Luke Irontree & the Last Vampire War (Books 8-10), page 17
“Thank you, My Mistress.” He bowed deeply to her.
“Fare you well and hold Roxi. Together you are stronger in more than just body.” With that, she flared bright and luminous, forcing Luke to close his eyes. When the spots cleared from his eyes, she was gone, but his heart didn’t feel as heavy as before, especially with Roxi standing next to him, her arm around him.
“Luke?” Erin said, still holding Jeremy’s hand. “I know this isn’t your fault, I truly do, but unless there’s a reason for you to be in Portland anymore, I would appreciate it if you moved on.”
“I’m sorry, Erin. We’ve returned your packmates and destroyed the local vampire nursery. We need a couple more days to get everything together to start the trip home, but we’ll be gone shortly. Until then, I’ll stay out of sight.”
Erin nodded, then ignored Luke. Roxi led him back onto the patio and through the door. As he passed by Jeremy, Luke reached down and squeezed his forearm, then left the building. Roxi stuck her head out into the street, looking down the road. Tugging on his hand, she pulled him along toward the neon lights of a bar.
They found two empty stools at the bar and sat down. Roxi stared up at the liquor bottles while Luke stared at the scarred bar top.
A bald man with a bar towel over his shoulder sauntered up to them. “What can I get you?”
“Two Maker’s—doubles, please,” Roxi replied.
“You want rocks?” the bartender asked.
“Neat.”
The bartender turned around and grabbed the bottle off the shelf and a couple of bucket glasses so scratched from use and stacking they were nearly opaque. He filled the doubles. “Sixteen bucks.”
Roxi pulled out her wallet and dropped a twenty on the bar. “Keep it.”
She picked up her glass and took a sip, then a deeper drink, exhaling sharply after swallowing. “Bourbon… That’s a bit bitier than Scotch or Irish.”
Luke nodded and picked up his glass, pouring half of it down his throat. His face cringed around the burn of the whiskey. Reaching under the bar, Roxi took his hand and held it. Luke stared into his whiskey as he swirled it lightly, watching the amber-brown liquid spin in the glass until he stilled his hand. Once the liquid sloshed back to the bottom of the glass, Luke threw back the rest of the bourbon, then set the glass down, letting the burn of the liquor soothe his numbness.
“‘Nother?” the bartender asked.
“Please.” Roxi finished her glass and set it next to Luke’s. “For both of us.” She slid another twenty onto the bar.
The bartender filled their glasses, snagged the cash, and walked away to pour beer for another customer. People standing around some slowly flashing lights caught Roxi’s attention.
“Luke, there’s a table in the corner that just opened. Would you like to sit there? It looks dark and quiet,” Roxi asked, leaning close.
Luke nodded and slid off his stool to follow Roxi into the dark corner. Settling onto the chair, he put his back into the corner. Roxi set her glass down.
“I’m going to go feed some money into the jukebox. Anything you want to hear?” Roxi leaned over the table.
Luke shrugged. “Maybe some Zeppelin.”
“Sure, dōšagīh.” She reached out and caressed his cheek and smiled gently.
He watched as she walked to the jukebox, her hips swaying. While she pored over the selection, he stared at her. The corners of his lips tipped up slightly as she leaned over the box, her elbow resting on the edges of the metal frame, and brushed her hair out of her face. One thin wisp of hair refused to stay put, falling back in front of her face. Too busy pushing buttons to bother with it, she tried blowing it out of her face, solving the problem for a moment before it fluttered back into her way.
She appeared to find something she wanted as she smiled and pushed more buttons. A moment later, Led Zeppelin’s “Going to California” started playing, the beautiful acoustic guitar leading up to the plaintive sounds of Robert Plant’s lyrics. Luke leaned back in his chair, picking up his glass and taking a sip. His eyelids drifted to half-mast as he watched Roxi, letting the beautiful melody soothe his ears and his attraction soothe his eyes.
She solved the problem of the errant wisp of hair by tucking it between her lips as she slowly swayed to the rhythm while looking for her next song. When the Zeppelin song ended, the mournful ring of a delta style guitar replaced it, eventually leading to Jeff Buckley’s cover of Hank Williams’s “Lost Highway.” Her long black hair fell down nearly to her butt. She’d said it had been over three years since her last trip to the salon, well before she’d been captured.
After Roxi picked her last song, she strutted back to the table, letting her hips pop at the end of each sway. Luke couldn’t take his eyes off them as the woman he loved used her hips to tease a smile onto his face. After the long guitar slide in the solo, Roxi lifted her glass and tipped it toward Luke, looking deep into his eyes. Luke clicked the thick bottom of his glass against hers and took a heavy drink, matching Roxi’s.
“I figured if we’re going to be drinking sad whiskey, we should have an appropriate song to accompany it,” Roxi said.
Luke chuckled sadly and nodded. “It’s fitting.”
They sat sipping their whiskey as they listened to the last of the Buckley song. It was replaced by the smooth sounds of Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams.”
“Why’d you pick this one?” Luke asked, curious after her previous selections.
She finished her glass and set the empty on the table. Sitting up straight, she slid her hands under her hair to the back of her neck and lifted her arms, her wavy black hair cascading off her fingers until her hands were empty and held them above her head.
“I just like it. That and a forty-five-year-long crush on Stevie Nicks.” Roxi had a dreamy smile on her face.
Lowering her arms, she grabbed her empty glass. He laughed and tossed back the rest of his shot.
“I like that sound,” Roxi said. She lifted her glass and wiggled it. “One more, then home?”
“Whatever you want.”
She grabbed his glass and went up to the bar, but instead of quickly returning with a couple more glasses of Maker’s, she scanned the shelves. Pointing to one, she paid and returned with two glasses of a paler gold liquid.
Luke took his glass from her hands and brought it to his nose. The strong aroma of peat nearly knocked him out of his chair.
“Ardbeg?” Luke asked.
“You have a good nose.” Roxi ran her glass under her nose, smiling happily.
Luke lifted his glass and raised the corner of one end of his lips. Sighing, he sat up, lifting his glass over the table.
“Jeremy, you deserved a full life, and it was cut too short. I’m sorry I couldn’t do better by you.” Luke stared at his glass.
“To Jeremy,” Roxi murmured, tapping Luke’s glass.
“To Jeremy.” He took a sip, letting the whisky warm in his mouth. The perfume of the peat and alcohol seduced his senses as he mourned a young man he wished he could have gotten to know better.
Roxi scooted her chair closer to Luke’s and settled in next to him, holding his hand as they sat and watched the dive bar live. People fed the jukebox, keeping to the down beat classic rock songs. Luke wasn’t always in the mood for Ardbeg, but its smoky dark complexity fit his mood and the situation perfectly. He marveled at Roxi’s ability to pick the things that’d work to stop his spiral downward. Tomorrow would be another day, but tonight they mourned together.
Chapter
Fifteen
At some point, Roxi let Sam and Pablo know where they were at. He wasn’t sure who ordered another round of Ardbeg, but the light pouring into the window seemed particularly rude the next morning. He groaned and rolled over, pulling his pillow over his head.
“We’ve made better decisions in life…” Roxi said weakly next to him.
Luke reached for his phone and typed into the group chat he had with Sam, Delilah, and Pablo. Bring coffee and greasy breakfast food for two. And some electrolyte drinks. It’s kind of an emergency.
Pablo was the first to reply. An emergency hangover?
Whisky choices were made, Roxi joined the conversation.
What am I bringing over? Chorizo burrito? Pablo asked.
No. Not sure I’m trusting my hangover to an unknown chorizo burrito in Portland, Maine. Biscuits and gravy, side of bacon. For two.
A hangover is a fine time to introduce our lovely Roxi to the wonders of American biscuits and gravy. Sam entered the conversation.
“Are you sure about this, Luke?” Roxi asked.
“Too queasy to eat?” Luke asked.
“No. I could destroy a proper Full English, but I’ve heard weird things about biscuits and gravy.” Roxi squinted at him, using a hand to block the light.
“Do you trust me?”
“Of course.”
Two orders, Luke texted.
We’re at breakfast now. We’ll have them add a couple orders to go, Delilah replied.
We’ll have your medicinal breakfast to you shortly, dude, Pablo added.
Luke slid out to close the blackout curtains then visited the restroom. He fished a couple bottles of water out of the mini fridge and handed one to Roxi. She slid out of bed and used the restroom before returning. Downing the bottle in one go, she crawled back into bed and snuggled into Luke, pulling him into the little spoon position.
“Do you think Pablo would find us a couple vampires to stake? That’s a sure-fire cure for a hangover.” Roxi kissed the back of his arm then gently chomped his forearm.
“Hungry?” Luke mumbled.
“Very.”
Thirty minutes later, Pablo knocked on the door, leaving their food. “Don’t worry,” he called through the door. “We’ve got everything under control. Call if you need us.”
Luke grabbed the bags and waved to Pablo before ducking back into the room, setting up their breakfast on the table. “Behold, the American biscuit, what Australian comic Hannah Gadsby called ‘a scone that’s gone rogue,’ slathered in a sausage milk gravy.” Luke wafted the steam toward his nose, smiling and sighing happily.
Roxi grabbed a robe and threw it over her naked shoulders, not bothering to close it fully before sitting. Luke cut off a chunk of gravy-covered biscuit and popped it into his mouth, humming in satisfaction. Roxi, being more cautious, cut a small piece and delicately put it into her mouth. After a few seconds, she smiled and cut a much bigger piece. Once they finished their breakfast, they took their sports drinks and retired back to the bed, finding a movie to watch while they let the breakfast and electrolytes handle their hangovers.
After several movies, Luke and Roxi ventured out for a quick dinner and more supplies before tucking back into bed to continue their movie marathon, then called it early and went to bed.
When pounding on the door startled Luke from his sleep, it took him a second after shooting upright to recognize what was going on.
“Luke, let us in. It’s important,” Pablo called.
“Coming.” Luke yawned and grabbed his robe, throwing it on.
Roxi sat up and rubbed her eyes groggily. Luke grabbed her robe and handed it to her, allowing her to pull it on and close it before letting what turned out to be the whole leadership team—Delilah, Pablo, Sam, and Simone along with Brutus—into their hotel room.
“What’s going on?” Luke asked around another yawn.
The scared and worried expressions on his friends’ faces nearly woke him the rest of the way up.
“Luke…” Sam gulped. “They turned loose their nurseries all over the world.”
Luke’s eyebrows shot up. “What?”
He looked to Delilah, who rarely joked about such things. She nodded back. “It’s all over the news. Someone even turned up the video you recorded. And played it.”
“I guess Jamaal got it loaded up effectively…” he mumbled.
“Though most news outlets are calling it a series of worldwide terrorist attacks aided by some new drug that makes people go wild and murderous,” Sam added.
Pablo grabbed the remote to the TV and turned it on, searching for a cable news channel. Luke hadn’t seen news personalities so shaken since September eleventh. They ran through a series of videos from around the world, showing the violent attack of vampires tearing into human flesh. They warned the audience about the graphic nature, blurred out a lot of it, but Luke knew exactly what was going on. In one video, cops unloaded their guns into a couple fangers only to be torn apart, their blood mingling with the black sludge leaked by baby vampires.
Roxi scooted into the middle, letting Luke slide in next to her. Sam slid into the bed next to Roxi. Pablo took a chair, and Delilah and Simone sat on the floor, leaning up against the foot of the bed as they all watched in horror. Brutus curled up next to them, laying his head across Simone’s lap.
“Portland?” Luke asked, his body going stiff.
He reached for his phone and found a deluge of messages. He pulled up the one from Maggie first.
Out helping with casualties. Gwen is safe with Zel. I sent them to your house to hide in the basement. Please come home. You’re needed here.
He opened Gwen’s next.
Safe with Zel. It’s super scary. Please be safe. I miss you so much.
Suddenly, he sat up ramrod straight, finally pulling together the pieces. “Why aren’t we out fighting vampires?”
“There aren’t any here. We killed them already,” Sam said.
Luke looked at his phone, checking the time. “What’s the nearest city reporting attacks?”
“Boston,” Pablo supplied.
“Luke, before you think about rushing off to Boston, it’ll be close to morning by the time we get there, and most likely daylight by the time we get everyone organized. Unless you’re thinking of just loading up a car with us?”
Delilah snorted. “I don’t feel like fighting an entire uncontrolled horde of baby vamps with just the six of us.”
Roxi squeezed his thigh. “There’s nothing we can do at this point. They’ll be finding places to hide for the day by the time we get there.”
They sat together, watching the TV in horror as the worldwide vampire attack took place. It was as bad as any war footage, probably worse with the visceral carnage of the vampires decimating human bodies then feeding on them. The occasional crack of a gun firing at one of the monsters which only infuriated them.
“I’ll have to say, the camera people are sure as hell brave and foolhardy to be out there rolling tape on this kind of footage.” Pablo shook his head as he stared at the latest footage that was a mix of smartphone videos that’d been mined from social media. “I’d be more worried about becoming a snack, ‘cause damn.”
Roxi snuggled into Luke, while on Roxi’s other side, Sam rested her head on Roxi’s shoulder, holding her hand. Delilah and Simone had found the spare blanket from the closet and pressed close to each other on the floor. They all needed the touch of their friends, the warmth of human companionship, to feel safe while they witnessed the unrelenting horror unfolding before them.
Finally, Sam reached over and took the remote out of Luke’s hands. “We’ve had enough of this.” She scrolled until she found a movie to watch. “There’s nothing we can do about any of this until daylight. We need The Princess Bride in our lives right now, because I don’t know about the rest of you, but I doubt I’m going to manage any sleep after that.”
They broke out the snacks and beverages that Roxi and Luke had accumulated as well as the remainder of what was contained in the mini fridge. After The Princess Bride, they watched Bull Durham. As the sun crept up into the sky, they sent out a group message to assemble for a team breakfast and their final planning session before the long and now very dangerous trip home.
With air traffic still grounded, they assembled their caravan in an empty lot the Portland-Bangor Pack owned. Though, they’d never be able to get all their weaponry on a plane, even with inside connections—not after the worldwide disaster the vampire wrought. Alejandro had made some pack folks available to them to help them round up supplies. Luke wanted enough food for the entire group in case stopping became too dangerous. They hit up warehouse stores and bought as much ready-to-eat food as they could, as well as cases of water and other drinkables.
“Dammit, I wish we had more time,” Pablo said, looking over a clipboard. “I’ve got the ammo teams working as fast as they can to make anti-vamp shells, but we’d planned on at least a few more days to build up our stock.”
“I know. Try to organize the packing material so we can pull it out and work if we get the opportunity. You’re doing the best you can, as are our people. Let them know I’m proud of their efforts.” Luke patted his friend on the shoulder.
“Hey, Luke. Got a minute?” Sam yelled from across the lot, waving at him.
He jogged over. “What ya got, Sam?”
“Holly has been working the phones today.”
“Wrangle up any support for us as we move cross country?” Luke rubbed his eyes and shook his head, the lack of sleep wearing on him.
“A little bit. She’s gonna need to know our itinerary. If we can give her some notice, she’ll get us some safe waypoints. Also, wouldn’t hurt if we offered some anti-vamp training along the way.” Sam gave him her most winsome smile.
He chuckled. “Sure. Sounds like more than a fair trade for some sanctuary.”
“Luke? Where’s Luke?” Roxi shouted.
Luke turned to find where her voice was coming from and waved to catch her attention. Spotting her, he turned back to Sam. “Looks like I’m needed elsewhere.”
He met Roxi and Alejandro in the middle of the lot. “Alejandro, thanks for the use of the lot. It’s making things a lot easier having a central collection point.”
Alejandro shook Luke’s hand. “Anything to help you out. We really do appreciate all you’ve done for us.”
