Page 5

Ruby

Not long after Luc leaves, Danny barges into the house.

“What the fuck is that smell!”

I look up, shamefaced, “Sorry, I forgot a pan on the burner, fell asleep and burnt the eggs!”

“Jesus, Ruby, you’ll burn the house down!”

He opens the door and windows for some fresh air and stands outside. The smell is bad but I had to do something to mask the eau d’ vampire that was definitely hanging about the house. Danny had a very keen sense of smell, like most shifters and Luc had been here for some time. I figured the smell of scorched food would mask the vampire smell and I was right.

I fetched him a beer and we sat outside on the porch steps.

“I can’t stay long,” Danny said. “We’ve got a vampire to hunt!” I saw the excitement shine in his eyes.

“A vampire?”

“Yeah! He was at the club, you didn’t see him?”

I had to be careful with Danny, if he found out I was lying to him, there would be hell to pay.

“No, I left early,” I said. “One of the customers grabbed me and I knocked my head. Felt a bit dizzy after that.”

“You okay?” he asked.

I had to remind myself that Danny probably did care about me, in his own way but he was only nice to me when it suited him, when he felt I was doing my part, acting the way a good girlfriend should. I didn’t want to think of the times he’d slapped me for mouthing off to him, as he put it. Back-chatting was not allowed in the strict hierarchy of pack wolves that he belonged to. As a female member of his pack, I was even lower in the pecking order, basically at the bottom.

He frowned. “Luiz said he saw you talking to him.”

“Who?” I played dumb.

“The vampire!” He slammed the bottle onto the ground next to him.

“Well, he’s mistaken. I’d remember that.”

“He said you told the boss Grace wanted to see him.” His voice was becoming more menacing. I felt a cold sliver of fear running down my spine. Danny didn’t need much to set him off.

“Yeah, she called me, said she needed to talk to Tomás outside.” I lowered my voice as if I was scared someone could hear me.

“Why?”.

I shrugged.

Danny was chewing this over.

“She told us when she got to the club, she saw the vampire and got out of there. You sure you didn’t see him?” He was leaning in close to me and I could see he was raring for a fight. The vampire had gotten him completely riled up.

“He’s onto us, we can’t let him get away! He must be around here somewhere. The guys have gone out to track him,” he said, taking a big swig of beer and belching loudly. “I’ve got to join ‘em.”

I didn’t want to think about Luc’s mouth and how lovely his kiss had been. What did Danny mean that he was onto them? I didn’t want to ask him and arouse his suspicions. I thought Luc would be far away by now and probably safe.

Danny’s phone rings and he has a quick conversation with one of the gang members.

“I have to go, seems the bloodsucker has left town!”

He jumped up, “You lock the doors now, ye hear?”

He rushed off, jumped on the bike and roared down the street. I could hear the bike engines from all over town as they headed off to some meeting point.

I thought about how often this sort of thing had happened when my dad was still at home, part of his own gang. He’d been working for Tomás on the distribution line. He’d take the drugs and drive them to various sellers. After he got back from work, he’d go down to the club, have drinks with the guys at the bar. Sometimes, at night, they’d go out into the swamp and woods, on patrols, as they called it. They never really found anything but this had changed over the years. Even though the drug trade became bigger, somehow, people were poorer. The money was not coming our way, clearly. My father sometimes mentioned that the fat cats were getting fatter but it wasn’t clear who these fat cats were. They weren’t us, that’s for sure.

I found out later that many years after he started driving the trucks, he began taking little bags of the drugs and selling them on the side. It was his way of trying to make more money. Nobody noticed and nobody would have until he started taking too much and was caught. Tomás handed him over to the local sheriff and my father was tried and convicted on various drug counts by the end of that month. Tomás told me he hadn’t killed him because my father had always been loyal to him. Also, he wanted me to pay him back the debt my dad owed. He made up some idiotic number. Ten thousand dollars. I didn’t believe for a second that my dad had taken that much. There was no way I could pay back that kind of money.

I was stuck here. Forever.

I could feel myself weighed down by these words, a rebellious part of me wanting to say there had to be a way out, but how? I couldn’t leave my mother behind. I would never forgive myself if they hurt her and Tomás would.

I felt despair and misery fall over me.

“Hey girl,” I heard someone say.

I looked up and Grace stood in front of me. “Why are you sittin’ in the cold?”

I smiled and got up, giving her a hug.

I noticed that she was all dressed up.

“You going somewhere?”

She lowered her voice. “I’m leaving town. Tonight, right now.”

“What? Because of me? And what happened tonight?”

I felt guilt flooding me.

“No, no, I’d been planning to go for some time.” All of us had some plan of getting out of Buzzard Creek. Grace was prettier than most of us, she had also been here the shortest. She’d come to town with her boyfriend but he was killed in a fight outside the club one night. She was offered a spot on the stage and with no other way to make money, she said yes. She had a cute body on her, large blue eyes and long blonde hair.

“I’ve been saving money for a while. I got my sister’s husband to come fetch me tonight. I just need to pay him.”

I took out half of the money Luc had given me.

“Take it, it’s yours, you deserve it. I’m so sorry for dragging you into this.”

Grace smiled, “It’s all right. You had to do it! It was a vampire, Jesus! He could’ve killed you! Fuck this town! I’ve had it. First the shifters and now vampires!”

I bit my lip. I couldn’t tell Grace that it wasn’t like that; that Luc had not been cruel to me, that he hadn’t forced or threatened me. I couldn’t admit that I had put her at risk to make a few bucks. It was better for me this way, but it made me feel like shit.

We hear more bikes roaring down the street.

“The guys are going insane tonight, they’re talking about burning down the forest!” Grace shakes her head.

“Danny said something about the vampire being onto them…do you know what he meant?”

Grace spent a lot of time in private rooms with Tomás and heard more of the business dealings. I tried not to know too much of what was going on behind the scenes but I wanted to know now.

“There is a war coming,” Grace said knowingly. “Tomás and the others are planning all kinds of things. They think they can beat the vampires.” She shook her head, obviously thinking the idea was mad. “That’s why I want to get out. You should too. My cousin lives in Toledo, it’s far from the shifters and the vampires. It’s normal out there and it’s safe. You should come too.”

She grabbed my hands and squeezed them.

“I can’t,” I said. “My mom and dad are here.”

I had heard that Toledo was nice, near the sea. Even though they also had little in the way of jobs, it was at least better than here.

I told Grace I’d walk with her to the place where she was meeting her cousin. It wasn’t far, just down the road. I put on my coat and we linked our arms as we walked.

We were jumpy, getting scared every time we heard a sound behind us.

“You don’t think that vampire is still in town, do you?” Grace asked me, her voice shaking.

“No, I don’t,” I said quietly.

I couldn’t tell her that I wished he was still around, somewhere, watching me. It seemed crazy, but I felt safe with Luc, and having him around. I knew he didn’t mean me harm. I didn’t know how I knew that, but the way he had touched me, looked at me; I knew that he wasn’t a monster. I’d heard it said that they were the undead, but Luc was warm and soft. When he held me, it had not felt like death was holding me. It was quite the opposite, he had felt like the very essence of life.