Chapter 26: This is Your Life

It was shortly after sunset, Sunday evening, when Tony and company arrived at Jeremiah’s home. Malcolm and Ben were at the stash house standing guard. Lola and Charlie left Jeremiah’s home to collect Paula Cross and Mary Thistle. Jeremiah and Keegan went to collect Patricia Boyd. They found the address and the keys to her apartment in the purse that Jeremiah took from her and stored in his desk drawer. Tony elected to wait inside Jeremiah’s house so that someone would be there if Patricia or Mary turned up or called. He was there alone for nearly two hours when Lola and Charlie returned to the house with Paula in tow.

“Whose house is this,” Paula asked nervously as she walked through the front doorway.

“It’s a friend’s house, babe,” Charlie returned as he ushered Paula into the living room and to a seat on the sofa.

Tony watched their exchange with a look of annoyance. He had already noted that Mary was not in their company, and his impatience was high because of it. He wanted to know where all these loose vampires were and to whom they were talking.

“Are they like us?” Paula queried as she settled onto the sofa.

“Yeah, babe,” Charlie returned. “We’re all the same here.”

“Charlie?” Tony snapped. “Who has she been talking to?”

“No one, boss,” Charlie promptly answered. “I told you; Paula knows how to keep a secret.”

Tony gave Paula a severe study for several seconds, and then turned away to confront Lola.

“Where’s Mary?” Tony asked in a stern voice.

“She wasn’t at home,” Lola tentatively answered with a shrug.

“What do you mean, she wasn’t at home? Where did she go?” Tony asked commandingly.

“I don’t know where she went,” Lola returned with a touch of defiance.

“Are you sure she wasn’t in the house?” Tony queried in a demanding tone.

Lola knew that Tony was considering the possibility that Mary might be dead inside her house or even hiding. That was a thought that she and Charlie considered when they went around to the rear of the house and busted the back door open and went inside Mary’s home.

“We went inside,” Lola returned stridently. “She wasn’t there.”

“She’s your friend. Where is she?” Tony challenged angrily.

“Until a couple of days ago, Mary and I talked two or three times a year,” Lola responded defensively. “I don’t know who Mary’s friends are now.”

“We have to find her,” Tony insisted.

“She knows not to tell anyone about—all of this,” Lola assured with a gesture of her hands.

“Really? Just like you didn't tell anyone,” Tony returned sarcastically. “Have you tried her cellphone?” He growled after a pause.

“Yeah! She’s not answering . . . I left messages,” Lola returned with a flustered delivery.

Lola had made several attempts to call Mary since her departure from the stash house, but each of her calls were made with someone else’s cellphone or Jeremiah’s landline phone. A concern that she did not disclose to Tony was that there was a possibility that Mary might call her. Lola had no wish to tell Tony about the cellphone that Mary purchased for her. She wanted a means of communication that Tony had no knowledge of.

“Son of a bitch!” Tony screamed at no one in particular. “The cops, the FBI—hell, the National Guard could be out there scouring the city for us right now. We have to keep this a secret,” he finished with a glare toward Lola.

“She won’t tell,” Lola insisted without raising her voice. “I know Mary, she’s not going to go public with this,” she emphasized.

Tony was not relieved by Lola’s promise. The sensation of not being in control was high on his list of things that made him angry to the point of violence. He had just started to pace when the sound of car parking outside caught his attention.

“It’s Jeremiah and Keegan,” Charlie reported from his place at the front window. “They’ve got someone with them—a girl.”

“Good,” Tony grumbled. “The last thing I need is more bad news.”

Charlie went to the front door and held it open as the trio entered one behind the other. Patricia was the first to enter the house. She stopped just inside the perimeter of the living room and looked at the faces of everyone there. She was comforted by the sight of Lola and intrigued by the presence of Tony.

“I remember you,” Patricia spoke with sass. “You’re the other asshole who had me chained in the basement.”

“Yeah, and if you run away again, I’ll do more than that,” a grouchy Tony warned with an angry point.

“I’d like to see you try,” Patricia brazenly countered while taking a defiant stance.

“What did you say to me?” Tony roared out as he took an angry step toward the petite vampire that dared to talk back to him.

“Hold on, boss,” Keegan called out as he stepped forward to check Tony’s advance. “She didn’t mean anything by it.”

Tony fumed at Patricia for a moment.

“You need to understand one thing,” Tony growled at Patricia. “All of you need to understand,” he continued with a glance around the room. “I call the shots here.”

No one challenged Tony’s commandment, and a moment of silent obeisance followed behind his announcement.

“What is this?” Paula meekly queried into the silence.

“This is nothing to you,” Tony testily asserted. “You just need to be still and quiet,” he continued with an angry scowl.

“Don’t talk to her that way,” Charlie grumbled out as he took a step forward.

Tony was surprised by the swiftness of Charlie’s reaction and promptly drew back his testy appearance and tossed up his hands in mock resignation.

“Fine,” Tony continued with a hint of a smile. “We’re all friends,” he emphasized to Paula. “We’re allies,” he finished with a wider smile.

“Bedfellows,” Jeremiah jumped in verbally as he gazed at Patricia.

“Yuck,” Patricia exclaimed while moving further back into Keegan’s shadow and doubling over in disgust.

Patricia had been keeping her distance from Jeremiah from the moment they got out of the car. When they entered the house, she was steadfast in her effort to keep Keegan in between her and him. She was ever aware of Jeremiah’s stare following her around the room. In Patricia’s mind Jeremiah was always a creepy person, but at that moment she was experiencing sensations that were incompatible with her strong dislike of him. Jeremiah’s comment about bedfellows was the straw that turned her internal conflict into words.

“Why do I have these icky feelings whenever I’m near him?” Patricia boisterously queried with a point toward Jeremiah.

“He’s your maker,” Tony answered with exasperation. “Vampires and their progenitors have some kind of… pheromone connection that causes us to sense each other’s thoughts, feelings and emotions.”

“You’re my mate,” Jeremiah asserted with a wide smile.

“No, I’m not,” Patricia sharply contradicted. “And stay away from me, creep.”

“Okay, this is something we can deal with later,” an annoyed Tony interjected dismissively. “For now, I need you to stay here,” he directed with a point at Patricia.

“I’m not staying here alone with him,” Patricia disputed with a shake of her head.

“You don’t have to,” Tony instantly countered, “Jeremiah, you’re coming with me,” he continued with indifference.

“What?” Jeremiah loudly challenged.

“Charlie, you’re coming too,” Tony went on while ignoring Jeremiah’s outburst. “It’s time to start pushing the merchandise. This is a distraction. Keegan, you stay here and keep an eye on things—no more adventures.”

“I can do that,” Keegan happily agreed.

“I’m not one of your soldiers,” Jeremiah loudly declared right after Keegan spoke. “Why can't I stay here?” Jeremiah asked in a loud and pleading voice.

“It's because you're not a soldier that I want you in the stash house,” Tony angrily grumbled. “I need you running the garage. I want that crew to finish cutting, bagging and tagging by the end of the night, and I need you tallying the numbers.”

“Charlie can do that,” Jeremiah bellowed with a defiant step toward Tony.

“That’s not Charlie’s job,” Tony yelled back. “I want you to do it.”

For a moment it looked like Tony and Jeremiah were going to fight. A low growl was trapped in their throats during an intense standoff between them. After a few seconds of silent staring, Jeremiah relaxed his posture and took a step back.

“Mickey is rounding up dealers,” Tony asserted after the pause. “They’re coming in first thing tomorrow. We need to be ready.”

Tony’s plan was to distribute much of the cocaine that he had by the start of rush hour Monday morning.

“It’s time for the streets of New York to learn that we’re the boss,” Tony declared as he looked around into the faces of everyone there. “This puppy love shit can wait,” he continued with a stern look at Jeremiah. “I need you working the girls. I want all of it cut, bagged and tagged by the end of the night. You got that?”

“I’ll take care of it,” Jeremiah acquiesced with a shrug.

“This is just the beginning,” Tony continued speaking with enthusiasm in his voice. “When we’re done taking over Manhattan’s cocaine trade, we’re going to add on some more soldiers—vampire soldiers, and then we’re going to take over all of New York. I’m talking cocaine, heroin, prostitution, extortion, gambling. We’re going to run the gangs and we’re going to own the cops.”

Charlie was supportive of Tony’s plan and showed it with gung-ho exaltation of “Yeah.” Most of the others appeared to be quietly accepting of the plan for lack of a reason to oppose it. Lola was indifferent to Tony’s plans, but she did think he was drunk with power, and she was sure he had not thought his scheme all the way through.

“Are you sure making more vampires is a good idea?” Lola tentatively asked.

“Absolutely!” Tony returned with zeal. “We're going to be an army. An unstoppable army,” he continued with exhalation. “This is just the beginning for us, babe,” he finished with a smile.

Tony's words did not dispel Lola's concern. As Tony, Jeremiah and Charlie took off for the stash house, Lola silently wondered where this new adventure would end.

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

“So, are you and Tony, and those other guys—like—criminals?” Patricia asked inquisitively.

Patricia was standing in the kitchen when she asked Keegan that question. They chose that location to converse because Lola and Paula were watching a program on the television in the living room. She and Keegan might have also chosen the television as a distraction to while away the time were it not for their interest in each other.

“Tony is a businessman,” Keegan quickly asserted. “He owns an auto dealership and a couple of repair shops.”

“So, you work for him?” Patricia asked as though unimpressed.

“Sometimes,” Keegan answered. “Mostly I work for Jerry.”

Patricia immediately took offense to the sound of Jeremiah’s name. Instinctively, she took a step back and folded her arms.

“Ooh. What do you do for him?” Patricia inquired with an intonation of detest.

Keegan put next to no thought into the question and answered with a word, “Construction.”

“Construction?” Patricia questioned as though she was surprised by the answer. “You mean like building houses and things?”

“Yeah, but it’s mostly refurbishing,” Keegan returned with a shrug.

Patricia gave Keegan’s answer a moment of thought. Her expression clearly showed that she found something in his answer confusing.

“So, what does refurbishing have to do with cutting, bagging and tagging?” Patricia asked in bewilderment.

“Well, I do the odd job every now and then—for the extra money,” Keegan reluctantly expounded.

“And I bet those odd jobs pay well,” Patricia playfully suggested.

“As a rule, yes,” Keegan confessed without reservation. “Otherwise, they wouldn’t be worth the trouble,” he continued less resolutely.

“So, running down escaped slave girls is one of your odd jobs?” Patricia smugly questioned.

“Technically, I was there to watch Jerry’s back just in case he ran into some trouble,” Keegan promptly corrected.

Once again, Jeremiah’s name spoiled the conversation for Patricia, and she took a defiant stance in response.

“So, I’m just Jeremiah’s property to you?” Patricia testily queried.

Keegan was amused by Patricia’s peeved reaction. He briefly gave her a hint of a smile, and then his eyes began looking down over her body. Seconds later he tilted his head left then right to get a better view of her. After a few seconds more of examining Patricia from a distance, Keegan stepped forward, took her by the hand and slowly twirled her about as though they were on a dance floor.

Patricia was pleasantly intrigued by his action. Her thinking was that he was looking at her tattoos, and she had no objection to him taking her by the hand. She accepted his lead with an eagerness to see where it was going. Several seconds into this little dance, Patricia brought it to a stop by pulling her hand away and crossing her arms again.

“What are you looking for?” Patricia asked with feigned haughtiness.

“I was looking to see if you had Jerry’s named tattooed on you somewhere,” Keegan casually returned.

Patricia’s amusement grew into a full-blown smile in response to Keegan’s explanation. Just the same, she maintained her imperious stance.

“I don’t tattoo boys names on my body,” Patricia proudly proclaimed. “I don’t believe in belonging to someone,” she added with accented arrogance. “But I’m not above forming attachments,” she finished while dropping her hands down to her hips and taking a teasing pose.

Keegan took a moment to ogle the pretty little vampire, and then he quickly stepped forward, snatched her up into his arms and began kissing her passionately. Patricia instantly reciprocated by throwing her arms around Keegan’s neck and her legs around his hips. After several seconds of clutching and kissing, Keegan took Patricia by the hand and raced off for the closest bedroom.

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

While Patricia and Keegan were in the kitchen talking, Lola and Paula were in the living room pretending to be listening to the television. The conversation in the kitchen was far more to their interest, but not even Patricia and Keegan’s flirtatious banter was enough to mitigate Lola’s boredom and Paula’s fears.

“We’re not really—vampires, are we?” Paula questioned with a worried tone. “I mean, vampires aren’t real.”

“Yeah, well we’re something,” Lola returned with sass. “Because I’m definitely not what I was a few days ago.”

“What do mean?” Paula asked with continued worry.

“I lost thirty years—not to mention thirty pounds,” Lola answered as if speaking what was obvious to see.

“Yeah, me too, but—but vampire?” Paula asked in disbelief.

“Vampire, zombie, gargoyle, tooth fairy, I don’t care. I am not complaining,” Lola tossed out with indifference. “Why? Do you want to go back to the way you were?”

“No,” Paula mused out after a moment of thought. “It does feel—good, I mean—really good,” she reported with a laugh. “I’m just worried something bad is going to happen. I mean vampires are monsters, aren’t they?”

“Hey, you were definitely coming to a bad end when you were human,” Lola humorously tossed out. “Tony told me that the vampire who turned him was more than two-thousand years old. I don’t see a downside here. Stop worrying.”

Lola’s instruction had no effect on Paula. It was clear from her expression that something about her situation was worrying her.

“Two-thousand years,” Paula echoed somberly.

In the middle of Paula’s brooding contemplation, Keegan and Patricia ran up the stairs and into the guest bedroom.

“That didn’t take long,” Lola mused. “I think Jerry may be in for a surprise.”

“What do you mean?” Paula questioned with a modest intonation of intrigue.

“Oh, it’s just something Tony told me,” Lola answered dismissively.

“What?” Paula softly asked out of curiosity.

“He said something about female vampires switching partners after sex with another male vampire,” Lola casually explained.

“So, it is true that we’re—vampires,” Paula concluded with reluctance.

“It seems so,” Lola confirmed. “But Tony said the person who turned him called himself an immortal.”

“Yeah, but we drink blood,” Paula meekly disputed. “Doesn’t that make us vampires?”

Paula gave Lola a look of dread as she waited for the answer. Lola noticed the worry in Paula’s face and considered her response carefully.

“Well Tony says that they had a lot of names for beings like us two-thousand years ago,” Lola answered as diplomatically as she could “l wouldn’t put any store in those folktales.”

Both women paused to reflect on their conversation.

“But aren’t there vampires in the Bible?” Paula asked cautiously.

“I don’t think so,” Lola answered with a shake of her head.

“But there are demons in the Bible?” Paula asked with fear in her voice. “And that’s what we are, isn’t it?”

Lola noted Paula’s uneasy interest in this subject and turned to look at her with an expression of assurance while trying to address and dispel her fear.

“But we’re not demons,” Lola spoke with soft insistence. “We’re—immortals,” she finished with a brief search for the appropriate word.

Paula was surprised by Lola’s last remark, and she scrunched her face into a dubious expression.

“So, you don’t think there’s anything wrong with turning humans into what we are?” Paula asked with an anxious look. “I mean, you don’t think it’s like a sin against God?”

“No,” Lola insisted with a shake of her head. “Not if they want to be like us. We’re not demons,” she added with greater assertion. “Don’t you feel like the same person you were before?” Lola questioned with finality.

Paula pondered Lola’s reply before responding with, “yeah, I guess.”

“Don’t over think it,” Lola instructed with assertiveness.

Lola knew that Paula’s interest in the idea that they were vampires was motivated by her religious belief. She could see that Paula was thinking hard about what she said and promptly decided to let her think in silence, and she settled back into the sofa to watch the program on the television. A few minutes later, the sounds of Patricia and Keegan having sex began resounding over the talking coming from the TV. The combination of the silence between her and Paula, the boring television program she was watching and the sounds of Patricia and Keegan having sex motivated Lola to stand up.

“Okay, that’s it,” Lola proclaimed as she hurried off to the stairwell and on to the second level.

Paula had no time to question Lola about what she meant by “that’s it” or what she was about to do. Her initial thought was that Lola was going up to the bedroom that Keegan and Patricia were in to confront them about the noise, but when Lola went into a different bedroom, Paula surmised that she was up to something else. Paula’s interest in what Lola was doing doubled when she heard her disappear into the bedroom across the hall from the one Keegan and Patricia occupied. She tried to hear what Lola was doing in the room, but between the television and Keegan and Patricia’s foreplay, she heard little of Lola’s movements. When Lola came back down to the living room more than ten minutes later, Paula immediately understood exactly what Lola had been doing.

“Are you leaving?” Paula instinctively asked in response to Lola’s change of clothing.

“I’m going out for a little while,” Lola advised as though making a routine departure. “I’ll be back before sunrise.”

Lola was wearing the sleeveless, floral print mini dress and matching open toed wedge sandals with black clutch purse that Mary bought for her.

“Where are you going?” Paula asked with surprise.

“I’m not sure,” Lola answered while looking around for a pencil and paper.

Lola found a pencil and pad of paper next to the telephone. She hurried and wrote her cell phone number on the pad. Then she stripped off the top paper and extended it toward Paula.

“Here’s my cellphone number. If you need me or something happens while I’m gone, call me at this number,” Lola hurriedly advised.

“Okay,” Paula agreed while taking the paper with a look that said she was confused.

After Paula took the paper, she watched with worry as Lola turned away and brazenly left the house. She was not worried that Lola would suffer any serious reprimand from Tony; her hold on his affection was obvious. What worried Paula was that she was alone again.

Paula had spent much of the previous four nights alone, and the only company she received was Charlie. When Paula awakened as a vampire Wednesday night, she found Charlie sitting at her bedside. At first, she was dazed and confused, but her memory soon returned and the attack by Charlie quickly rushed into her memory. Her first clear thought was to run, but her body was too weak to do anything strenuous. She gave up on that thought when it became clear to her that Charlie wanted to help her and not hurt her.

After enduring Charlie’s prolonged apology and extensive plea for forgiveness, Paula allowed him to help her dress to leave and find treatment for her injuries. At the time, she believed he was taking her to a hospital or a doctor. He had repeatedly assured her that he was taking her to get her injuries treated. While she was preparing to leave, she learned from the messages on her cellphone that an entire day had passed. That knowledge caused her to be even more concerned about her injuries, and Charlie’s refusal to let her contact any of her friends or family caused her to think again that he was going to kill her. But Charlie ended that train of thought by declaring his love and devotion to her and by repeating the argument that he could have killed her and dumped her body any time over the past 24 hours.

Now believing that Charlie was trying to help and keep her friends in the dark about what he had done, Paula took his arm and followed his lead. She relaxed in Charlie’s car and closed her eyes to wait for the ride to the hospital to complete. When she found herself at the apartment complex where Charlie lived, Paula’s trepidation returned in full force.

“Babe, I’m not going to hurt you in my apartment,” Charlie quickly argued in his defense. “If I was going to hurt you, I would have done it already. You know that.”

His logic quickly made sense to her, so she gambled on Charlie’s assurance that the cure for her weakened condition was upstairs in his apartment. She followed him into his apartment and discovered a cure that she never would have imagined.

“You’re hungry, babe, that’s all. You just have to eat something to build up your strength.”

That statement was not shocking to Paula, but the food he wanted her to eat was. Paula could not imagine herself eating raw meat. She seldom ate cooked meat. Mentally, she was revulsed by the idea of eating raw flesh, but her sense of smell shortly overruled her resistance. Before she knew what she was doing, Paula found herself devouring four raw steaks. While she fed herself, Charlie explained that she had been turned into a vampire. That information barely registered while she ate, but it quickly gained weight when she finished.

Mentally, Paula fought the idea that she was a vampire, but the evidence kept mounting over the next two hours. She could feel the change within her, and Charlie’s demonstrations of his strength and extreme recuperative capability were extremely convincing. The memory of Charlie’s fangs and the light reflecting off his eyes helped to convince her that she had been turned, but it was their hour-long copulation at the end of his narrative that finalized her belief in what she was.

After their congress, Charlie devoted more than half an hour to convincing Paula that she could not leave the apartment or tell anyone about what she had become. He stressed upon her that she would be jailed just for being what she was and that her jailers would never let her go free. He instilled a fear in her of everyone who was not like them, and he left with the promise of returning the following night.

Charlie kept his promise and returned Thursday night, and Paula kept her promise to say nothing and go nowhere despite her desire for security and comfort from friends and family. Charlie’s late-night visit repeated the routine of food and sex, but on Friday and Saturday nights all she got were calls filled with promises of his return. It was those lonely nights with nothing to do that caused Paula’s fear of being alone. She was convinced that her situation was perilous and that humans would arrest or kill her on sight. It did not help that she did not know what Charlie was doing when he was not there, and her biggest fear was that he might never return.

Lola’s sudden departure renewed Paula’s fear of being alone. She enjoyed the assurance that she felt when someone was around to say everything was okay. Lola’s confidence and presence were comforting to her, but now that she was gone Paula was left with only the sounds of Keegan and Patricia copulating to ensure her that she was not alone. Their distant moans and grunts were weak replacements for someone to talk to, and their silence was far worse.

About forty minutes after Lola left, Paula stopped hearing anything from the bedroom that Keegan and Patricia occupied. Motivated by curiosity, she turned off the television and listened for activity within the room, but her vampire ears detected nothing. The absence of sound heightened her insecurity, and she hurried to the bedroom door to listen from the other side. When she continued to hear nothing from inside the room, she opened the door for a peek. To no surprise to her, and slightly to her relief, she saw Keegan and Patricia naked in bed and sleeping like the dead.

Paula had no doubt that Patricia and Keegan fell asleep from exhaustion, but it was her suspicion that they would sleep through the night and all the next day. The thought of being alone for the fifth night in a row made her angry for the first time. She was uneasy and frightened during the previous nights. Ever since Charlie turned her into a vampire, her life was about nothing but silence and seclusion. That was a 180-degree change from the life she had before. During the past two evenings, she resisted urges to visit a friend or her brother, but this sudden abandonment by her new acquaintances gave that urge a new level of strength. She was also emboldened by Lola’s departure and the stories of how Charlie, Ben and Jeremiah had defied Tony’s orders and went off alone. She soon believed that if others could get away with it, then she could too. Nearly an hour after she looked in on Patricia and Keegan, Paula had sufficiently fortified her nerve with self-talk to leave and visit her brother.