Vampire$

Felix, sitting beside him at the far end of the motorhome, nodded and put out his newly lit cigarette. It was too damn smoky in there already. But every time they tried to open the door to get some fresh air, the bloody thunderstorm about drowned them.

Felix shook his head disgustedly. Midsummer, three o’clock in the afternoon, and it was probably no more than fifty degrees out there. And the damned sky was green!

Ker-plap! went another bolt of lightning, and everyone in the motorhome — which was everyone they had — jumped another foot.

“I do wish they’d stop doing that!” muttered Cat airily.

Nobody laughed.

“Well, hell,” said Jack at last. “I guess there goes today.”

“Yeah,” agreed Carl, staring out at the storm. “Funny thing is: we could’ve blown the whole damn mansion up in this stuff and I don’t think even the next-door neighbors would have heard it.” He looked at Davette and smiled. “As ‘next-door’ as this neighborhood gets, I mean,” be added.

Davette didn’t smile. She just looked at the floor between her feet and continued hugging her elbows, her face drawn and tight.

She doesn’t like being here, thought Felix.

And he wanted to go to her and do something or say something, but…

But he didn’t. Too many people around and… and what was he going to say, anyway? They were going to do this one way or another, no matter how she felt. She was the reason they were here, if anything.

“Dammit!” sputtered Jack Crow. “I would like to know if they’re here, at least. Joplin! Turn that thing on.”

“It won’t work,” replied Carl.

“Why not? Are they busted?”

“You’re trying to read the house, right?”

“Right.”

“It won’t reach.”

“Because of the storm? It’s only a couple of hundred feet.”

Carl shook his head. “It’s not the storm. It’s the location. I could read the house from here if I had a sensor in the house. But you gotta have a sensor on-site.”

“You mean already at the house.”

Carl nodded. “Or in it.”

“Now there’s a happy thought,” offered Cat.

Jack looked at him. “You up to it?”

Cat shrugged. “I wish I had a shower cap,” he said and began stripping off his chain mail.

“What do you think you’re doing?” Carl asked him.

“Don’t worry. I’m not going in. An outside wall would be close enough, wouldn’t it?”

Felix thought this was crazy. But he only said, “Are you sure this is a good idea?”

“Well, I’m sure,” declared Joplin. “It’s a shitty idea.” He looked square at Cat. “It’s also even stupider than your usual.”

“Look, Carl,” urged Jack. “It’s just a matter of him taking it up there and stashing it in the bushes or somewhere.”

“Yeah,” agreed Cat. “Just Catting it in and Catting it out.”

And he smiled.

And Carl Joplin all but erupted. “Bullshit!” he bellowed. “Bullshit! It’s been dark for what? Two hours already.”

“Yeah, but—” Cat tried.

“‘Yeah, but—’ shit! You sit your butt back down or I’ll dribble you from one end of this trailer to the other!”

And he stood over Cat, huffing and puffing, his arms out like a hungry linebacker, and it got very quiet until Cat spoke, in a small voice: “Okay, Carl,” he said, shrugging.

Carl nodded firmly. “Okay,” he confirmed, still heaving.

Then he noticed everyone watching him. He blinked, hesitated, then seemed to get more angry.

“We meeting at Felix’s bar, that Antwar place?”

Jack nodded.

Carl turned to Felix. “You sure you got enough room?”

“I’m sure.”

“Fine!” barked Carl. He looked around at the others. “Fine,” he repeated. “I’ll meet you there. I’m gonna get some more bullets for the Gunman and a suit for the kid.” He nodded toward Deputy Thompson.

He looked around at the others another moment, trying to think of something to say. Then he grabbed up the Blazer keys and stomped out into the rain.

They could just hear the Blazer’s engine start over the storm.

“I don’t get it,” wondered Kirk out loud. “What was he so mad about?”

Annabelle smiled. So did Jack and Cat.

“He wasn’t really mad, dear,” Annabelle assured him. “He was just worried about Cat.”

Kirk nodded slowly. “So that threat…”

“Oh, that wasn’t a threat,” Annabelle said quickly. “That was a hug.”

Kirk looked at her. Then the dawning showed in his eyes. He smiled.

“Oh, I get it. Carl’s shy.”

Cat and Jack nodded at each other.

“Well,” muttered Cat, “that’s one way of putting it.”

Felix didn’t much care how they put it.

“Let’s get going,” he said.

“Okay,” replied Jack. He looked at Davette. “Which way at the stop sign?”

She looked up vaguely, still clearly disturbed at where she was.

“Uh, why don’t you turn right? No… Yes, right. And then…”

Felix shook his head. “Go straight. Then take the nex… Never mind. I’ll drive.”

And he climbed over into the driver’s seat.

Jack studied him. “You know this area?”

Felix shrugged. “I grew up about three blocks from here.”

And Davette’s head came up quickly. “You did?” she whispered.

He smiled at her and nodded.

“Where?” she asked.

“DeLoche Avenue.”

Davette’s head tilted toward him. She smiled.

“How nice,” breathed Cat. “They’re both aristocrats.”

“Cat,” snarled Felix, starting the engine.

But Cat held up both palms in the air. “I know. I know,” he said. And then he added. “But it’s still sweet.”

Felix snarled as he made the motorhome move through the rain.

“We need to stop here,” announced Annabelle as they passed a shopping center a few miles later. “There. At the pharmacy.”

Jack frowned, looked at his watch. “What for?”

“That,” purred Annabelle sweetly, “is none of your business. Felix, pull up close so we don’t get wet and… Jack?”

She held her palm out to him and pointed to it with a long fingernail. Jack shrugged and dugout some money and started piling bills onto her palm. When she had about three times what they needed, Annabelle said, “Stop. We’ll be right back.”

Then she and Davette were out the door and tripping through the rain to the brightly lit automatic doors.