Tomorrow's Dead: The Julia Poe Vampire Chronicles, page 17
Sainvire pedaled as fast as the bicycle could handle and got off when the tire hit a nail and nearly crashed them into a ditch full of broken stained toilets. The vampire did a quick swing and caught Poe before she hit ground. The girl ended up on top of him with a smirk on her face, and it scared him. When wiggy kissed him, he shuddered again.
“We better go now. These buildings have eyes,” he said so he wouldn’t have to kiss Poe again.
Poe took out the map once more and said, “It says here we have to take Octavia Street all the way then we’ll hit Lafayette Park. That’s where they stash their air support.” She shoved the map in her back pocket and shook her head. “It’s so beautiful here. I can see myself living here with all these nice buildings and the water surrounding the city. Too bad that asshole Nesbitt owns this town. Fifteen hundred vamps and humans. That’s a big population to lord over.”
“They’re rebelling, Poe. His reign will end. Humans are dying off, and no one’s here to replace them. Custodian blood is still taboo because these bastards are bigoted idiots. There are only two alternatives – steal our people or use Plasmacore. They would resort to feeding on custodians as the last option. Without custodians to keep the human cattle alive, chaos will rule.”
Only three brightly painted Victorian homes remained standing on a part of Gough Street. The rest of the neighborhood had been razed. The infiltrators paused when they heard screaming from two of the homes across the street from each other. Poe and Sainvire couldn’t walk away without investigating.
“I’ll take the pink house,” said Sainvire.
“The purple’s mine.”
“Be careful, Poe,” he said, squeezing her arm.
“You, too, buddy ol’ pal.”
Poe didn’t bother to knock and walked inside the three-story Queen Anne Victorian. The living room had on cots five blood slaves, their eyes staring at nothing. They were dead. Poor people, thought Poe.
A female voice screamed bloody murder from upstairs, and with one of her guns at the ready, Poe climbed the stairs two at a time. The second floor contained six cots, and she muttered curses under her breath. The third floor where the screaming emanated from chilled Poe to the bones. The scene reminded her of Quillon Trench and the horrid acts he had inflicted on her. Two custodians, an Asian and a Latina, were strapped facedown to the bed. Razor blades had ripped their naked backs as vampires hungry for fresh blood scooped and fed. No scars marred their backs. This was their first experience of severe torture. Hunger was driving vampires into blood thieves. She was sure these dead sucked dry the cattle downstairs.
Three vampires ladled and ate while four human leeches smoked pot and laughed at the jokes of one the vampires. Poe cleared her throat and called attention to herself. “Hola, amigos,” she said. “What’s happening?”
“Who the hell are you?” asked the greediest of the three vampires for he never stopped slashing and scooping.
“Help us,” begged the Asian girl.
“Don’t worry. I’ll get you out of here,” promised Poe.
“How you gonna do that, shit stain?” asked a leech with piss-yellow teeth.
Poe asked the women, “Do you want me to shoot their heads, girls?”
Both cried, “Yes.”
Poe pulled the gun from her jacket pocket and said, “Okidoke!” In two seconds she managed to shoot three vampire heads and conjure up a bad trip for the leeches. Poe slid out her knife and cut the women’s wrists and legs free from hemp rope. “Get dressed. As for you, corn teeth, pick a friend and pull out his tongue. All the way out. Sever it. And I’ll take care of your buddies.” The leech complied, but the last two leeches whimpered and kept sticking their tongues back inside their mouths.
“Look. Either I cut your tongues or I shoot your pricks off, yeah?”
With the memory executing leeches at the assembly still fresh, she wasn’t going to kill any more leeches. However, she wasn’t above leaving them a permanent reminder. Lucky for them, Sainvire appeared on the floor. The women screamed again.
“Sir!” cried a leech, overjoyed at seeing a vampire. “This man crippled my friends so they won’t be able to talk. He killed three vampires, too. Sick. It’s so sick!” The man was expecting help, but Sainvire grabbed at his collar instead. With a flick of his thumb he broke the man’s neck.
“Hey! I thought you’d be proud of me for not killing randomly. What’s the big idea?”
“New city, new rules,” he said. “Ladies, set fire to this house and hide out. I’ve already torched the house across the street.”
“What about the cattle?” asked Poe.
“They’ve been drained dead. They might become Revenents, so let’s fire it up. Can you do that, ladies?”
“Yes,” said the Latina. “Thank you.”
“Who are you? From the underground?”
“No. But we’re looking for them,” said Sainvire. “Any idea where we can find the fighters?”
The women shook their heads in the negative. “Burn these guys alive if you want,” said Poe. “Or torture them or whatever. Your street is deserted anyway. If some folks are still alive, take care of them.”
The Asian and Latina thanked them both profusely and told them of a safer route to Lafayette Park.
A hearse with open windows drove by the burning houses as Poe and Sainvire rounded the street. It transported stacked dead human bodies, and one leg in particular protruded from the rear window.
“The hearse guy saw us.”
“I know. He must be a custodian. Let’s just hope he won’t talk.”
Once the hearse was out of sight, Sainvire picked up Poe and flew them parallel to the thick Acacia and Eucalyptus trees that concealed the street. They had work to do yet. With the help of flight, the two reached Lafayette Park which was no longer a park in the normal sense of the word. An expanse of concrete had transformed the lawn into an aircraft landing station.
Poe kissed Sainvire’s cheek as he lowered her to the ground. The look he gave her made her pause. She combed her mustache and he quickly looked away. “Are you mad at me, Kaleb?”
“No, sweets. I’m not. Just anxious to destroy engines. That’s all,” he said. He left her to slash engines to smithereens. Poe had planned to release grenades to blow up the air power of San Francisco, but Sainvire’s way was quieter. Her pack was heavy with small explosives and she couldn’t wait to use them. She counted twenty-eight choppers and three small airplanes and hoped Sainvire would be done soon. She was hungry.
Out of the corner of her eye, Poe saw the same hearse pass Octavia and Sacramento Street. Right away she hid behind a green chopper and took out her gun. It wasn’t a good idea to make a racket so early in the morning, but left with no choice she would use her firepower.
A prickly feeling stabbed the back of her neck 20 minutes later. She turned around quickly and found a day vamp waving a gun in her face. “What are you looking for, Poncho? Where’s your friend?” he asked. Three other vamps appeared from nowhere and surrounded her. The one who called her out was holding a .38 Special. Her secret voice told her that there were no bullets in the six cylinder gun. You better not be wrong, grumbled Poe. Leeches used to spend their time shooting at cats and dogs on the street to ward off boredom, but their stores were depleted, and no vampire condescended to hand them much needed ammo. As a child of eight, the glue-drunk leeches had scared the life out of her.
His friends carried nothing but knives. Smiling, Poe said, “Hello, you ugly mugs. What’s happening?” Her accent took a turn, sounding more like Yosemite Sam than anything.
“Where’s your friend, pal?” a vampire in yellow pants asked.
“He’s right behind you,” said Poe, and sure enough, Sainvire magically appeared, snapping the vamp’s neck in a blur. Poe took out her seven-inch knife greased with garlic oil and stabbed the vamp closest to her in the heart. Before she could get to the other two, Sainvire had already downed them.
“Hey. Those two were supposed to be mine! You’re a selfish boss hog, Kaleb,” reprimanded Poe.
Sainvire frowned. God help him, but he couldn’t stand looking at a flirtatious Poe wearing a mustache and a fluffy wig. “We should go. That hearse has been driving around and spying on us.”
“Did you kill all the engines?”
“Yes, except for one. That will be our way out of here in case we don’t make it to the Mission District to meet Rufus,” he said as he took her hand.
“You know how to fly?”
“Barely. And you?”
“Nope. My brother and sister were into video games, but not me. So I blew off Rufus’ offer to give me lessons.”
“I guess we’re going to have to find a pilot somewhere in this town. Or else I’ll try my hand.”
“Scary thought,” said Poe while twitching her mustache.
They avoided Nob Hill where the most important undead lived, according to Sainvire. Poe pulled out her map and suggested, “If we go north on Franklin Street and hang a right on Pacific Avenue, we’ll hit Chinatown. I don’t know if the streets are safe, though.”
“Why don’t you walk on the other side of the street? It seems conspicuous for a day vamp like me to hang around a Superfly troll like you.”
Poe shook her head, a little hurt by his callousness at her specially selected outfit and disguise. She crossed the street in annoyance. She reached for the scar concealer and looked at herself in the reflection of an old toy store window. She dabbed at her trademark scar and stuffed the bottle back in her pocket. The girl was offended and hungry. Her food was buried in her pack along with grenades and bullets. She wasn’t about to stick her hand in there and search for a sandwich.
She glanced at Sainvire, who walked a little ahead of her, and cursed his rudeness. Her musings ended when a battered avocado-green Vespa driven by a forlorn-looking custodian parked not too far from Poe. Four years ago she had the exact same color and model of Vespa. Her instincts told her to let it be, but once the human picked up her basket of cooked food and entered what seemed like a blood farm, Poe couldn’t help herself. She adjusted the familiar seat and let the Vespa, engine still on, zoom away. She left a bewildered Sainvire behind.
From her rear view mirror she could see a blur of movement and smiled. Sainvire was running behind her like a pet dog. “That’s what you get, you jerk,” she said aloud knowing full well that Sainvire’s ultra-sensitive ears would hear.
In the middle of her gloating, Poe’s right profile was hit by a spinning football. She lost control of the Vespa and slammed her elbow on the asphalt street. Dazed, Poe ran her tongue over her teeth and said thanks upon finding they were unchipped. The girl had a rabid obsession with flossing, brushing, and keeping her teeth intact through many a fight.
Sainvire helped her to her feet. He was angry with himself for failing to reach the girl in time. Poe straightened her brown-tinged Ray-Ban sunglasses that survived the fall. “Ouch,” she cried when he touched her injured elbow.
“Sorry, sweets. I should’ve watched out for you,” he apologized, looking around for the person who kicked the ball at Poe. A bulked up Asian man of about 50 picked up the ball in the gutter. He threw Poe and Sainvire dirty looks.
“What’s your problem, man?” asked Sainvire. He wanted to choke the air out of the human’s throat for purposely hurting his woman.
“It was an accident,” said the overconfident man with a Golden State Warriors jersey. “And she’s riding my girlfriend’s scooter.”
Stretching her right arm and checking for breakage, Poe groaned and looked at the man. “Was this hers? Sorry about that.”
“You should be. If she’s late with her duties, the leeches flog her and feed her blood to vampires. They cut custodians whenever they can get away with it these days.” He looked directly at the large bald vampire that could easily be a sinister opponent from a kung fu movie.
“She was just borrowing your girlfriend’s ride, okay?” said Sainvire moodily. Glancing at Sainvire’s mean face scared even her.
“There’s no such thing as borrowing in this town. You should know that by now,” the man quipped and walked away.
“Let’s go, P…Superfly,” said Sainvire. They walked miserably for half an hour until Poe couldn’t take it anymore. She’d biked San Francisco hills and walked for miles, all without sleep. She was injured, hungry, and highly embarrassed for stealing somebody’s bread and butter. “I gotta eat, mister, or I’m going to faint. My blood sugar is super low right now.”
“I’m sorry. You haven’t eaten since last night.” They selected Great China Herb Company for a temporary HQ. Sainvire wiped the dust off the red padded bench for Poe. All the herbs had been snorted or smoked long ago. The vampire peeled the pack off Poe’s back and unzipped it. He reached for one of the crushed peanut butter sandwiches among the grenades and handed it to Poe. He placed the bottle of water by her leg. “Take off your jacket so I can check on your arm.”
Poe bit into the dry sandwich and extended her right jacket sleeve for Sainvire to pull. Her paisley shirt had blood stains around the elbow area. The blood had seeped through two layers of thermals and a cheesy shirt. “Just a scratch. Nothing’s broken,” said Poe with a mouthful of food.
“Humor me and let me inspect up close. That’s an awful lot of blood,” insisted the vampire.
“I’m not removing my clothes, Kaleb, so forget about it. I’m not undressing in front of you so you can get titillated.”
Sainvire nearly saw spots. The thought of Poe naked with her awful hair, gigolo glasses, and mustache reserved for porn stars made him want to fly away and escape the hideous thought. “Yes. Wouldn’t want to do that. We’re working here.” He helped Poe slip her arm inside the leather sleeve.
“Listen, I’m awfully tired. I’ve only slept an hour. We don’t really have an itinerary, and we don’t know how to contact the underground. You mind if I get in a couple hours shuteye? Then we can blow things up.”
“Sounds good. You sleep. I’ll canvas around, maybe get you some more water.”
“Don’t you wanna cuddle?” asked Poe as she sneezed while resting on a pile of dusty curtains.
“No!” cried Sainvire a little too succinctly. “I mean, I’ve got to see if Chinatown is clear of bad vamps. Their racism is off the charts, even for vampires.”
“Good idea,” said Poe. She stretched out on the ground using her pack full of explosives as a pillow and was asleep before Sainvire left the herb shop.
CHAPTER 12
EXCEPT FOR A FEW street lights illuminating the store window, Poe woke up to complete darkness. She sneezed five in a row from the dust she disturbed when she sat up. Disoriented but alert, Poe picked up her pack and slung it over her shoulders. The digital watch on her right wrist shone 8:30 p.m. Where are you, Kaleb? she wondered with mounting fear. I shouldn’t have let him walk around without me.
“What kind of princess are you to take naps during a sabotage mission?” she whispered to the darkness. Now the dead owned the night, and she was stuck in the herb shop. She walked toward the display window and nearly shrieked when she saw a pickled mandrake that looked like the Stay Puft Marshmallow Man. Commotion on the streets snapped Poe to attention. Dead were running and herding custodians in front of the Buddha Universal Temple.
“If we find out there’s more of you hiding in these buildings, we’ll kill you on the spot,” somebody yelled. “Custodians, this is your last chance. We have sniffers on their way, so come out, come out, or we’re coming after you!”
Poe’s nostrils flared as she made up her mind. I’m a goner if a bloodhound vamp finds me hiding. Nesbitt’s men must’ve discovered the sabotage. Calmly, Poe walked outside and joined the twenty-some cowering humans surrounded by eight fuming vampires.
More than a third of the crowd was Asian, there were two blacks, and the rest were Latino. I should be nervous, but I’m not, thought the girl. There’s only eight of them versus my big guns.
“That’s it, Bradley,” said the vampire wearing Bono shades. “Question them already. I have ceramics class tonight.”
“Fuck your ceramics class, dumbass! Four Councilmen have been found with their heads missing. Three more kills and we’ll have a dictatorship on our hands. Personally I can’t stand that stiff-ass Nesbitt. Fuck how he wants us to us to call him ‘Master’ like he’s fucking Dracula or something.”
“Who do you think did it?” asked a vampire with a Michael Jackson voice.
“Who knows? L.A. people? Maybe Nesbitt himself? We should question these sorry fucks so they can go back to sleep. They’ve been working since dawn to feed our pathetic blood-makers.”
Poe couldn’t believe her ears at the way the vampires bandied their hate for Nesbitt and sympathy for the plight of the blood slaves and custodians.
Bradley, basically a fluffy guy with strategic muscles here and there like Russell Crowe, clapped his hands to get the custodians’ attention. “I know this is your rest time, but somebody’s committed some heinous crimes against the Council. We’ve also learned that the choppers have been ambushed. Now we’d like to know if you can help us out. Witness anything strange? Anyone you’ve never seen before?”
Kind motherfuckers, thought Poe. Vampires at home are a bunch of assholes. And could that guy really be into ceramics? A bulky Asian man Poe recognized as the one who kicked a football in her face raised his head. Poe groaned inwardly.
“I did see something strange today,” he said looking at Poe straight in the eye. “Two gay guys I’d never seen before were walking down the street. One is an ugly human and the other a vampire.”
“What’s so strange about that? You think this is ass-crack Nebraska? Folks hook up with other folks.”
Poe narrowed her eyes.
The muscular Asian turned his head toward Poe once more. The girl readied herself for a fight. “No. I’m just speculating. They looked pretty suspicious.”
Bradley took out a tiny notebook and a pencil. “Okay, what did they look like?”
