of the most famous rustlers post-Armageddon. 
“I can’t believe I’m in a hearse with the two of you!  Julia Poe, you’re a goddess! 
Didn’t expect you to be such a beauty.”

Li sighed his annoyance.  “Look, Joel.  This is basically Sainvire’s operation.  Julia
Poe will sit in the car with us while he does all the work.”

Poe calmed herself, even smiling up at Sainvire who looked alarmed. 

“So what’s the news?” asked Sainvire.  He had thought Li was only funning, but the
man was becoming insufferable.  He didn’t know whether Poe could keep her hands off
the rude Chinese man when he left to carry out his business.

“As far as we know, the ships in the bay are empty.  You can bomb them to smithereens. 
But we’ve seen about 20 blue suits this morning patrolling the streets.  I think they’re
the last of Nesbitt’s day vamps.  Should’ve put them on Plasmacore regimen.  Look
at me.  I’m walking in the sun after 40 years of moon watch,” explained Joel.

“So here’s the plan.  You destroy those ships, and Julia Poe and I will stay in the
car and take a nap.  When it’s over just fly over to us people with nothing important
to do.”

Poe’s mouth became a line. 
Keep riding me, asshole, and I’ll feed your pecker to the birds.

Sainvire took Poe’s face in his hands and kissed her deliberately slow.  He brushed
his lips to her eyes and nose then kissed her again on the mouth.  “I’ll be back in
a tick of the clock, you wonderful woman you.”

“You better,” she whispered in his ear.  “Or else I’ll be your replacement driver
when you get back.”

Joel was all grins.  He didn’t turn away when the couple had their private moment
but stared excitedly like a peeping tom.  “Love after the apocalypse.  Hella nice.”

“You stay here, Joel, until I get back,” ordered Sainvire. 

“Yes, sir.  You’re so awesome, Kaleb Sainvire!  Good luck.”

Carrying the duffel bags filled with explosives, Sainvire glanced one more time at
Poe and stepped out of the car.  Poe’s heart thudded.  She didn’t know whether it
was from complete love for the vampire or nervousness about his assignment.

While Li chatted incessantly about Sainvire’s greatness to Joel, Poe decided it was
time to relieve herself.  The damn driver was a Sainvire fanboy.  She leaned over
and pulled some tissue from the box next to Li.  “I gotta pee.  Is that good with
you?”

Li gave her a TMI look and waved her away. 
Fucking dick!  Just because you have some muscles on you, you think you can take me.

Poe cracked her neck muscles and stretched as soon as she got out of the car.  She
hopped around like Muhammad Ali himself and started air boxing.  She noticed Li’s
eyes roll toward the heavens from the driver side mirror.  Disgusted with the man
bent on spitting on her worth, Poe walked half a block until she was satisfied with
a wild, untrimmed rosemary bush to urinate behind.  She hid the used tissue in the
thicket and poured in her hands some travel antibacterial gel she had filched from
the hotel.

San Francisco was a wonderful place to live.  Her parents had brought the family up
when she was five or six, and she only remembered the Botanical Garden and the magnificent
Golden Gate Bridge.  They’d walked part of the bridge until her sister Sirena’s vertigo
kicked in and had to go back to the Presidio. 

The smell was quite different from Los Angeles in those days.  The air, though colder,
was cleaner because the bay winds swept pollutants away.  Poe’s musings ended after
ducking behind sidewalk foliage as 20 blue suits that had been sniffing around the
Art Institute ordered Li and Joel out of the car.

“I’m meeting Joel here because he’s my boyfriend,” said Li, smiling conspiratorially.

“It’s true.  He’s my love,” confirmed Joel.

The boss suit was immovable.  “You’re in a suspect area, a hotbed for deviants and
miscreants, and you say you just happened to meet up here.  If I’m suspicious it’s
because you have a bullshit story.  What are you doing using city property for a liaison
when you’re supposed to be picking up bodies?  And you, why aren’t you registered
as a day vamp?”

“I just woke up one day, and the sun embraced me.”

The bulky, hard-nosed suit punched Joel in the nose.  “You’ve been dabbling with Plasmacore,
you asshole.  That’s a serious offense right there.”

Joel held his broken nose and blinked away the pain. 

“As for you, custodian, your driving privileges are hereby revoked.  I’ll make sure
to reassign you to shoveling shit and wiping ass.”

Poe had 28 bullets between the two Blackhawk Colts.  There were 24 blue suits.  She
had a limited amount of time to kill most of them before they could train their own
weapons on her.  Changing the magazine was going to be tricky, so she put one on the
pocket of her paisley shirt. 
Just walk away from the hearse.
 
We’re gonna need it unscathed to move around town
, she thought. 
I don’t mind shooting your SUVs though
.

She unsheathed her guns and whistled the you’re-so-sexy cat-call.  The suits faced
her way. 
All in the forehead, Poe.  They’re wearing vests
, she whispered to herself.  She shot the bastard in charge right over the eyes. 
The three surrounding the dead leader were shot consecutively.  Guns were pulled off
holsters, but Poe shot five more of the enemy between the eyes before they could return
fire.  From the corner of her eyes, she saw Li and Joel scramble to the ground behind
the hearse.

“Surround her,” somebody yelled, but Poe hardly budged.  Her left hand took care of
five heads while her right hand decimated six.  She ran behind one of the SUVs as
a volley of bullets followed her lithe form.  She closed her eyes for a second and
instinctively knew somebody was approaching from her right.  Without even looking
at him, she fired a shot.  The blue beret fell permanently dead on the ground. 

The atmosphere turned dire as explosions shook the ground.  “Sainvire,” said Poe. 
She was enervated.

“Four more dead,” shouted Li. 

Poe inhaled a breath and ran out into the open.  She looked straight ahead at an oak
tree and allowed the instructive voice to guide her.  Muhammad Ali, Xena, her parents,
Bruce Lee, Sister Ann, and Goss spoke as one.  She shot two vamps on her left.  One
bullet hit the trees and another one struck a blue beret hiding behind an SUV.  Another
explosion reverberated around the marina.

She let her empty clips fall and replaced them with full ones.  Poe looked for the
minute chance that one of them survived or a new crew was coming.  But like Joel had
said, Nesbitt was short of day vamps, so it was unlikely more were on the way to give
her hell.

Li and Joel surveyed the carnage.  Vamps in uniform were splayed on the asphalt. 
“Fuck me,” said Li.  “You shot them all in the head.”

“They’re wearing vests,” said Poe matter-of-factly.

“I’ve never seen such a thing.  You’re like a superhero Wonder Woman goddess!” said
Joel excitedly as another explosion rocked the stillness of the morning.  “That fucking
shit broke my nose, and he was the first one you offed!  Thanks.”

“Yeah.  That was dedicated to you.  Now let’s pick up their guns and get out of here.” 
The three of them confiscated handguns, shotguns, knives, bullets, and other weapons
they could lay their hands on.  They placed the loot in the back of one of the intact
SUVs.  The other three vehicles they destroyed by scrambling internal components. 
Joel was a weak vampire.  His only power was the ability to lift items up to 200 pounds.

“Joel, get rid of those things quick.  And hide the SUV.  Might be useful in the future.”

“You and me had better find a cleaner street, Li,” she said to the shell-shocked driver. 
“Sainvire would know where I am.  He has a great sense of smell, and he can hear my
heartbeat.”

Joel the hairy beast hugged her a little too enthusiastically and took the liberty
of kissing her on the mouth.  “You’re my hero, Julia Poe!  If ever it doesn’t work
out between you and Sainvire, consider me.”

Poe wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.  “Sure, man.  I really think you should
get out of here, though.”  She was disgusted by the hairy creature but tried hard
not to show it.

He got in the SUV and grinned at Poe.  “I love you!” he screamed and drove away.

“Let’s go, Li,” said Poe, getting in the back of the hearse.  Poe heard the fourth
explosion and felt relief.  Sainvire was done. 
Hope there’s no more surprises
, she thought.  “Go to the next block, okay?  His hearing might be off with all the
explosions.  I don’t want him to miss us.”

“You’re incredible,” said Li, breaking his silence as he drove.  “I can see how vampires
can do what they can do, but a human?  You didn’t even look at some of them, and you
got them smack in the forehead anyway.  No wonder master vampires and Council members
fear you.  You’re a human with the ways and means to kill them.”

Poe swallowed spit.  “Everyone has the power to kill.  Even you.”

“I thought Sainvire did all the work, and I was a real jerk to you.  But now I know
never to judge a book by its tiny, scarred cover.”

“If the part about tiny and scarred is your idea of an apology, then save it.  You’re
a dick.”

“I know.  I apologize till the day I die,” he said dramatically but sincerely. 

“Don’t worry about it, bub.  Just have our back, and we’ll get this city cleaned up
for you.”

“I
CAN
’
T
BELIEVE
HOW
easy it is to play bad in this city,” said Poe, bouncing a small rubber ball on Sainvire’s
naked abdomen.  “Everything seems unguarded.  Everything!  Nesbitt is all talk.  He’s
unorganized, and he’s scarred to bits.  I wonder the craziness we can do before we
leave.  We have a day and a half left until Rufus picks us up, and we’ve finished
our homework.  Can’t we sightsee?  Let’s walk the Golden Gate Bridge.”

Sainvire glanced at Poe.  She wore nothing and was completely comfortable in his presence
for the first time.  Her black wavy hair was untied, and he couldn’t believe what
he was seeing.  Julia Poe was a stickler when it came to her hair.  She left it in
a ponytail most of the time.  Watching the soft curls framing the girl’s face was
a privilege, and he adored her even more.