Tomorrow's Dead: The Julia Poe Vampire Chronicles, page 25
Poe didn’t want to admit it, but her heart raced at the thought of an assignment of this sort. Her throat was getting dry from talking to Maclemar and Sainvire. She needed a break, but she didn’t want to jump at the opportunity lest they keep pestering her in the future. In truth she needed to kill, she was so frustrated.
“I’m retired.”
Joseph raised an eyebrow. How many times had he heard such proclamations from Poe? “They’ve taken some women, Poe. You know what leeches do to women.”
Poe’s nostrils flared. The hell with being coy. “You want me to kill the leeches or save them for jail?”
“We prefer the leeches alive. We’ll punish them with jail time,” said John Danby.
“Any day vamps or vampires in the gang?”
“None as far as we know,” said Joseph.
Poe pulled at her ponytail and sighed. “So you want me to be a cockroach exterminator?”
“For the people of the Westside,” said Maple. “They’ve been good friends, and they’ve asked for our help. In fact they specifically asked for you.”
Poe bit her plump bottom lip. That was a surprise. She remembered baseball batting the windshields of their emergency cars and stealing their chicken eggs. She shrugged. There was nothing for it. “Alright. I’ll leave tomorrow. I think I can drive.” She remembered driving the Welshman’s truck by pressing on the gas and brake to get Maclemar to the hospital.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea,” said Joseph, rubbing his tummy.
“Or I can ride a Vespa. I can maneuver it better but how am I going to bring the criminals back? I think I’ll take a truck. I just follow the Santa Monica Freeway and exit Bundy. I can’t get lost because it’s my old neighborhood.” Poe was speaking more to herself than her guests.
“Then you can take James’ truck,” offered Maple. “You can bring two or three day vamps with you.”
Poe’s train of thought was broken. “I always work by myself, Maple. I don’t want to get anyone killed because most of the time I don’t know what I’m doing.”
Joseph smiled his signature grin. “That’s true. She works from the gut. She might shoot our own men.”
Danby cleared his throat. “We don’t want you to get hurt.”
Poe grinned. “Thanks for thinking of me, John. But I gotta tell you, nothing bad can happen to me because I’m already dead.” She thought of the captives getting violated repeatedly, and she itched to leave then and there.
No one commented on her declaration professed nonchalantly. “Three days will be enough, do you think?” asked Maple to clear the air.
“I’ll leave tomorrow morning and bring them back in time for dinner.”
The three visitors nodded. Poe hardly exaggerated. If she said she was going to bring the criminals back in less than a day, then Julia Poe would.
***
Driving was easier than she thought once she willed herself not to hit the brake and the gas too hard. Keeping the steering wheel steady was also a must. She attempted a three-point turn on the freeway but failed, slamming the right headlight on the concrete median. I’ll work on that later, she thought philosophically.
Quillon Trench had started the freeway cleanup by stacking cars on the median and emergency lanes. Ed, the five-foot tall Latino with mad strength, finished the rest. He had cleared the road up to North Hollywood to give the farmers a wider route. Poe remembered a time when Sister Ann, Goss, Morales, and Megan moved one car at a time to transport human cattle to safety. How much things have changed, thought Poe. Downtown was the pits and the most dirty and dangerous rat-infested inferno Poe had grown up in. She shivered at the memory.
Now Downtown was clean, and the rats mostly pushed out of the city. There were beauty salons, tailor shops, dance classes, and karaoke contests. Shandra, the ample-breasted vampire, was even able to launch a dead/alive dance club that became a Downtown mainstay. She’d been promising the exotic dancer a visit, but she hadn’t quite gotten around to it.
Driving on the freeway reminded her of her parents and brother and sister. It had been a while since she’d seen their faces clearly. By the time she exited on Bundy Drive she was actually excited. She made a couple turns, found Sawtelle Boulevard, and stopped in front of a burnt Spanish-style house that used to be her home. She shook her head. Don’t go in there. It’ll kill you. Nothing to salvage anyway.
They found her sitting in Maclemar’s truck. Men and women in their sixties or older surrounded her vehicle. Some wore glasses, but they all squinted at her. Everyone looked healthy living 10 minutes from the beach and eating fresh produce. However, she didn’t recall the West L.A. community being so old.
“Hello, Poe. The name’s Rick. I don’t know if you remember me?” said a balding man with wisps of hair.
“Sure. Of course,” said Poe in a white lie. She opened the door and let herself out. She shook hands with the 10 prefects of the area. By the third introduction she gave up memorizing their names and got straight to the point.
“Thanks for letting me steal your chicken eggs,” said Poe. “And your tomatoes.”
“No biggie. Sainvire told us not to let you starve. He was a good man, and he cared dearly for you and humanity in general.”
Poe cleared her throat. “That he does. So how many leeches do I get to hunt down?”
“Nine by our count,” said a sturdy woman with white hair. Poe wondered if they had younger community members. Molesting them would have been a violent act of desperation. But then again, leeches raped the sleeping. They lacked compunction. And just like that, Poe was angry.
“When do they attack?”
“Anytime,” said another oldie. “They stole a piglet and some vegetables. They trampled Ginny’s garden.” Poe ran her gaze at the rows of cottages on the street and remembered her family.
“Where do they hole up?”
“The Rec Center at Stoner Park. They filled the pool with water and have been living the life eating our chicken and pigs and swimming all day.”
“Sorry for being so blunt, but I was told some women were assaulted.”
Rick ran his fingers through his balding head. “They took three of our women. One is my wife.
“Sorry about that. I know how traumatic it is to be taken against your will,” said Poe. She startled herself for her little confession. “I’ll get them back for you. But, um, I was wondering if you have any young people here?”
“Eight young ones in their forties, but that’s about it. We’re aging, and we just want to spend the last of our days in peace.”
“We would’ve taken up arms,” said a woman named Clare. “But we’re all practically blind. Eat your carrots, Poe, to keep your eyes sharp.”
Poe nodded. She would make it a priority. Without her eyesight she would be as helpless as these folks.
She knew Stoner Park. Her family used to walk there from their house. Her parents played tennis while she and her brother and sister played handball. She was supposed to take swimming lessons there, but it was cancelled because of the Gray Armageddon.
Memories hurt, so she shook them away. She parked the pickup as close as she could to the Rec Center with the front right wheel on the sidewalk. Gotta work on parking. Very important.
Roasting meat permeated the fresh Westside air. They were 10 minutes from the ocean after all. Her mouth watered despite the fact that she was vegetarian. The fuckers were having luaus without realizing that the people they were inconveniencing were friends of Kaleb Sainvire. Her hand twitched. She wanted so badly to go psycho killer on these leeches. She had to remind herself that Danby, Maple, and Joseph wanted them alive. They ought to go to prison for a long motherfucking time, thought Poe. Or I could gut them like the pig they’re never going to eat.
Poe had left her favorite guns in San Francisco, so she had to go to the armory for a refit. She chose her favorite combination of Glock 17 and Beretta with shoulder holsters. She filled her pockets with clips and carried her homemade machete in a hip sheathe. The item that most pleased her was an unused Rambo knife so similar to her birthday gift from Sister Ann that she got teary-eyed.
“Kill only when they annoy you,” she whispered to the chilly air. She had an hour left until sunset, perfect in her opinion. Even leeches were afraid of rogue vamps, and they primarily stayed indoors for protection. She followed the scent of meat and saw the cook outside an indoor swimming pool, basting dinner like an Iron Chef. He had some fat on him like most leeches because drugs and food were their only happiness. But drugs had aged him and jerkied his skin.
Poe took a breath. She sprinted toward the leech as fast as she could, leapt, and landed her right elbow on top of his head. He never saw Poe who’d wanted to try the Muay Thai move since she saw the movie Ong Bak. The man fell with linguini legs, and Poe was there to capture his arms and bind him with plastic cuffs. The leech was out cold. “That was cool,” said Poe to herself. Don’t be too cocky, chick. Dying is easy during peace time.
The metal slab that served as a door to the pool building was ajar. A voice from within shouted, “The pig ready yet? I’m fucking hungry!”
Poe grunted an answer and entered. She swallowed and warned herself to stay away from the water. Swimming pools were her kryptonite. “Hello, fellas. Got the pool heated up and everything,” she said brightly.
“Who the hell are you?” said the smallest of the eight, clocking in about Poe’s height. The little worm was the leader. Poe chuckled at the men in neon hibiscus-patterned swimming trunks.
“Julia Poe at your service. I’ve come to take you Downtown. Now if you’d just cooperate and—”
“Watch out!” shouted one of the naked older women huddling on the floor to hide her breasts. Poe turned to her left to see a leech in a towel point a shotgun at her. Quick as Mercury, Poe dove to the ground and took out the Beretta. She shot at the towel leech. Her bullet traveled faster than his trigger finger, and it lodged in one of the shotgun muzzles. The gun exploded in his face, perpetually ruining his looks. At least he’s still alive. I’m not gonna get in trouble for that one.
Poe scanned the pool area in search of more firepower. Except for the short leader who lifted his Smith and Wesson at Poe, the leeches were too shocked to even move. Again she aimed for the gun, and it exploded in his face. A heated shard punctured one of his eyes, and he screamed like a stuck pig.
“More, wiseass?” asked Poe. Two leeches were in the water holding onto the edge of the pool, and five leeches raised their hands in surrender. “Good boys.” She looked down at the shocked women.” I see your clothes over there, ladies. Get dressed.”
The women tied yellow plastic cuffs on the wrists of the leeches and ignored the screaming of the two injured leeches. Three of the women looked as old as Poe remembered her grandmother while the other women were younger, perhaps in their forties. They yanked at the cuffs as hard as they could as they embraced their anger.
“You fucking shit!” said June with a shaking voice. The woman was beautiful with porcelain skin and dark eyes. Her entire body was trembling. “I hope you kill him, Miss Poe!”
The vampire killer shook her head. “I’m bringing them in, ladies. They’ll face jail time.” Poe knew how they felt for she herself had been violated and had wished death upon the perpetrator.
“How long will they will be jailed?”
“I don’t know. A hundred years.”
Poe handed her makeshift machete to a white-haired victim. “Chop off a limb if you want.”
The renegade leeches cried and pleaded. “Can I?” asked the woman.
“Sure. But I have a better idea,” said Poe. She conspiratorially handed her Beretta to the white-haired woman, and placed the Glock in the palm of June, the youngest of the three victims. “You can shoot their balls off, and I’ll look away. Only the balls. They’ve got to make it back alive.”
And so they accepted Julia Poe’s offer, and as shots rang out and echoed in the pool room the hysterical screaming of leeches filled the air. For the first time Poe thought taking the assignment was the right thing to do.
By 6:30 p.m. the boys were loaded in the back of the truck by the Westsiders. They were decent enough to place a blanket on the nearly naked bodies of the freezing leeches, severely in shock for losing their dear friends in life. An hour later she parked the truck in front of the Biltmore Hotel where T-Doc was waiting with his staff to care for the wounded. She was a woman of her word. She delivered the leeches in less than a day alive.
“What the hell did you do, Poe?” asked Morales harshly. “This isn’t the Middle East!”
“I shot the guns of those two leeches, and they exploded in their faces. The rest you can blame the victims. They took matters in their own hands. But luckily they’re all alive like John Danby asked. Hope you know how to sew back pervert balls, my friend.”
CHAPTER 18
SHE SHIFTED AND LAID her other cheek against the cold stone of Sainvire’s tomb. “There’s no more need for the likes of me, a violent beast. After two of those leeches died from infection, everyone looks down on me. Now they think I’m going to allow victims to cap their victimizers, which I probably would. Joseph suggested I plant spring crops in the Valley. Imagine me a farmer? It doesn’t seem so bad really. I’m actually thinking about it. Four days at the field and three here. The train to North Hollywood is truly efficient now.
“Habib sends me the best foods, and no one demands anything of me anymore. Michelle is a top-rate law enforcer. I’ve only seen her twice since you died. She’s fair, Percy tells me. And she can run in high heels. Killers are obsolete now, and I only know how to kill. Thank goodness for Passionada who cooks dinner for me every Friday. She’s the only one who treats me like a normal person.
“And you know how clumsy I am at everything else. I’m useless. I don’t think Morales appreciated what I did to those leeches. Human rights he said. Yeah, whatever. Getting raped is no picnic. And to tell you the truth the catharsis I saw in those women’s faces calmed me. So I’m obsolete, and our friends are pushing me to be Farmer Julia.”
“On the contrary,” echoed a voice in the empty house of the dead, startling Poe. It was Perla. “Your influence and skills are always needed. You rescued those women and brought those leeches in like we asked you to.”
Poe straightened her spine. She felt embarrassed for talking to the dead. She removed the stethoscope from her ears and slowly placed it on the floor. “You’ve been eavesdropping.”
“Just a little,” said the mother of Plasmacore.
“Not nice,” said Poe.
“I apologize. I haven’t been nice for a while, but my mind is straight now, and I am doing my best to help Maple and the rest feed the people left behind.”
“Glad for you.”
“You can join us. Everyone respects you.”
“F that. I’m incompetent at everything unrelated to shooting, gutting, and torturing. Besides, I’m waiting for Kaleb to wake up.”
“He’s dead, Poe. The bullet never dislodged from his head. You’ve got to move on.”
Poe grimaced. “I’m not as changeable as you, Perla. First you want to kill leeches. Then you’re planning to make their imprisonment sweet and cozy. I know Sainvire is alive. For a dead man, that is. No amount of dissuasion from my friends can change my mind.”
“We all appreciate your faith in Sainvire, Poe, but most likely his body has turned to after-mash. He’s gone.”
Poe nodded instead of laughing off her friend’s assessment. “Alright then. If Kaleb’s turned into the Swamp Thing, I’ll go to the Valley and plant spring harvest with the farmers and bring bushels of corn back for you all to consume. I can’t do much damage there, can I? All you have to do is open the crypt. You’re a vampire now. You’re strong enough to slide the lid off.”
Perla was aghast. “I can’t do that. That would be desecration. Joseph would have my neck.”
“This is between us,” said Poe cunningly. “No one needs to know. If we see sludge, we close the lid, but if his body is intact, then he’s alive and imprisoned. Either way, I’m out of the crypt.”
The two debated until Perla’s armor was chinked down to chalk. Her somewhat chubby face looked worried. The scientist didn’t like to do things that didn’t make sense. “Fine. We don’t tell anyone about this. I need you to move on with your life. You’re so young, and you have a long life ahead of you.”
“Sure. I’ll start dating and traveling to SF and San Diego as an ambassador or whatever. I promise. Just open his crypt.”
Perla shook her head in defeat. She crossed herself and momentarily bowed her head at a beatific marble statue of Mary. With vampiric strength, she pulled the entire tomb out and placed it on the ground. Poe’s heart was thudding like a pack of hyenas was in pursuit. Perla heaved the lid off effortlessly and gasped.
Sainvire lay in once piece like he’d just fallen asleep. No sunken cheeks, no smells of decay. Three bullets lay by his neck. His once bald head had grown down to his ears.
Poe backed away though her dreams had come true. She sat under the statue of Mary and hugged herself.
“My God, Poe. You’re right! He might still be alive,” Perla cried. “Go get Joseph and the boys. Tell them to get down here.”
Poe buried her head in her knees. “You do it. I can’t.”
Perla nodded, ran up the stairs to the church, and sought their friends. As hopeful as she was, Poe didn’t dare look at him in case his body was merely preserved. She’d waited months for this miracle to be revealed. She’d always known. They’d only have to wait for Sainvire to awaken, and all would be stunning again.
Morales, Joseph, Michelle, Perla, Maple, and Danby arrived within minutes. Joseph glanced at Poe who looked like a small child chided for misdeed. She was rocking back and forth. Morales studied Sainvire’s body quickly then knelt next to Poe. He hugged her tightly and Poe wound her arms around T-Doc’s neck. They watched Joseph examine the uncorrupted body of Sainvire. With excitement and disbelief in his voice, he said, “He’s asleep. My pal must be alive.”
