Chapter 11: Hide and Seek

It was shortly after 1pm, Tuesday, when Cassidy arrived at the front entrance to the Cavern Nightclub. The door was open, and deliveries were being made. A young, male employee of the club intercepted Cassidy as she approached the entrance.

“Can I help you?” The employee pleasantly asked.

Cassidy pulled her badge and ID case out from her inside jacket pocket and displayed the contents as she spoke.

“Is David Burrell in? I'd like to speak with him.”

“Yes ma'am—officer,” the employee corrected with a gesture toward the interior of the club. “He's in the main room.”

Cassidy stepped carefully around some stacked crates and walked through the entrance. The interior was only dimly lit. Usually, much of the lighting was off in the club when it was open for business. The usual music and noise were also absent. The lack of noise made the sound of David's voice easy for Cassidy to follow. She walked through the passageway between the entrance and the main room and spotted David behind the bar talking with a supplier while examining an invoice. As soon as she fixed her eyes on David, he looked up and saw her. The conversation with the supplier came to a sudden stop. They briefly held each other’s gaze with a mix of surprise and apprehension. Snapping himself from his reverie, David signed the paperwork in front of him and quickly ushered the supplier away.

“Hi,” David gently greeted as he made his way out from behind the bar. “It's been a while,”

Cassidy maintained her silence while David continued to make his way to her. His usual expensively tailored suit was missing. In its place was a pair of dark slacks and a white tieless shirt, unbuttoned at the top and rolled up sleeves.

“You look well,” David softly offered as he stopped in front of her.

Cassidy held her stance while heaving away stress in slow breaths. She was dressed in a dark gray pants suit and a white-collared shirt. She wore sensible shoes, and her hair was casual and neatly cut. Her normally present messenger bag was presently missing.

“We need to talk,” Cassidy declared with soft insistence.

David understood that Cassidy was requesting a private conversation. He knew that only something sensitive and important could motivate her to come to him. He agreed to her request without reservation and then ushered her into his office. Cassidy maintained a discrete distance from David as she followed him into his office, and he was careful to respect that distance. After David closed the office door he went as far away from Cassidy that he could manage without getting behind his desk. Cassidy waited for him to take his position before taking two steps toward the center of the office. An awkward silence followed. Neither knew how to act around the other. The last time they were alone together, they were in the throes of passion, but that was before Cassidy knew that David was the vampire Cristiãn.

“Are you okay?” David practically whispered.

Cassidy noticed the concern in his expression. For a few seconds, her façade of indifference began to melt away, but then she managed to push her emotion aside.

“Brooke visited me yesterday,” Cassidy stated sternly.

Cassidy noticed that David fidgeted a little to her revelation.

“And?” He asked hesitantly.

“She wanted to know about a prostitute found murdered in a Brooklyn alley,” Cassidy continued.

David knew about Brooke’s conversation with Cassidy. He got that information when Brooke passed it on to the entire Dacia Vampire Alliance. Because he already knew everything that Cassidy was saying, he chose to remain silent until asked a direct question. He was reluctant to lie to Cassidy and feared he could not.

“There's a vampire out there killing people,” Cassidy expounded after suddenly realizing that David already knew about her conversation with Brooke.

“He's not one of us,” David quickly asserted.

“Brooke lied to me,” Cassidy angrily countered.

“Adrianna (Brooke) wasn't sure,” David quickly defended. “That's why she wanted to know about the murder.”

“But she suspected,” Cassidy shot back.

David hesitated to respond.

“Yes,” he softly replied.

“How long has this been going on?” Cassidy bellowed.

“This is the first… event that we’ve heard about,” David carefully asserted.

“The first?” Cassidy blasted with a startled expression. “Then why—what makes you think that a vampire outside of your—your group, coven or whatever, did the killing? And where did this other vampire come from?”

“Razvan,” David responded in a word.

“Razvan?” Cassidy questioned back with a confused look.

“Razvan and Dumitra turned Tony McGuire into an immortal,” David confessed somberly. “You met him—the Ecstasy—the basement.”

It only took Cassidy a second to connect what David was saying to an image of the person he was speaking of. Her memory of this person was clear. As she recalled the memory, new thoughts and questions began to percolate.

“That was over a month ago,” she exclaimed with surprise. “They’ve been keeping this from me for almost two months?”

David gave no response. He was afraid that anything he said, other than a lie, would anger her further.

“Nothing?” Cassidy scolded after several seconds of silence.

Cassidy was shocked by David’s nonresponse and began to fume over his silence. In her mind the act of not telling her about this murderous vampire violated the gist of the agreement she made with Lucian. Her mind went to thoughts about what else she did not know. And then she began to think about what it was she should know about these beings. Shortly, Cassidy came to the realization that she had spent the past two months distancing herself from vampires. Eventually, her thoughts and eyes settled on David, as a relative calm returned to her.

“And you, how long have you known about this?” Cassidy asked with a fixed stare.

“I was told Saturday,” David reported solemnly.

“Saturday?” Cassidy challengingly asked in dismay. “Why—why Saturday?” she asked with a frown.

“They didn’t want me to know,” David gently returned.

“They didn’t want you…” Cassidy began.

Before she could finish her response, Cassidy realized why the other vampires would not want David to know about a rogue vampire in New York City. Her demeanor toward David quickly softened. She understood that the other vampires feared he would reveal their secret to her.

“Okay,” Cassidy acknowledged with her eyes cast down toward the floor. “Well, what are they doing? Why haven’t they found Tony McGuire?” She inquired after a hesitation.

“We believe he’s hiding,” David explained. “We could use your help searching for him. We need to know everything that’s out there to know about him.”

“Okay,” Cassidy agreed with little thought. “I’ll run his name, and I’ll get that to you tomorrow. Will you be here?”

“Yes,” David confirmed with a nod.

“Ah, yeah, good,” Cassidy acknowledged hesitantly while inching back toward the door.

Cassidy could think of nothing more to say on the subject. Her anger was spent. All she had left now was the prospect of ending the conversation and leaving David’s presence, which she felt a reluctance to do. Despite all that she had learned, it was the confirmation that David would not lie to her that had the greatest effect. The romantic feelings she once had for David were aroused back into full force. She stared into David’s eyes for a few seconds more, took a deep breath, then turned and went to the door.

“Cassidy,” David called as she reached for the doorknob.

Cassidy stopped and turned to hear what David had to say. David suspected there was an emotional struggle going on inside Cassidy, but he was determined to respect the distance she maintained between them.

“Thank you,” he offered in a soft voice.

In that instant, Cassidy felt an urge to close the distance between them. She knew that if he came to her, she would not run, and she would not resist. She waited there for several seconds, and then she turned and left the office.

It was not until she distanced herself from David, in both location and thoughts, that she began to process the information he had shared. She wondered why the Dacia Vampires did not act on the information about Tony McGuire when they first learned of his existence. It seemed to Cassidy that McGuire should have been easy to find when he was first turned into a vampire. Then her thoughts began to wonder why Razvan and Dumitra would reveal the existence of Vampire McGuire to the other members of the Dacia Coven. By Cassidy’s reasoning, Razvan and Dumitra had to have told them about Tony McGuire in the hours before they were beheaded. These questions nagged at her for several minutes; then her job took precedent, and she pushed the confusion to the back of her list of things to clarify.

~~~~~Line Break~~~~~

“Read ‘em and weep,” Malcolm gleefully howled as he threw his cards on the table.

It was early Tuesday night. Charlie, Ben, Malcolm and Keegan were in the back room of Tony’s new stash house. The room was originally designed to be used as a storage area for a business. At present, it was just a vacant room that was in disarray because of unfinished renovations. The construction equipment, tools and supplies lying about was evidence that the work on the building had stopped in mid progress. The walls of the back room were stripped of paneling, and the electrical wiring and fixtures were waiting to be upgraded. Charlie, Ben, Malcolm and Keegan were playing poker seated in folding chairs around a foldout table. Multiple lanterns were illuminating the room.

“Yeah, get cocky,” Charlie sullenly encouraged. “I'm going to enjoy taking your money from you.”

An indifferent Keegan began collecting the cards while Malcolm collected his poker chips with a wide smile. Charlie watched the activity on the table with mounting frustration while Ben stared off with an expression of contained rage.

“Ha, ha,” Malcolm grinned while stacking his chips. “Maybe we should raise the stakes.”

“That's right kid,” Charlie scoffed. “Keep grinning.”

“Nobody should be grinning,” Ben exploded with fury. “You should be angry. You should all be mad as hell. I know I am.”

“What are you mad about?” Keegan stopped shuffling to ask.

“Angry about being cooped up here doing nothing,” Ben bellowed as though he were speaking the obvious.

Malcolm and Keegan were confused by Ben’s outrage. They did not understand where this level of anger was coming from.

“We’re guarding the coke,” Keegan explained.

“We’re guarding their coke,” Ben argued. “It’s not like we’re going to get equal shares of the money.”

Malcolm and Keegan were surprised by Ben's statements. They did not know how to respond in a way that would not anger him further.

“What’s buzzing around in your head, Ben?” Charlie growled at his longtime friend.

Ben paid no attention to Charlie's inquiry. He was too busy searching for words to vocalize his thoughts.

“And where the hell are they?” Ben continued to rant. “What are they doing? Jerry said he was coming back tonight.”

“Call and ask,” Keegan casually spoke as he went back to shuffling the cards.

“Don’t you get it?” Ben snapped at Keegan ferociously. “We’ve been reborn. We’re vampires. We’re gods, and we’re sitting around here waiting for Jerry and Tony to tell us to take out the garbage like we’re their flunkies.”

“I’m nobody’s flunky,” Charlie roared.

Malcolm and Keegan were surprised once again, but it was Charlie motivating the condition.

“Ben has a point,” Charlie continued with less belligerence. “It’s not like they’re better than us.”

“Come on, guys, we can’t change the plan now,” Malcolm placated. “We need to work the plan and deal with all of this later.”

“I’m not talking about changing the plan,” Ben vehemently insisted. “I’m talking about us sitting here for two days now while Tony and Jerry are out there doing… whatever the fuck they're doing.”

Once again Malcolm and Keegan were surprised by the level of anger they were seeing from Ben and now Charlie.

“There’s nothing we can do about that now,” Keegan asserted in support of Malcolm.

“Yeah, well, you wait,” Ben growled as he stood up from his chair.” I’ve got better things to do.”

Ben gathered up his jacket and started toward the rear door of the building.

“Ben, you can't leave,” Malcolm stridently insisted while rising to his feet. “Tony told us to stay here.”

“Why are we taking orders from Tony?” Charlie argued with an angry grumble. “We're vampires. We shouldn't be taking orders from anyone.”

Ben stopped to hear Charlie's complaint. He turned to continue to leave when Keegan voiced a valid point.

“Ben, the cops can't find out about us. Tony is right about that.”

“I'm not going to expose us,” Ben insisted with a huff of exasperation. “I got personal business to deal with and I'm not sitting around here doing nothing while Tony and Jerry are out there doing whatever the fuck they want to do. I'll be back Thursday.”

“What do I tell Tony if he comes back before then and he has something for us to do?” Malcolm asked with a hint of hysteria.

“If that happens, tell him I said wait until I get back,” Ben defiantly answered with a glower.

At that point, Ben turned around and opened the back door.

“Wait!” Charlie exclaimed before Ben could step through the doorway. “You’ve got the car keys.”

“I’m taking the car,” Ben yelled without looking back from the open doorway.

Despite his overtures and preparations to leave, Malcolm and Keegan were still surprised to see Ben walk out the door and drive off in his Lincoln Town Car. Charlie looked to be indifferent.

Charlie, Malcolm and Keegan shared Ben's annoyance with the situation. Their newly acquired vampire strength and vigor had them all feeling like caged adolescent tigers. The only things that was keeping any of them in the building at night was the job that they were there to do and the absence of a pressing need to be someplace else. However, both excuses were wearing thin with all of them because of mental fatigue, and this was exceedingly true for Charlie and Ben.

Malcolm and Keegan had not slept for 48 hours, and Charlie and Ben had not slept for 72 hours. None of them felt a physical need to sleep because they spent all their time inside and away from the sun. They did nothing to exert themselves to any extreme and they made nightly runs to the local grocery for food. The fatigue that was developing in Malcolm and Keegan's minds was not visibly noticeable. The reason for Charlie and Ben's ignorance about their small shifts in moods to irritability was due to their inexperience with vampire mental fatigue.

Ben’s departure ended all interest in poker for the guys. Malcolm turned his attention to the E-mail on his smartphone. Keegan began playing solitaire and Charlie turned his thoughts inward as he periodically paced the rooms of the building one at a time. Malcolm and Keegan noticed Charlie’s growing agitation. A couple of hours later, Malcolm and Keegan were playing darts as a grumbling Charlie was impatiently pacing the storage room.

“That’s it,” Charlie growled as he snatched up his jacket and started for the back door. “I’m out of here.”

“Where are you going, Charlie?” Malcolm called out in a hurry.

“Someplace not so boring,” Charlie angrily returned. “I’ll be back in the morning,” he exclaimed while opening the door.

Before Malcolm could say anything more, Charlie was through the doorway. Malcolm and Keegan watched in astonishment as the door clanged shut behind him.

~~~~~Line Break~~~~~

It was just past 10pm, Tuesday, when Charlie left the stash house. Without Ben’s Lincoln Town Car for a ride, he had to use public transportation to make his way to the apartment of Paula Cross, three years ago they considered themselves an item. It was 1:18am when he arrived outside Paula’s apartment door. He had knocked on her door for more than a minute before he heard movement on the other side.

“Who is it?” Paula called through the door.

“It’s me,” Charlie answered loudly. “Charlie.”

“Charlie… Charlie Panko?” Paula questioned with surprise.

“Yeah, open the door,” Charlie returned.

“What do you want?”

“Let me in,” Charlie commanded gruffly.

“Go away, Charlie,” Paula yelled back.

“Babe, come on, open the door,” Charlie nearly pleaded. “I need to show you something.”

“Show me what?”

“Open the door and I’ll show you,” Charlie spoke softly into the door. “I promise, you’re going to love it.”

A prolonged silence followed. Paula tried to suppress her inclination to open the door. Memories of her time with Charlie were not distasteful, especially when she measured them against most of the other men in her past. In Paula’s mind, the only downside to Charlie was the fact that she was never seriously attracted to him. Her time with Charlie was motivated by money and the fact that she was not involved with anyone else during that period. Charlie was often flush with money through his association with Tony McGuire, but this condition did not last. Charlie was reduced to living on a slender income when his windfall dried up, and so did his appeal to Paula. She met other men with more in money and appeal, and she soon went to work at pushing him away. It took a stint in jail after putting one of her lovers in the hospital to end Charlie’s thinking that Paula belongs to him alone. Despite this ending, Charlie and Paula maintained an on and off, love hate, acquaintance.

“What happened to you?” Paula asked as she looked at Charlie through the partially opened door.

“Big things, Babe,” Charlie declared with enthusiasm.

“But you look different,” Paula spoke with astonishment.

Paula could not stop staring at Charlie’s youthful appearance. Charlie leaned in bit closer so that she could get a better look.

“I am different,” Charlie softly replied. “Come on, let me in,” he implored with a sly smile. “This is just the beginning.”

Paula was more than a little intrigued by Charlie’s excitement. She wanted to know why he looked so youthful. His appearance had not improved so much that it caused her to be physically attracted to him, but it did make her wonder if there was money behind his new look.

Paula was not afraid of Charlie. It was his gentle nature when it came to her that sustained their acquaintance. She had no problem with letting him into her apartment beyond the likelihood of them having sex. She suspected sex would be the price she would have to pay to avoid a scuffle to get him to leave. And if Charlie was back into big money, that was a price she was willing to pay.

“Okay,” Paula responded just before closing the door and unlatching the chain.

A moment later the door reopened fully. Charlie rushed in and scooped Paula up off the floor by the waist. He spun her around twice with a wide grin on his face. The speed of his act took her by surprise. For a moment, she lost her breath.

“Put me down,” Paula complained when her breath returned.

Charlie set Paula down on her feet while beaming a wide smile. The moment she was back on her feet, Paula went to the door and closed it before turning back to look at Charlie with a scowl.

“What happened to you, Charlie?”

“You wouldn’t believe me if I told you,” he returned with a smile.

Charlie moved in quickly and backed Paula up against the door and then kissed her passionately on the lips. She endured the kiss for several seconds before pushing against his body as he pressed against hers. A moment later, Charlie responded to her efforts by stepping back.

“Charlie! What—how did you get like this?” Paula asked breathlessly.

“What? Don’t you like me this way?” Charlie returned with his arms spread out.

“You look twenty years younger,” Paula exclaimed in disbelief.

Paula Cross was a 42-year-old woman whose slender figure and handsome face suggested she was exceedingly attractive when she was young. She was dressed in a thigh length flimsy robe that was covering a two-piece shorty pajama set.

“I’m more than that,” Charlie countered as he stepped forward. “I’m a whole lot more than that,” he finished just before pulling Paula back into a passionate kiss.

At first, Paula made some effort to resist Charlie’s advance. Several seconds into the kiss, she surrendered to the strength and enthusiasm of his ardor. Nearly a minute into his flurry of kissing and groping, Charlie picked Paula up and rushed off to her bedroom.

The depth of physical and mental lust Charlie was feeling was overwhelming. He had never wanted Paula more than he did at that moment. He had never wanted any woman more than he wanted Paula at that moment. Paula was not only the woman of his dreams; she was the frustration that fueled his nightmares. Often, the thought of her made him angry. She was the woman that he could not decide whether to kiss or kill, but at that moment, he was determined to have his way with her.

At 3:42am, Charlie and Paula finished having sex for the last time that night. Paula curled up along Charlie’s side with her head on his shoulder panting from exhaustion. Charlie laid sprawled across the bed breathing heavily. They both were nude; their bodies glistening with sweat.

It took some time for Paula’s blissful delirium to begin to subside. Her senses had awakened enough to notice heat radiating off Charlie. She pushed herself up off the bed and reached out to touch Charlie’s naked body. The degree of heat she felt alarmed her. She was also shocked by Charlie’s suddenly aged and emaciated appearance. His labored breaths continued while he laid unmoving. To Paula he looked as though he was dying.

“Are you okay, Baby,” Paula questioned with a hint of terror in her expression. “You’re so hot.”

“Yeah,” Charlie barely huffed out.

“Do you want some water?” Paula asked with worry. “Yeah, I’ll go get you some water,” she concluded.

Paula quickly climbed out of the bed and raced out of the bedroom. Charlie was too exhausted to respond to her question in time to stop her. The best he could manage in that moment was to shake his head, but Paula’s back was to him, and she did not see. A few seconds later, Paula hurried back into the bedroom with a glass of water.

“Sit up, Charlie,” Paula encouraged while pushing a helping hand under his shoulder.

“I don’t need water,” Charlie huffed as he pushed himself up against the headboard.

“Drink some anyway,” Paula encouraged. “You’re burning up.”

Charlie continued to shake his head as Paula held the glass in front of his face.

“I don’t need water,” Charlie asserted after turning his gaze to Paula with a glint of light in his eyes.

Paula was shocked by the shine of light she saw in Charlie’s pupils. She leaned back so that she could see what was happening in Charlie’s eyes. The move prompted Charlie to grab her by the arm.

“Water isn’t what I need,” Charlie huffed with a near fanatical stare.

Paula was alarmed by the strength of Charlie’s grip around her arm and the expression on his face. She wondered what she was seeing.

“What’s happened to you?” Paula asked with a confused look.

Charlie took a couple of deep breaths.

“I need to feed,” Charlie huffed out with fangs now appearing between his lips.

Paula’s concern switched into fear at the sight of Charlie’s fangs. She struggled to remove her arm from his grip.

“Let me go, Charlie,” Paula insisted with panic in her voice.

Charlie stared at Paula with a frenzied expression. A craving for blood had his brain too befuddled to think straight. Want and need was the driving force in his brain, and it was this forced that shaped his response.

“No.”

Instantly after his reply, Charlie backhanded the glass of water out of Paula’s hand, grabbed her by the head and shoulder and pulled her forward. Paula’s scream went muffled into Charlie’s shoulder while he sank his teeth into her neck.

About five minutes later Charlie finished feasting on Paula’s blood. He rose up from Paula and roared with a newfound vigor and satisfaction. His blood-stained lips and face dripped with her blood. After exalting in the return of his health, Charlie looked down at Paula’s body lying in his lap. The knowledge that he had just killed her rushed into his awareness. A moment of panic washed over him before his decision to revive her. With only a few seconds between the thought and the act, Charlie bit into the palm of his hand and began dripping his blood into Paula’s mouth.

Charlie arranged Paula’s body in the bed and covered it, head to toe, with the sheet and bedspread. He watched, waited and worried for more than hour. He did not plan to kill her, but the idea of turning her into a vampire became a pleasing thought. But he worried about the process. He was turning a human into a vampire on his own for the first time, and the person he was turning had value to him. He needed this to work so that Paula could be his vampire mate.

It was a little after five in the morning when Charlie left Paula’s apartment and began his journey back to the stash house. Before leaving, Charlie left a message for Paula taped to the bathroom mirror.

Paula, you’re okay, but you can’t leave the apartment. It’s dangerous for you outside. I’ll explain everything tomorrow night.

Charlie