Chapter 29: Keegan and Patricia

It was after 4am Monday morning when the cutting, bagging and tagging was completed at the stash house. Eight women wearing nothing but hospital gowns and slippers, worked through most of the night to package Tony’s cocaine for sell to his dealers. Charlie, Ben and Malcolm stood guard over the building through the night. Mickey Nevers supervised the girls, and Jeremiah managed the operation. Tony stood back and supervised everyone.

When the packaging was done, the eight women redressed in the clothes they arrived in and were paid for their work. They were then led up the basement stairs and into the storage room. They were not allowed to go into any other part of the building to keep them from knowing where they were. They were then led into the back of an unmarked six-wheel delivery van that was situated flush against the loading dock door. They had arrived at the stash house under the same circumstance. The only thing they knew about where they were is that it took them three quarters of an hour to get there from their original starting point.

“I’m leaving,” Jeremiah announced moments before Mickey drove off with the eight women.

“The sun will be up in half an hour,” Tony warned. “Besides, I need you here to help with the selling,” he added in a stern voice.

“You don’t need me for that,” Jeremiah grumbled as he continued to prepare to leave. “I’m out of here.”

“Damn you, Jerry,” Tony yelled at his old friend. “Get your brain out of your dick. The sun is coming up, and we’re not threw here.”

“Hey, I did my part,” Jeremiah roared back at Tony with a furious stare. “You don’t need me for this, Tony. I’m leaving.”

Tony’s first thought was to chastise his old friend for speaking to him in that manner, but a second thought convinced him not to. He quickly assessed that it was his mood pushing toward a confrontation with Jeremiah and not this event. He had also come to the realization that confronting his fellow vampires might be a bad thing to do. The past three days taught him that he was in a new relationship with his criminal associates. He began to see signs that they no longer felt a need to be obsequious to him now that they were vampires.

“Damn you, Jerry,” Tony called out in frustration. “She’s not going anywhere.”

Jeremiah ignored Tony’s admonishment and stormed out of the stash house. Twenty minutes later he was parking his car in the driveway of his house. The glow of the morning sky was just making its presence visible over the eastern horizon when Jeremiah raced through the front entrance of his home. As soon as he entered the house, Jeremiah began hearing Patricia and Keegan’s voices and laughter coming from the kitchen, and he hurried toward it.

“What’s going on,” Jeremiah challenged after stopping just inside the kitchen entrance.

The sight of Patricia and Keegan barefoot and minimally dressed sent Jeremiah into an immediate rage. It took him no time to surmise what they had been doing while he was gone. The thought of killing Keegan immediately popped into Jeremiah’s head, but the fear of being killed by him stopped him from acting on that impulse.

“Oh, it’s you,” Patricia mumbled while holding a half-eaten raw steak in her hand.

Patricia was seated at the kitchen table wearing nothing more than a blouse and panties. Keegan was seated at a right angle from Patricia wearing nothing more than pants a. He was munching on a portion of the raw steak that was in his hands. It was clear to Jeremiah by what he was seeing and hearing that the two of them were in a cheerful disposition.

“We’re eating,” Keegan reported with a smile after swallowing what he had in his mouth. “How did everything go with the coke?”

Jeremiah had no answer to Keegan’s question. He was too busy fuming over what he was looking at. Keegan’s usual cheerful manner heightened Jeremiah’s anger in that moment. In Jeremiah’s mind, Keegan’s dismissive good humor was trivializing something that was infuriating to him. After a couple of seconds of thought, he decided against ripping out Keegan’s throat for the effrontery of treating the situation as if it was no big deal.

“What do you want?” Patricia snidely asked with a disapproving scowl.

“I want to talk to you,” Jeremiah returned after a pause to consider his words.

“Well, that’s too bad, because I don’t want to talk to you,” Patricia responded with a mixture of disbelief and incredulity.

Jeremiah quickly decided that it was better not to provoke an angry confrontation with Patricia. His thinking was that hostility might slow the effect of their pheromone connection or produce the wrong outcome. He did not want Patricia’s anger to induce him to anger and disrupt his arousal.

“I’m trying to apologize,” Jeremiah spoke without emotion.

“Apologize for what—stuffing me into the trunk of your car and sucking the life out of me or chaining me to a pole in your basement and leaving me there to starve?” Patricia vehemently challenged.

“You should be flattered I did those things,” Jeremiah said with a polite insistence as he took a seat across from Patricia. “I did them for you. I could have chosen anyone, but I chose you. Didn’t you ever wonder why I always sat in your section at the diner and why I always left large tips?”

“I know why,” Patricia quickly rifled back. “Because you’re a creep. You think I didn’t see you following me around the diner with your eyes,” she continued with her face contorted in a look of disgust. “Do you know how many creeps who come into the diner every week—and leave large tips? Hell—those tips were the only reasons why I put up with you,” she spat.

Jeremiah was surprised by the exchange he was getting from Patricia. In the past, she could not endure being close to him for any amount of time without exhibiting signs of stimulation because of their connection. He knew that her reaction to him was a result of his sexual arousal. He could feel her response across the pheromones she emitted. Just being near her during those moments made him feel like he had just ingested a mega-powerful, chemical aphrodisiac. When they were in the car together, he was perpetually fighting his desire to stop the vehicle, climb over the front seat and have his way with her. He knew she was feeling him because of the soft moans and groans he heard coming from her. What had Jeremiah startled at that moment was the absence of that chemically induced aphrodisiac feeling he was used to experiencing when he was near her. And what alarmed him even more was that she obviously was not experiencing anything from him now. A panic quickly swelled up in Jeremiah. He knew something was wrong. Something had happened, and he suspected that Keegan was the cause. He briefly glared at Keegan before speaking again.

“You should be thanking me,” Jeremiah growled at Patricia.

The petite newborn immortal responded with a snarl while hunching forward with both hands on the table. Patricia’s canines and fingernails became more pronounced fangs and claws, and her eyes started reflecting light. An instant behind Patricia’s reaction, Keegan also rose to an angry posture but less physically so. He froze in place with his glare directed at Jeremiah.

“I made you,” Jeremiah continued screaming with rage while ignoring Keegan. “I gave you a gift. I made you immortal.”

“You need to get the fuck out of my face,” Patricia loudly grumbled.

“You belong to me,” Jeremiah yelled while slapping his hands down on the table.

“Get this through your stupid head, asshole,” Patricia belligerently yelled while getting up onto her legs and leaning over the table. “I am not your mate.”

“Bitch!” Jeremiah roared while reaching out toward Patricia with his right hand.

An instant before Jeremiah’s hand was about to grasp Patricia by the neck, Keegan reached out with his left hand and snatched it away. Within that same instant, the 6’4” Keegan grabbed the 5’8” Jeremiah by the top of his shirt and pulled him out of his chair as he stood up himself. He then pulled Jeremiah in close to his face. Keegan’s eyes looked as if they were glowing as he and Jeremiah glared at each other with rage, but neither had expressions that matched Patricia’s intensity. Her fangs were in full display as she hissed at Jeremiah. She stood motionless with one knee up on the table as though she was ready to climb over it.

“Back off, Jerry, before you start something you won’t live long enough to regret,” Keegan warned with a grumble in his tone.

Keegan pushed Jeremiah back and glared at him with his claws out ready for a fight. Jeremiah matched Keegan’s in ferocity; he was ready for battle and wanted Keegan dead, but he suppressed his instinct for any direct action against the large vampire in front of him. He held Keegan’s stare for several seconds, then he relaxed his posture and looked away. When Jeremiah turned away, Keegan took a deep breath, relaxed his guard and started back to his seat at the table. It was at that moment, Jeremiah’s blind rage erupted.

Jeremiah spun about and leaped up onto Keegan’s back while digging his claws into Keegan’s face. An instant after the initial attack, Jeremiah sunk his teeth into the back of Keegan’s neck. Blood was seeping out from wounds all about Keegan’s head and face. In response, Keegan reached back over his shoulder and attempted to rip Jeremiah from off his back while spinning about. The growls of the two vampires reverberated throughout the house and beyond. In a little more than a second after the battle started, Patricia jumped off the table with claws and fangs bared for battle. She landed atop Jeremiah’s back with both her hands and arms wrapped around his head. Jeremiah began spinning about to dislodge the small vampire on his back while maintaining his hold on Keegan. The last thing he wanted to do was free the large male vampire to turn face on towards him.

As Jeremiah, Keegan and Patricia bumped around in the kitchen, disrupting furniture while knocking kitchen accouterments to the floor, they screamed out profanities at the top of their voices. Several seconds into the tussle, Patricia pulled Jeremiah’s head back from Keegan’s neck and continued to pull unto his grip on Keegan began slipping away. A second later, Keegan pulled free from Jeremiah’s hold to his head, spun around and took Jeremiah by the arms. With her knees braced against Jeremiah’s back, Patricia continued pulling and twisting Jeremiah’s head back, and without his hands free, he could not pull Patricia off him. In his desperation to get the petite vampire off him, Jeremiah tried to go down to the floor on his back while pulling Keegan with him. His hope was to free his head and his arms while tussling along the floor, but that did not happen. Keegan braced his right foot against Jeremiah’s abdomen while simultaneously pushing with his leg and pulling with his arms. That act prevented Jeremiah from going down any further than his knees.

With Jeremiah on his knees, Patricia was suddenly able to brace her feet against the floor, allowing her to intensify the stress she was applying to Jeremiah’s neck. Within seconds, Jeremiah began to yell in response to Patricia’s efforts to wrench his head free from his body. Several seconds more, and the sounds of bones cracking inside of Jeremiah’s neck could be heard. Instantly, Jeremiah’s resistance fell away as though someone had flipped an on/off switch. A moment later, Patricia ripped Jeremiah’s head away from his torso and Keegan tore his arms from his sockets. Patricia and Keegan were sprayed with a sudden gush of blood that ended when Jeremiah’s torso fell to the floor.

For a few seconds Keegan and Patricia stood in stunned silence over Jeremiah’s torso with three of his extremities in their hands. They could do nothing but stare at each other in amazement as their minds tried to process what they had just done. With their adrenaline still pumping and the excitement of the moment still fresh, their ardor roared into a pressure dome of lust. Instantly, the dome burst, and they dropped the body parts they held and raced into each other’s arms in an enthusiastic frenzy of kissing and groping. They began to undo what clothing they were wearing. Keegan unfastened his belt and pants as Patricia pulled her blouse off over her head. As soon as Keegan’s pants and underwear were down around his ankles, he picked Patricia up and deposited her on the table where he stripped away her panties. He was an instant away from coupling with her when a voice screamed at them from the kitchen entrance, bringing them to a screeching halt.

“What the fuck did you do?”

Lola’s appearance at the kitchen entrance surprised Keegan and Patricia. Their fixation on their fight with Jeremiah caused them to miss the sound of the doorbell and the door crashing open. When the fight was over, their driving lust for each other caused them to miss Lola’s movements in the house. For a moment, Patricia and Keegan went motionless and looked at Lola like a pair of deer frozen in a car’s headlights.

“Ah, we had a disagreement,” Keegan clumsily reported while pulling up his pants.

While Keegan fumbled out his reply, Patricia went after her blouse and slipped it on over her head.

“You killed him,” Lola exclaimed as she stared at Jeremiah’s remains on the floor.

“He started it,” Patricia defensively asserted while searching for her panties.

“Do you know who he is?” Lola challenged with an intonation of shock.

“He’s a creep,” Patricia furiously answered with panties in hand.

“That creep is Tony’s best friend,” Lola countered as if she had announced something amazing.

“Hey, he attacked us,” Keegan accused. “We we’re minding our own business when Jerry came in huffing and puffing and making crazy demands. He attacked me,” he shouted with a point at the bite marks on his neck. “Look at what he did.”

The scars that Keegan indicated were nearly healed by this time, but there was still blood and pink abrasions to be seen.

“Uh huh,” Patricia eagerly supported. “And he was spoiling for a fight.”

“Do you really think Tony is going to care about any of that?” Lola questioned. “Tony and Jeremiah have been together since high school. They’re like brothers. He’s not going to just forgive and forget.”

“Then we’ll kill Tony too,” Patricia growled in defiance.

“Yeah!” Keegan yelled in support of Patricia. “I’m not afraid of Tony.”

Lola was taken aback by Keegan’s immediate and unreserved shoulder-to-shoulder stance with Patricia. She barely knew Keegan, but she did know Tony. It made no sense to Lola for Keegan to be so supportive of a young waitress that he had just met and who was being openly hostile to Tony. Lola could not imagine Tony employing an associate capable of that degree of disloyalty to him. Those thoughts rolled around in her mind for a moment, and then she moved on to a new thought.

“Where’s Paula,” Lola suddenly asked.

“I don’t know,” Keegan answered with a shrug. “We thought she was with you.”

“No,” Lola strongly countered. “I left her here.”

“Well, she’s not in the house,” Patricia nonchalantly returned with her hands on her hips.

Lola paused to consider the situation at the house. She did not know where Tony was or when he would return, and she had no idea where Paula was or what she was doing. Her fear at that moment was that doing nothing might endanger her. Based upon her conversation with Paula, Lola knew she had some worries about being a vampire. The sun was already over the horizon, and Lola’s speculation was that as time went on, the likelihood of Paula’s returning while the sun was up grew smaller. Lola found it hard to believe that Paula’s absence was an accident. She began to worry about Paula and what she was doing. Lola was deep in thought when her cellphone rang.

“Where were you?” Lola bellowed into her cellphone after hearing Mary’s voice.

“I was starving,” Mary answered in a voice laced with dread. “So, I tried walking to the mart up the street,” she began to artlessly lie.

“During the day—you went out in the sunlight?” Lola interrupted with an inflection of shock.

“Yeah,” Mary said defensively. “It’s only a couple of blocks away, and I didn’t know it would be that big a deal.”

“What happened?” Lola gruffly asked as though she was anxious to hear the punchline.

“I couldn’t make it. I thought I was going to collapse on the sidewalk,” Mary hesitantly delivered her feebly concocted story. “And then a bus came by, and I got on it, and I fell asleep.”

“You went to sleep on a city bus?” Lola asked with incredulity.

“Yeah, I was tired—I was so tired, but I didn’t sleep long. It wasn’t a deep sleep. I just needed to rest, and to get out from under the sun,” Mary struggled to explain.

“Okay, then why didn’t you come home?” Lola challenged.

“Somebody stole my purse,” Mary somberly answered after a pause. “When I got off the bus, I was miles away from home and it was the middle of the day.”

For several seconds there was nothing but silence. Then Lola concluded that Mary was waiting for some comment from her.

“Then what?” Lola challenged with a dubious inflection.

“I spent the day in the waiting room of the Brooklyn Hospital Center, and then I walked home,” Mary reported in a depressed voice.

Once again there was a prolonged silence. Lola knew that Mary was waiting for a response from her, but she was not sure what to say. Lola felt that Mary’s story was too convoluted. The details of it explained why she was nowhere to be found and could not be called for the past 24 hours, but it all sounded questionable.

“Mary, are you shitting me?” Lola accused with disbelief.

“No, that’s what happen,” Mary insisted in a pleading voice.

“Why didn’t you call me or anybody to come and get you?” Lola questioned in an argumentative tone.

“I didn’t have my cellphone,” Mary sharply defended. “I left it in the house by accident. Besides, nobody memorizes phone numbers anymore. It’s all data stored on a chip in our smartphones,” she finished with decisiveness.

Lola continued to think that Mary’s explanation for her absence was overly involved, but the excuse about her cellphone was a match for what she saw in her house. It made no sense to Lola for Mary to intentionally leave her cellphone in the house. After a moment of consideration, Lola decided it was a waste of time to think about it anymore.

“Okay, you’re at home now, right?” Lola queried in a hurry.

“Yes,” Lola confirmed without hesitation.

“Good. Stay there,” Lola responded. “We’re coming over.”

Mary agreed without question. She suspected that the we Lola was speaking of was Tony and/or Jeremiah. She had no reason to dispute their decision to come to her home, and she knew better than to challenge it.

Lola disconnected the call after giving Mary the instruction to stay where she was. Lola then turned her attention back to Keegan and Patricia.

“We need to get out of here,” Lola advised with a look toward Keegan and Patricia. “Now.”

“Why,” Keegan asked with a confused look.

“I don’t know where Paula is. I don’t know who she’s talking to or what she’s saying. And when Tony gets here, he’s going to want both of your heads,” Lola explained in rapid succession.

“Let him try,” Patricia truculently asserted.

“Hey, that’s between you and Tony,” Lola returned while flagging her hands in a manner that said she did not want to play a part that dispute. “But if the police show up at the door, I prefer not to be in here with him on the kitchen floor,” she continued to explain while pointing at Jeremiah’s remains. “And I don’t want you here because you know too much.”

Lola’s big worry now was Paula. She recalled her conversation with Paula and how she was concerned about the biblical implications of what they had become. It was dawning on Lola now that Paula might be exposing them to the police. Keegan and Patricia noticed her concern about Paula from Lola’s words.

“So, are you coming?” Lola impatiently asked Keegan and Patricia.

“Okay, we’re coming,” Keegan agreed with a shrug of resignation.

“Good,” Lola testily returned. “We’ll take his car,” she directed with a point to Jeremiah’s dead body. “Get his car key.”

Keegan quickly went over to Jeremiah and fished a ring of keys out of Jeremiah’s pants pocket. After removing the car key off the ring, Keegan dropped the dozen or more remaining keys on the floor beside Jeremiah’s body. Then he collected his personal belongings, got into Jeremiah’s car and drove off for Mary’s house with Lola in the front passenger seat and Patricia in the back.