Gidion's Hunt Read online

  He reached the far side of the dance floor and spotted Pete leaning against the wall by himself. Pete checked his watch three times before Gidion shifted through all the bodies to reach him.

  “Pete!” Gidion’s first few tries to get his friend’s attention failed. Only once he’d gotten within reach did Pete notice him.

  “Gidion, what are you doing here?” His eyes about popped out of his head. He didn’t stay focused on Gidion. He looked around the room instead.

  “I saw you come in. Dude, let’s get out of here.”

  Pete didn’t seem to hear him. Having a conversation was even harder this close to the dance floor, which cast his friend’s face in alternating shades of red, blue and yellow.

  “How did you get in?”

  “Stephanie got me past the bouncer. Now, let’s go.”

  That brought Pete’s popped-out eyes back towards him. “She knows you’re here?”

  “Yeah, I think she already regrets that decision, so let’s go.” He grabbed Pete’s arm. His body was shaking and his skin clammy. “Are you okay?”

  “Just get out of here. I’m gonna be a while.”

  “Pete, you’re in some crappy shape. Let’s get you out of here.”

  Pete jerked his arm free. “I’m in crappy shape? Are you dim? I’m not the one who’s gonna get killed here. Get lost, Gid!”

  The argument ended there. Someone grabbed him by his hoodie and tossed him onto the dance floor. He slid across the glass surface on his back. That ticked off quite a few people. He knocked over one lady as his foot caught her leg. He looked back where he’d been standing and saw Thing One and Thing Two walking towards him.

  “Just great,” Gidion muttered to himself.

  “You walking out, or do we have to throw you out?” one of the “Things” said. He hadn’t really decided which was One or Two.

  Gidion scrambled to his feet, making a quick check of his weapons. He couldn’t use most of them against other humans, but he needed to make sure he hadn’t dropped any of them. “All right.” He held up his hands and stepped back.

  “Pete, let’s go!”

  Pete didn’t move. He just stared at Gidion.

  Thing One and Two were almost on top of him, and he spotted Mr. No Neck heading his way, too. The Thing who’d spoken tried to grab Gidion, but he dodged the attempt. “Pete!” Stupid idiot wouldn’t go. Gidion opted not to press his luck. He slipped into the crowd and got past No Neck.

  Stephanie stood by the door and smiled at him as he walked past. “Bye, Gidion.”

  He looked back inside. No Neck was far enough away for him to stop for a moment. “Nothing better happen to Pete,” he said to Stephanie.

  “You’re worried about him?” She laughed. “If you were smart, you’d worry about yourself and run.”

  He didn’t run, but he walked fast enough to make sure none of Stephanie’s friends caught up with him.

  “See you at school, Gidion.” Stephanie’s taunt chased him as he turned the corner. He wouldn’t do anymore hunting downtown, not tonight. No, he had a better idea about where to go next and ran the rest of the way back to his car.

  Chapter Eleven

  The Little Hearse’s engine growled as Gidion turned into Stephanie’s neighborhood. He parked on Winstead Road which was two blocks from her cul-de-sac and a road she wouldn’t have any reason to turn onto when she drove home. Even if surveillance on the vampires’ safe house wasn’t practical, that didn’t mean he couldn’t get anything of use from the place.

  He made sure his car was legally parked, so if a nosey neighbor called the police, the most an officer could do would be to look at it and then leave. A cop couldn’t question him about the car if he wasn’t with it.

  Gidion kept his hood down as he walked the two blocks to Tolliver Court. He didn’t care if anyone called the police about the car, but he didn’t want people to call about some strange guy in a hoodie. Besides, the one person he knew would recognize him was too busy holding court at Old World, and as long as she was there, then no one was watching the safe house.

  As he walked onto Tolliver Court, he saw the front porch light was off. That didn’t surprise him. Why would a vampire care about scaring off burglars? For them, that would be like someone spontaneously delivering pizza and then not having to pay for it.

  His main goal was to find the key to get inside. This was the big flaw in the vampire safe house. Nomadic vampires needed a way to get in without breaking into the place. They could put spare keys in plastic bags and bury them just beside the front steps, but that might look a bit weird if people kept digging through the front yard. If they took too long finding the key, that just gave Mr. or Mrs. Nosey Neighbor another opportunity to pester their local police dispatcher. Besides, Gidion didn’t see any patches of earth that looked like they had been dug through often.

  The vampires could hide a key in some kind of lawn decoration, but this house didn’t have one that he could see. Nor was there a plant on the front deck where a key might be hidden in the planting soil. Putting a key in the bottom of a vertical mailbox at the front door might work, too, but this house didn’t have one of those. He didn’t see any combination lockboxes, either, but those would require a guest to know the combination.

  Of course, they could just leave the front door unlocked. Gidion grabbed the doorknob, turned it and pushed the door open. He listened for any beeps, the kind that might indicate an alarm system, but he didn’t hear anything. He checked the door frame and didn’t see any sensors. Not surprising really. That would require any guests to know the code for the alarm system, and that also added the risk of police coming here. Not exactly ideal for vampires who couldn’t explain what they were doing in Ms. Doris Eaton’s house. He considered just closing the door and going home. At least he now knew there weren’t any tricks to getting in this place. Still, there might be something here which could lead him to the Richmond Coven’s real lair, and there was no telling when he might get a chance like this again with Stephanie living next door.

  He listened for any movement, but he didn’t hear any. He pulled out his box cutter and went inside.

  The place reeked of Clorox. He wondered how many times Stephanie had cleaned the bloodstains from a messy eater. A basket with what looked like pamphlets in it sat on a table in the foyer. He picked up one. Not really a pamphlet, more like a list of house rules. Rule number one was, ‘No blood on the carpet.’ Given the hardwood floor in the living room and hallway, he wondered if this was a generic list or if it meant some of the back rooms had carpet.

  He loved number two, ‘You kill it; you dispose of it. Our maid cleans the mess, but guests are required to take their leftovers with them.’ He folded it in half and slipped it in his back pocket to read later. He couldn’t wait to show this to Grandpa. He’d laugh himself into a coughing fit.

  He’d looked at it close enough to see it didn’t include any contact information. Did they even have any kept anywhere in here? That would be nice, but he wouldn’t bet on it.

  The living room to his right was empty, so he moved forward and glanced down the hallway to the left. He noticed a door with a set of steps that led downstairs. The kitchen was further forward and to his right. He decided to check on the kitchen first. Going down into the basement just felt like a bad idea, and he didn’t want to stay too long, lest someone show up while he was here.

  Enough moonlight was spilling through the window over the kitchen sink for him to see a few notes stuck on the refrigerator with Hello Kitty magnets. Just too weird.

  He heard a whimper to his right. The sound scared the hell out of him, but what he saw didn’t make things better. A girl with long blond hair was tied to a chair at the kitchen table. Her mouth was gagged and her eyeballs looked ready jump out and tag him.

  He walked over to her and signaled for her to stay quiet. He hoped whoever brought her here had run out.

  “Who the hell are you?” The question came from some guy behind him. So much
for the guy having run out.

  Gidion needed to think fast. He slipped his box cutter back into his jacket before he turned around. A guy with fangs was standing there in red-and-white polka dot boxers. He must have been taking off his clothes in another room so he wouldn’t get his dinner’s blood on them. A practical vampire…how refreshing. He had to be a nomadic vampire. If he wasn’t, then he would have instantly known Gidion didn’t belong here and attacked. That was one of those unwritten vampire rules for nomads: don’t snack on the local vampire’s hired help.

  Gidion needed to get close enough to attack without making the vampire get alarmed. Best thing to do was just act like he belonged here.

  “I’m David. Stephanie sent me to check on the place while she’s out. Dude, did you even read the rules?” He pulled out the house rules list from his back pocket and did his best not to look like he was uncomfortable as he held them up for the vampire to see.

  “I read the rules,” the vampire said. “Feeders aren’t supposed to come in here at night.”

  “Well, you obviously didn’t read rule eight.” Gidion snapped the words out the way Dad had the other night in the car. “You’re gonna mess up the furniture with those ropes tied like that! And you better get rid of her body when you’re done, because I am not cleaning up that kind of mess. That’s rule number two, in case you forgot.”

  He was almost close enough.

  The vampire growled. “There’s nothing in there about the furniture in the kitchen.”

  “Rule number eight, dude!” Gidion shoved the paper right in front of the guy’s face, totally obscuring his field of vision.

  Gidion drew his box cutter and went for the throat. The vampire reacted too fast. Gidion missed the neck, but he caught the guy’s left wrist as he tried to block the strike. Not as good as the carotid artery, and it was a strike across instead of down, not near as deadly.

  He pressed the advantage and charged. He thrust his left forearm against the vampire’s chest and shoved him back into the oven. A pot clattered to the floor. Gidion thrust his forearm up to the throat and into the lower jaw. He heard the crunch of bone as the vampire’s mouth was slammed shut by that move.

  Gidion followed with the box cutter, going for the throat again. The guy grabbed a frying pan off the counter and swung it at his head. He blocked it with his right forearm. The pain rang deep into his bones and the box cutter fell to the floor. Gidion retreated.

  The vampire threw the frying pan at him. He dodged to the right and reached behind his back for his sword. Not all the feeling had returned to his arm, but at least it wasn’t fractured. He’d done that to his arm several times when he was younger, so he knew the difference.

  His hand grabbed hold of the sword as the vampire hissed.

  “I’m sorry.” Gidion held his other hand up as he pretended to plead. “Please don’t hurt me.”

  The vampire laughed. “Oh, you’ll hurt.” He leaped forward. He moved damn fast, but not faster than Gidion could draw his sword. The guy realized his mistake too late. The blade slit across his stomach as Gidion sidestepped his attack.

  A second strike went deep into the right thigh, sending him to the floor. Gidion planted his foot on his back, knocking the wind out of him and then sliced off his head before he could recover.

  Gidion staggered back from the body. He sat in a chair next to the girl who was still tied up. She jerked about screaming through her restraints.

  “Give me a minute for my breath to catch up.” He massaged his forearm. Dammit, that frying pan hurt like hell. Might not have broken anything, but that was gonna turn into one really nasty bruise.

  He looked back up at the girl. “He the only one here?”

  She nodded.

  “Thank God. You hurt?”

  She shook her head and gave him an evil look as she shook her chair about, silently demanding to be ungagged and cut loose.

  He stood and put away his sword before picking up his box cutter. He used that to cut the ropes, starting with the ones binding her wrists. She took care of the gag herself once her hands were free.

  “Thank you,” she said. “That guy. He was a—I mean—he…”

  He was working on the ropes tying her ankles to the chair’s legs. “We can talk about that later. For now, you can help me with the body.”

  “Help you with—with him?” She looked at Gidion like he’d just asked her to stick her hand into a pot of boiling water.

  He ignored her question and cut the last of her bonds. “What’s your name?”

  “Tamara.”

  She looked close to his age, probably a little older and pretty, too. Didn’t recognize her from school. No telling if she was even from around here. For all he knew, vamp-dude could have grabbed her from somewhere in California and driven her all the way here. “Well, Tamara, I hope you’re a lot stronger than you look, because I think this guy is gonna be pretty heavy.”

  “Oh, God. I think I’m going to be sick.” She ran for the sink and puked.

  He had a bad feeling things just got a whole lot more complicated.

  Chapter Twelve

  People don’t appreciate how difficult it is to dispose of a dead body. Downtown, Gidion favored the “drunk-friend-carry” approach, but in a suburban setting, a couple of drunk people walking down the street brings the police. If someone needs to frequently dispose of dead bodies in a residential area, a house needs one of two things: either a very tall fence around the property (which the safe house didn’t have) or a garage. As most any homeowner will attest, a garage hides a world of sins.

  He considered driving his car here to load the body, but that didn’t give him much time. After a quick search of the house, Gidion found what he needed most in the basement: the keys to the vampire’s car. He was amused to see it was another Ford Crown Victoria. This one was grey.

  “Tamara, take the other arm,” he said as he lifted the headless, half-naked body by the right arm and flung it over his shoulders.

  “Oh, God,” she said as she took the other side.

  He’d already warned her that they needed to hurry. There was no telling how long it would take Stephanie to get home, although he was betting it wouldn’t be anytime soon. It wasn’t even past 10:30 yet, but that didn’t mean another vampire wouldn’t drop in to spend the night. About the only thing he had going for him was that Tamara was still too freaked to ask a lot of questions. She might have even been scared of him. He wasn’t sure.

  They made it into the garage and loaded the body into the trunk. “Just get in the car, and I’ll get the head.” She didn’t argue. She looked like she was on autopilot as she climbed into the car. That wouldn’t last much longer, but he needed enough time to get the head and the rest of the vamp’s belongings.

  After a quick run through the house, he decided he had everything he needed and tossed it into the trunk of the car. He hit the button to open the garage door. He drove out just enough to clear the garage and then ran back in to hit the button to shut the door.

  “You buckled?” he asked as he climbed into the driver’s seat. She didn’t answer. Her gaze was locked straight ahead and her hand was braced against the dashboard. He just looked before he pulled out onto the street and drove out of the cul-de-sac.

  Lord, he hoped this car wasn’t stolen. Odds favored that if it was, the owner wasn’t left alive to report it. “I’m parked a few blocks from here.” He stopped as he looked at her. If her skin was any greener, she could have passed for half-plant. He’d planned to have her follow him in his car, but there was no way she was driving in this condition. “Tell you what. We’ll deal with my car later. Word of advice,” he reached over in a slow motion to grab her by the wrist and pull her hand away from the dashboard, “avoid touching any surfaces in here with your fingers. We’re gonna have to wipe it down later.”

  She swallowed, trying to pull herself together. “Where are we going?”

  “Gotta dispose of the body. If everything goes the way
I’ve got it planned, the vampires who own that house will assume he just left after he killed you and that the blood in the kitchen is yours.”

  “There are more of those—things?”

  “Yeah.” He just realized this was his fourth kill. He was tempted to tell her, but then again, his kills still hanging in the single digits probably wouldn’t sound as impressive to her.

  “Give me a minute.” He pulled out his cell and waved it as an explanation. Grandpa picked up on the second ring. “Grandpa, I’ve got one. Get the fire going.”

  “Damn, it’s not even eleven o’clock, kid. Nice job.”

  “Uh, yeah, I’ll explain all that when I get there. I’m about a half hour out.”

  That received a brief silence. “A half hour? Where are you coming from?”

  “The safe house.”

  “Are you out of your mind!”

  He could tell by the look on Tamara’s face that she’d heard that. He flashed her a smile before he answered Grandpa. “Yeah, long story. Just be warned, I’m not in my car. Had to borrow the vampire’s, a grey Crown Vic.”

  “Gidion…”

  Oh, boy. He was really gonna flip at this next part. “And I’m not alone. I’ve got a girl with me.”

  “Oh, good God.” Grandpa let fly a few curses before he said anything of substance. “And you’re bringing her here? Are you even sure you can trust this girl?”

  “I’m sure, Grandpa.” Yeah, right. “See you in thirty.” He hung up before Grandpa could say anything else.

  Neither he nor Tamara said anything until he’d reached Route 288. He made damn sure to stay under the speed limit. This wasn’t his car, so he didn’t want anything getting him pulled over.

  “Are you okay?” he asked.