Dark Corner (35 page)

"Laying up with that no-good Hunter boy," he said.

"If only she knew. I wouldn't dare tell her what's really
happening, yet. She'd commit me"

They switched off the lights and slid underneath the bedsheets. King settled near the bed, a shadowy shape in the
dark room.

They held each other, and there was nothing sexual about
their touching. Both of them needed the reassuring embrace
and warmth of a companion's body.

David tried to avoid dwelling on what tomorrow would
bring, but he couldn't help it. Would they find Chief Jackson
and win his support? What about Franklin? Would he really
metamorphose into ...

He pushed the troubling thought out of his mind. He sank
into sleep.

He dreamed that he lay on the bed, on top of the sheets,
alone. A whispery breeze stirred the curtains; the window
was open. A large black bird was perched on the windowsill,
watching him. A raven.

The bird hopped off the ledge and fluttered to the floor. It
strutted toward him ... and suddenly transformed into a slim,
tall, dark-skinned woman, exquisitely beautiful, dressed in a
flowing midnight-blue gown.

Who are you? he said.

The woman only smiled. She came to the bed. She placed
her hands on his ankle. Her touch was warm. He did not
want to do anything to disturb her comforting touch.

A soft, bluish glow came from her hands, the strange energy flowing like electric current into his limb. His ankle tingled.

I don't know what she's doing to me, but it feels wonderful.

After several seconds, the woman removed her hands and
stepped away from the bed.

Get up and walk, David Hunter, she said. Her clear, resonant voice was like the call of a goddess. She smiled. She
floated toward the window ... and metamorphosed into the
raven. The bird leapt onto the window ledge, turned to look
at him, and then soared into the night.

Get up and walk ...

David snapped out of the dream with a start.

Nia was asleep. King slumbered as well.

Blackness filled the bedroom. The window was not open,
as it had been in the dream. It was sealed shut, and the curtains were still.

The glowing red digits on the bedside clock read 1:47.

He sighed. He had never had such a vivid dream in his
life. He remembered every detail of the woman: her beauty,
her cool composure ... her command.

He wriggled his toes. He felt a faint tingling sensation in
his ankle, but no pain.

Heart pounding, he swung his legs to the side of the
bed.

The crutches leaned against the wall, but he did not reach
for them. Not yet.

Holding his breath, he slowly pushed himself off the mattress, to a standing position.

He felt no pain or weakness in his ankle.

Slowly, cold sweat slicking his face, he walked across the
room. His ankle supported him as it normally would.

He had been healed.

Half dizzy with wonder, he went to the window, peeled
back the curtain.

The raven stood on the branch of the maple tree near the
house. The bird regarded him cooly.

Like the woman from the dream.

"Who are you?" he said. "Why are you helping me?"

He would not have been surprised if the bird opened its
mouth and spoke, but it said nothing.

"Thank you," he said. "Whoever you are, thank you"

The raven uttered a soft caw, spread its wings, and flew
away into the night.

It was two o'clock in the morning, and Jahlil was still
hanging with the crew. They were at his house, chilling on
the porch, guzzling beer and nodding to a Jacktown song.

There was something really cool about hanging out at his
house, the big chief's crib, and drinking brews like they didn't
give a damn who saw them. He didn't worry that his father
would catch them. Dad had been gone all day-he'd gone
somewhere with that woman of his-and wasn't due back until the next morning. Dad gave him the woman's cell
phone number, but said to call only if it was an emergency
involving Jahlil personally. The phone in the house had rung
a million times with people asking where his dad had gone,
and Jahlil told them he didn't know, which was the truth.
After maybe the tenth such call, Jahlil stopped answering the
phone. He wasn't a secretary.

Jahlil had left the door open so they could nod to the hiphop that throbbed from the stereo in the living room. T-Bone
and Poke slumped in the lawn chairs, each of them clutching
a can of beer, debating whether the movie they'd watched in
the den -a vampire flick with some ass-kicking action had
realistic black characters.

"Look," T-Bone said, raising his beer. "Ain't no niggas
gonna stay around the second it comes out that vampires is
killing folks. That's why I say that movie was bullshit. Our
asses would've been out the door when the first dead body
turned up"

Poke was shaking his head. "I hear you, T. But man, what
if those motherfuckers had sucked ya mama's blood? You'd
still break?"

"Hell, yeah," T-Bone said. "Shit, I'd take her stash of cash
and her car and be out"

"You've already got her car," Jahlil said.

Poke laughed. T-Bone cracked a grin. "Kiss my ass, J."

"But for real, what would y'all do if some vampire motherfuckers was here?" Poke said. He spread his hands, his puffy
afro a dark nimbus. "You know, we out here in the middle of
nowhere, in this little, sleepy ass town, hardly no police.
What would you do?"

"I told you man, I'd be out," T-Bone said. He burped.
"You think the white man would be sending the National
Guard up in here? Hell, naw, ain't nothing but a bunch of
niggas in this joint, don't nobody give a shit about us. I'd be
flying like a fuckin' bullet down 55. Y'all fools can lay up in
here and get killed."

"I'd leave, too," Jahlil said. "Don't know where I'd go,
though"

"You wouldn't be going nowhere, J," Poke said. "Your
pops would have you right up here with him battling Dracula."
Poke performed an amazingly accurate impression of Jahlil's
father. "Hold that bloodsucker down, son. Got to find my
stake. Where I put it? Must be back at the station. Keep him
there, be back in a sec. Don't mind his teeth"

They laughed. Then T-Bone farted, and they laughed harder,
Poke and Jahlil clearing off the porch to get away from the
nasty smell. They stood around in the yard. T-Bone came off
the veranda and joined them.

The warm night was utterly silent. The surrounding houses
were dark, too.

"Sure is quiet out here," Jahlil said.

"For real," Poke said. He swigged his beer. "I don't hear
no bugs or nothing."

"Please," T-Bone said. "Y'all motherfuckers done watched
that movie and got scared of every damn thing." He flicked
his cigarette to the grass, stubbed it out with his foot, and
patted his pockets. "I got to get me some more Kools out the
car. Be right back."

T-Bone ambled to the curb, where he'd parked the
Oldsmobile.

Jahlil had the strangest feeling-a presentiment of dread.
It tightened his stomach as if his guts were wrapped in wire.

The booming of his heartbeat might have been the only
noise in the still night. The music on the living room stereo
seemed to be far away.

"Hurry up, man," Jahlil said. T-Bone had opened the passenger door and was sitting on the seat, digging around inside the car.

Poke must have felt something, too. He slowly retreated
to the porch.

"Stop acting like a bitch," T-Bone said. He got out of the Oldsmobile, a pack of cigarettes in his hand. Leaning lazily
against the car, he slid out a Kool, lit it.

"Get back to the crib, man," Poke said, nearly shouting.
He stood at the door, his eyes wide and scared.

"Both of y'all trippin'," T-Bone said. He casually took a
draw on the cigarette. "If you're gonna act like this every
time you see a horror flick, you need to leave that shit alone."

"Just get back up here," Jahlil said. "Something doesn't
feel right to me, and Poke feels it, too"

"I don't feel shit out the ordinary, but whatever," T-Bone
said. He pushed away from the car, began to shuffle toward
the house.

Hurry up! Jahlil wanted to scream at him.

T-Bone walked slowly, pants sagging, cigarette dangling
from his lips.

A black Labrador exploded out of the bushes at the edge
of the yard. Quick as a panther, it leapt onto T-Bone and
knocked him to the ground.

T-Bone screamed, arms and legs flailing.

The dog was on top of him, snarling, flashing teeth tearing into his shoulder.

Jahlil ran forward a few steps, stopped, ran forward-and
then stopped for good when another vicious dog ran around
T-Bone's car. It was a muscular rottweiler, with red eyes,
drooling lips, and teeth like glass shards.

But the woman was the most frightening of all.

When the rottweiler came, she sprang out of the boughs
of the elm tree next door, landing on the ground with the
agility of a wildcat. She wore a dirty hospital gown, and her
face was filthy. But Jahlil knew her. Her name was Shenice,
and she had won the town beauty pageant a couple of
times.

There was nothing beautiful about her anymore. She
looked like a monster.

Hissing, she came after him.

Jahlil scrambled inside the house. He slammed the door,
locked it.

His heart pounded so hard he thought he might pass out.

Where the hell had those dogs come from, and why were
they so mean? It was like they were rabid or something. And
the woman ... shit. What was wrong with her?

Poke was already inside. He sucked his thumb like a
baby.

"We've got to help TBone," Jahlil said. "We've got guns
in here. I'll find them" He started to run down the hallway.

Poke's eyes glistened. He shook his head back and forth,
his thumb stuck in his mouth.

"Get it together, man!" Jahlil said. He grabbed Poke's
arms and shook him. "You better not punk out on me!"

"Get off me!" Poke pushed Jahlil away. Poke went to the
door and peered out the square window.

"Too late, man," Poke said, in a stifled sob. "We're too
late for T-Bone"

"What're you talking about?" Jahlil shoved him aside and
looked.

T-Bone's car was parked outside. But the dogs, and the
woman, were gone. And so was T-Bone.

Pearl had decided to pursue a dangerous endeavor.

Since she had spoken to David Hunter, she had considered taking this step. Each day, the malevolent force had
tightened its stranglehold on Mason's Corner. People had
begun to disappear. Domesticated dogs had become like crazed
beasts. Her own cats, evidently having a premonition of doom,
had run away into the wilderness and had not returned.

And Pearl understood that the worst was yet to come.
That was why she had to take this risk. She had to do it for
the welfare of the people.

She was going to covertly immerse herself in the source
of the evil that threatened the town. To learn its secrets.

Outside in her backyard, under the silvery light of the
moon, she sat on the cool grass. The fragrance of fresh roses
scented the breeze. Folding her legs underneath her Indianstyle, she drew in a deep, invigorating breath.

Her heart hammered. The danger of seeking a doorway
into the mind of another, even furtively, was that the entity
could detect the invasion, penetrate her consciousness, too,
also without her knowledge, and use her thoughts against
her. She knew the potentially disastrous consequences. But
she was prepared to sacrifice herself if doing so would save
lives. To whom much is given, much is expected, her mother
had taught her.

She closed her eyes. She opened her hands and rested
them on her knees, palms up.

She cast her consciousness into the night as though her
mind were a sieve, a vast net intended to capture only one
thing ... something out there cruising the psychic atmosphere like a cold, deadly shark.

After several minutes of intense, silent concentration, she
found it.

Her lips parted, and she spoke one word in an anxious
whisper:

"Diallo..

That night, their army grew.

Kyle, the female valduwe, and the hounds traveled throughout the city, "recruiting," as Kyle had come to playfully consider their work.

Kyle commanded the dogs and the female to hunt together, apart from him. There was no chance that they would
go astray. Diallo's life force ran deep in their souls. They
could no more disobey him or his father than they could resist the urge to feed.

Alone, Kyle recruited soldiers. Moving with the stealth of
a spirit, he invaded houses, preying upon man and woman alike. He sucked each person's blood to the point of deathand then he withdrew, as his father had taught him, confident
that the vampire's bite would perform its powerful magic.

By dawn, he was satiated. But his hunger would return,
soon. Their mission was just beginning.

he next morning, Monday, David and Nia went to talk to
. Chief Jackson.