The Falstaff Vampire Files (5 page)

I started to cry again, walking along the unpaved path that bordered the park to get my car. Something rustled in the bushes. Before I could think to run, hands in the shadows reached out to grab me.

Chapter 14

Kristin Marlowe’s typed notes

August 5th

Hal had left his copy of the keys
to the gate and my cottage on the small table in the hallway, just inside the front door. I grabbed them and threw them against the wall. Barely restrained myself from throwing the table as well.

Rage turned to tears, and I walked through the small cottage crying. Finally I sat in the kitchenette staring at the wall, trying not to think. My mind had started running the whole thing through over and over and getting more upset with each minute.

I got up and wandered into the front room. Hal’s key ring lay on the floor where it had fallen after I threw it against the wall. I went to pick it up. That was when the absence of the silver framed picture hit me like a hammer.

The bastard had taken the picture of my mother.

Why would Hal do such a thing? But it had been there. I had glanced at it earlier in the evening when I was on the computer. Now it was missing. The pain of betrayal merged with a rising tide of rage.

I looked down at the key ring in my hand. My two keys were there and so was another. He had never given me the key to his house while we were dating. Could this be it?

Chapter 15

Mina Murray’s journal

red digital voice recorder

August 5th, continued

The strong arms that held me
gently turned me around. “Mina? Are you okay?”

“Ned! What are you doing here?’”

“I was supposed to meet Lucy, but I think I have once again been stood up. I was going to check to see if she was visiting—um, you know—the shed.”

My tear-congested voice sounded like a child with a cold. “Lucy said Hal was kicking it out, the thing in the shed.”

Ned gave an exasperated snort. “Right! Hal is the center of the universe. He told me to show up after this big confrontation thing he was doing to get his way. Then typical Hal, he’s a no show. Lucy fell all over herself to get me here, then she didn’t even bother to tell me it was cancelled.”

At the mention of Hal tears began to roll down my cheeks. I could feel my chin quiver and I held back a sob.

Ned seemed to really see me for the first time. He bent down to look into my face. “You’re shaking. You were leaving the house. Are you okay?”

“I don’t know.” I started to sob.

“Oh, please don’t.” He hugged me and patted me on the back, then let me go. I put my hands over my face.

“Here, let me take your bag. Come with me. I’ll show you something.”

I hung back.

“It’s not like that, Mina. Look, it’s me, Ned. I’m Hal’s best friend, and you must have guessed I’m in love with Lucy.”

“You are?” I stopped crying in surprise.

“God help me, I am. You can trust me.” He slung my bag over his shoulder and grasped my hand. “Come on. Let’s go someplace where it’s not so cold. Maybe I can make you laugh, or at least smile.”

“Unlikely.”

“You’d be surprised.”

I let him lead me.

Ned had parked his moped in Hal’s back yard and I didn’t want to go near the place again, so I let him drive my car. I stopped crying on the way over to his apartment, a tiny studio south of Market.

Ned’s place astonished me. Small, uncluttered and scrupulously clean. A big screen Macintosh computer and a dozen unidentified pieces of audio and video hardware were wired up and stacked on plain wood bookcases next to a tilted drafting table with a goose-necked lamp over it. He switched the lamp on, illuminating a piece of paper with a comic strip in progress on the board. Completed strips signed by Ned were pinned up to the wall.

“I didn’t know you did cartooning.”

“There’s a lot about me you don’t know. That’s the Abominable Snowman at School.” The hairy creature wore a sweatshirt that said Yeti U. With wild eyes and a goofy grin, it did bear a certain resemblance to Ned, right down to the sheepish expression.

“There’s a smile, that’s better,” Ned said, coming up behind me. I tensed, half expecting him to touch me, but he stayed about a foot away. I relaxed a little. “Would you like a drink?”

“Yes, thanks.”

“You’d better save your thanks till you see what I’ve got to offer.”

I followed him into the small galley kitchen—just a sink and stove, with a counter separating it from the rest of the room. He looked in his tiny fridge. “I have vodka, and we could also split a cream soda.”

“Okay.” I would have said yes to cough syrup at that point if it had alcohol in it.

He pulled a bottle of vodka out of the kitchen cabinet. Before he could open it, the phone rang. He froze. We both looked at the phone. It rang again.

“I don’t have to answer it—it’s nearly dawn, after all.”

Ned’s answering machine took the call and then we heard Hal’s voice. “She’s gone, man. Mina’s missing.” Ned crossed the small space in two strides, grabbed the receiver. “Hal, slow down. What do you mean, missing?” He raised his eyebrows at me.

I waved my hands to warn him, and shook my head, placing a finger on my lips in the universal “don’t tell” gesture.

“Okay, so she’s not at home. Doesn’t she have family in town, her dad or—? No, I didn’t know she was scared of him.” He mouthed the word “sorry” to me. “She probably went to a friend’s place, man. Yeah, check in the morning, it’s nearly dawn. No, you can’t come over here.”

I stood up and went to get my purse and coat.

Ned held up a hand for me to wait. “Because I have company, that’s why. No one you know.”

I sighed and sat down again.

Ned gestured to me that he was winding up the conversation. “I couldn’t stick around your backyard all night, Hal, waiting for your big vampire scene—which evidently didn’t come off. Oh, so now you tell me that if you harm the old guy you lose your trust fund. He knows it was just an idle threat. At least you entertained Lucy for a night, that’s more than I can usually do. Don’t worry about Mina, she’s the most level-headed person I know.”

I looked at Ned in astonishment. He nodded and mouthed, You are.

“She probably just wanted some time off from your relentless charm,” he said into the phone. “Seriously, I can’t talk any more. I have a guest.” He paused and ran his hands through his already wildly wind-blown hair. “Get some sleep, man. I’ll see you tomorrow.”

He put the phone down and came to sit across from me. He picked up the bottle of vodka and put it down again. “He said you left and took all your stuff with you.”

“That’s because found out he was cheating on me with my shrink. I followed him.”

Ned whistled. “Hal’s doing your shrink? Are you sure?”

“He had a key to her place. He went in at 2:00 a.m.” I started to cry again. He scooted over close on the sofa and put his arms around me. I cried into his T-shirt. It smelled freshly laundered. “I’m getting your shirt wet.”

“Go ahead. I don’t mind.”

“Do you have any tissues?”

“I’ll go look.” He got up and went into the other room and came back with a roll of toilet paper. That made me laugh. He stood next to me, hovering over the sofa while I mopped my face and nose.

He shifted awkwardly from foot to foot, but his eyes showed kindness. He didn’t come back to sit with me. But he didn’t move further away either. Looking up at him, for the first time I saw the two scarcely healed, raised welts on the side of his neck.

“My god, Ned, what happened to your neck?”

“I thought you knew.” He put his hand up to touch the marks, and then stopped himself. “They’re real, Mina. It’s a vampire bite mark. I’d have thought you’d seen them on Lucy, she’s got them all over.”

“I try not to look when Lucy’s wandering around nude. Hal doesn’t have anything like that. I would have noticed.”

Ned smiled with a strange sadness. “Hal doesn’t have any because the vampire that lives in the shed refused to drink from him or any of us. Something about soiling the nest.” He sat down on the sofa.

I pressed against the opposite arm of the sofa, ready to get up and run. “I didn’t know they were so picky. So how did you get...bit?” I gestured to his neck.

“Lucy and I found another vampire.” He seemed to be searching my face for a clue as to how I would take the news. “It’s very hard to hook up with them. The other vampire we found likes Lucy and me, but he won’t touch Hal, some kind of turf thing. It drives Hal crazy.”

I leaned back against the sofa cushions. “Oh, god. I was hoping it was just a game Hal would get tired of.”

“Sorry. I shouldn’t burden you with it.”

“I want to know all of it—I need to know.”

“You want some of this vodka?” He looked over toward the cupboard. “I’ve got some jelly glasses.”

My need for a drink had evaporated. “No thanks.”

Ned unscrewed the vodka bottle, took a drink, recapped it and put it on the table. He took a deep breath and turned to me. “I’m not sure you understand the depth of Hal’s ambition.”

“I know he wants to be able to have an impact, to really change things.”

“That’s right. With his education and connections he’s been able to score some pretty impressive overseas assignments for someone his age. But he’s just a junior errand boy. It could be twenty years or never before he gets any real say. What he wants from the vampires is a shortcut to power.”

“Is it possible?”

“Who knows?” He shrugged. “The vampires aren’t telling. But Hal is convinced he can make it work for him.”

“And you go along with it because—?”

“You know Hal. He’s fun to hang out with. The rest of us just got sucked in. To coin a phrase.” He laughed at his pun. I didn’t.

“How can Hal change things if he can never go anywhere in the daylight?”

Ned laughed. “Okay. I didn’t see that coming. Hal always says you’re the most pragmatic person he’s ever met. His idea is to exercise power outside of the system.”

I made a skeptical face. “By drinking blood?”

Ned leaned forward and a yearning expression came over his face. I moved away from him on the sofa without even meaning to.

“The blood just starts the energy flow. It’s the life force they take,” he whispered hoarsely. “And it feels good, Mina. So good. When they take some of yours, you get some of theirs. Hal thinks he can control people and get things done that way.”

“But you say he hasn’t had a vampire bite him, so how does he know?”

“Oh, we told him what it was like.” Now Ned looked a little smug. It probably didn’t often happen that he had something Hal wanted but couldn’t get. “Hal may be right. It’s pretty powerful.”

“Except the other vampire also refuses to turn any of you into vampires.”

“Yeah, so far. That’s the problem.”

“Did you ever think maybe they can’t turn you into a vampire? Maybe you have to be born with it.”

Ned froze for a moment, startled. He never had thought of that. I don’t know why it even occurred to me.

“You’re right, we need to know a lot more,” Ned said hurriedly. “That’s why Hal is looking for the others—if they can’t take us over, maybe we can work with them.”

Nice save, Ned, I thought, but didn’t say it. For once I wasn’t scared—I was angry at Hal for not thinking this through.

“So far all we know is that there are others,” Ned said. “But the two vampires we have met refuse to discuss them.”

“So what do you get out of this?”

He shrugged. “Maybe I’m hooked on the excitement.”

“And you’re in love with Lucy.”

He looked away. “Oh, you heard me say that. I thought you might have been too upset. I’d be a fool if I was, wouldn’t I?”

“I’ll take that for a ‘yes.’”

“I can’t help myself. She’s worse than Hal. She’s totally obsessed with becoming a vampire.”

I buried my face in my hands. “Oh, god. Can’t everyone just stop it?”

“That’s a good question, Mina. I’m not sure we can stop anymore.”

Chapter 16

Kristin Marlowe’s typed notes

August 5th

A little after dawn
I heard Vi in the tiny garden outside my kitchen window. I pulled on a sweater over my T-shirt and sweatpants and went out.

She held up a hand. “Wait just a minute. Don’t scare the ferals.” A Himalayan cat, longhaired and blue-eyed with Siamese dark mask and paws, wound back and forth around Vi’s shins with demanding meows while a venerable old Maine Coon cat came out of the bushes and crouched gravely as she dumped a can of food in a bowl for him. Now she talked so softly, I couldn’t tell if it was to me or the cats. “I met these ladies in Safeway buying bulk cat food.” Vi put the bowl down in front of the Himalayan.

“Did they initiate you into their ancient society of cat ladies with the secret handshake and discount coupons?”

“Cat people are not by nature joiners. But one of them did tell me about a 24-can special. She said the canned food is so good, she’d eat it herself.”

“This gives us all hope for our old age.”

The battle-scarred old Maine Coon cat had polished off his bowl in record time and stretched and settled down for a post-meal grooming, while the Himalayan returned to rubbing his cheeks against Vi’s calves. “There you go, kits, you’ll live for another day,” she said to them.

I was used to Vi alternately addressing me and whatever cat she happened to be talking to. “Both these guys were somebody’s pets,” she said softly to me. “Blue-eyes here begs for attention, but if I put my hand down to try to touch him, he bites. I’ve got a corner in hell marked out for his former owners.”

She gathered her bathrobe around her. “That’s enough for now,” she said to the cats. “I don’t put out more than they can eat. No sense encouraging the raccoons to come around.”

She didn’t turn to go back in. “I heard Hal’s motorcycle in the middle of the night.”

“He dropped in. We broke up and he stole my mother’s photograph on his way out the door.”

“Wow.”

“I thought I knew him.” I sat on the stone bench. “God, this bench is cold.”