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“Humans don’t do too well in the middle of the monsters, Richard. Get out if you can.”
“You’re human.”
I shrugged. “Some people would argue that.”
“Not me.” He reached out to touch me. I stood my ground and didn’t move away. His fingertips brushed the side of my face, warm and very alive.
“See you at three o’clock this afternoon, unless you’re going to be too tired.”
I shook my head, and his hand dropped away from my face. “Wouldn’t miss it,” I said.
He smiled again. His hair blew in a tangle across his face. I kept the front of my own hair cut short enough so that it stayed out of my eyes, most of the time. Layering was a wonderful thing.
I opened the passenger side door. “I’ll see you this afternoon.”
“I’ll bring your costume with me.”
“What am I going to be dressed as?”
“A Civil War bride,” he said.
“Does that mean a hoop skirt?”
“Probably.”
I frowned. “And what are you going to be?”
“A Confederate officer.”
“You get to wear pants,” I said.
“I don’t think the dress would fit me.”
I sighed. “It’s not that I’m not grateful, Richard, but…”
“Hoop skirts aren’t your style?”
“Not hardly.”
“My offer was grubbies and all the mud we could crawl in. The party was your idea.”
“I’d get out of it if I could.”
“It might be worth all the trouble just to see you dressed up. I get the feeling it’s a rarity.”
Larry leaned across the seat, and said, “Can we get a move on? I need a cigarette and some sleep.”
“I’ll be right there.” I turned back to Richard but suddenly didn’t know what to say. “See you later.”
He nodded. “Later.”
I got in the car, and Larry pulled away before I got my seat belt fastened. “What’s the rush?”
“I want to get as far away from this place as I can.”
I looked at him. He still looked pale.
“You all right?”
“No, I’m not all right.” He looked at me, blue eyes bright with anger. “How can you be so casual after what just happened?”
“You were calm after last night. You got bitten last night.”
“But that was different,” he said. “That woman sucked on the bite. She…” His hands clenched the steering wheel so tightly his hands shook.
“You were hurt worse last night; what makes this tougher?”
“Last night was violent, but it wasn’t… perverted. The vampires last night wanted something. The name of the Master. The ones tonight didn’t want anything, they were just being…”
“Cruel,” I offered.
“Yes, cruel.”
“They’re vampires, Larry. They aren’t human. They don’t have the same rules.”
“She would have killed me tonight on a whim.”
“Yes, she would have,” I said.
“How can you bear to be around them?”
I shrugged. “It’s my job.”
“And my job, too.”
“It doesn’t have to be, Larry. Just refuse to work on vampire cases. Most of the rest of the animators do.”
He shook his head. “No, I won’t give up.”
“Why not?” I asked.
He didn’t say anything for a minute. He pulled onto 270 headed south. “How could you talk about a date this afternoon after what just happened?”
“You have to have a life, Larry. If you let this business eat you alive, you’ll never make it.” I studied his face. “And you never answered my question.”
“What question?”
“Why won’t you give up the idea of being a vampire executioner?”
Larry hesitated, concentrating on driving. He suddenly seemed very interested in passing cars. We drove under a railroad bridge, warehouses on either side. Many of the windows were broken or missing. Rust dripped down the bridge overpass.
“Nice section of town,” he said.
“You’re avoiding the question. Why?”
“I don’t want to talk about it.”
“I asked about your family; you said they were all alive. What about friends? You lose a friend to the vamps?”
He glanced at me. “Why ask that?”
“I know the signs, Larry. You’re determined to kill the monsters because you’ve got a grudge, don’t you?”
He hunched his shoulders and stared straight ahead. The muscles in his jaws clenched and unclenched.
“Talk to me, Larry,” I said.
“The town I come from is small, fifteen hundred people. While I was away at college my freshman year, twelve people were murdered by a pack of vampires. I didn’t know them, any of them, really. I knew them to say hi to, but that was it.”
“Go on.”
He glanced at me. “I went to the funerals over Christmas break. All those coffins, all those families. My dad was a doctor, but he couldn’t help them. Nobody could help them.”
“I remember the case,” I said. “Elbert, Wisconsin, three years ago, right?”
“Yes, how did you know?”
“Twelve people is a lot for a single vampire kill. It made the papers. Brett Colby was the vampire hunter they got for the job.”
“I never met him, but my parents told me about him. They made him sound like a cowboy riding into town to take down the bad guys. He found and killed five vampires. He helped the town when nobody else could.”
“If you just want to help people, Larry, be a social worker, or a doctor.”
“I’m an animator; I’ve got a built-in resistance to vampires. I think God meant for me to hunt them.”
“Geez Louise, Larry, don’t go on a holy crusade, you’ll end up dead.”
“You can teach me.”
I shook my head. “Larry, this isn’t personal. It can’t be personal. If you let your emotions get in the way, you’ll either get killed or go stark raving mad.”
“I’ll learn, Anita.”
I stared at his profile. He looked so stubborn. “Larry…” I stopped. What could I say? What brought any of us into this business? Maybe his reasons were as good as my own, maybe better. It wasn’t just love of killing, like with Edward. And heaven knew I needed help. There were getting to be too many vampires for just little ol’ me.
“All right, I’ll teach you, but you do what I say, when I say it. No arguments.”
“Anything you say, boss.” He gri
But we were all young once. It passes, like i
Chapter 38
Larry, dropped me off in front of my apartment building at 9:05. It was way past my bedtime. I got my gym bag out of the back seat. Didn’t want to leave my animating equipment behind. I locked and shut the door, then leaned in the passenger side door. “I’ll see you tonight at five o’clock back here, Larry. You’re designated driver until I get a new car.”
He nodded.
“If I’m late getting home, don’t let Bert send you out alone, okay?”
He looked at me then. His face was full of some deep thought that I couldn’t read. “You think I can’t handle myself?”
I knew he couldn’t handle himself, but I didn’t say that out loud. “It’s only your second night on the job. Give yourself and me a break. I’ll teach you how to hunt vampires, but our primary job is raising the dead. Try to remember that.”
He nodded.
“Larry, if you have bad dreams, don’t worry. I have them too sometimes.”
“Sure,” he said. He put the car in gear, and I had to close the door. Guess he didn’t want to talk anymore. Nothing we’d seen yet would give me nightmares, but I wanted Larry to be prepared, if mere words could prepare anyone for what we do.
A family was loading up a grey van with coolers and a picnic hamper. The man smiled. “I don’t think we’ll get many more days like this.”
“I think you’re right.” It was that pleasant small talk that you use with people whose names you don’t know but whose faces you keep seeing. We were neighbors, so we said hello and good-bye to each other, but nothing else. That was the way I liked it. When I came home, I didn’t want someone coming over to borrow a cup of sugar.