Vampires: The Recent Undead Part 20

Smash. Smash. Smash. Smash. . . .

"Stop," Dad spat. In my peripheral vision I saw him standing there, aiming his reloaded crossbow at me. "I'll kill you, Shane. I swear I will."

"Yeah? Lucky you've already got me tattooed on your chest, then, with the rest of the dead family." I pulled back for the throw.

"I could bring back your mother," Dad blurted. "Maybe even your sister. Don't."

Oh, G.o.d. Sick black swam across my vision for a second.

"You throw that bottle," he whispered, "and you're killing their last chance to live."

I remembered Jerome-his sagging muscles, his grainy skin, the panic and fear in his eyes.

Do you want to be here?

No. Hurts.

I threw the last bottle of Michael's blood and watched it sail straight and true, to shatter in a red spray against the rock.

I thought he'd kill me. Maybe he thought he'd kill me too. I waited, but he didn't pull the trigger.

"I'm fighting for humanity," he said. His last, best argument. It had always won me over before.

I turned and looked him full in the face. "I think you already lost yours."

I walked out past him, and he didn't stop me.

Michael drove like a maniac, raising contrails of caliche dust about a mile high as we sped back to the main highway. He kept asking me how I was doing. I didn't answer him, just looked out at the gorgeous sunset, and the lonely, broken house fading in the distance.

We blasted past the Morganville city limits sign, and one of the ever-lurking police cars cut us off. Michael slowed, stopped, and turned off the engine. A rattle of desert wind shook the car.

"Shane."

"Yeah."

"He's dangerous."

"I know that."

"I can't just let this go. Did you see-"

"I saw," I said. "I know." But he's still my father, some small, frightened kid inside me wailed. He's all I have.

"Then what do you want me to say?" Michael's eyes had faded back to blue, now, but he was still white as a ghost, blue-white, scary-white. I'd spilled all his blood out there on the ground. The burns on his hands and wrists made my stomach clench.

"Tell them the truth," I said. If the Morganville vampires got to my dad before he could get the h.e.l.l out, he'd die horribly, and G.o.d knew, he probably deserved it. "But give him five minutes, Michael. Just five."

Michael stared at me, and l couldn't tell what was in his mind at all. I'd known him most of my life, but in that long moment, he was just as much of a stranger as my father had been.

A uniformed Morganville cop tapped on the driver's side window. Michael rolled it down. The cop hadn't been prepared to find a vampire driving, and I could see him amending the harsh words he'd been about to deliver.

"Going a little fast, sir," he finally said. "Something wrong?"

Michael looked at the burns on his wrists, the bloodless slices on his arms. "Yeah," he said. "I need an ambulance."

And then he slumped forward, over the steering wheel. The cop let out a squawk of alarm and got on his radio. I reached out to ease Michael back. His eyes were shut, but as I stared at him, he murmured, "You wanted five minutes."

"I wasn't looking for a Best Supporting Actor award!" I muttered back.

Michael did his best impression of Vampire in a Coma for about five minutes, and then came to and a.s.sured the cop and arriving ambulance attendants he was okay.

Then he told them about my dad.

They found Jerome, still and evermore dead, with a silver-tipped arrow through his head. They found a copy of The Wizard of Oz next to him.

There was no sign of Frank Collins.

Later that night-around midnight-Michael and I sat outside on the steps of our house. I had a bottle of most illegal beer; he was guzzling his sixth bottle of blood, which I pretended not to notice. He had his arm around Eve, who had been pelting us both with questions all night in a nonstop machine gun patter; she'd finally run down, and leaned against Michael with sleepy contentment.

Well, she hadn't quite run down. "Hey," she said, and looked up at Michael with big, dark-rimmed eyes. "Seriously. You can bring back dead guys with vampire juice? That is so wrong."

Michael almost spit out the blood he was swallowing. "Vampire juice? d.a.m.n, Eve. Thanks for your concern."

She lost her smile. "If I didn't laugh, I'd scream."

He hugged her. "I know. But it's over."

Next to me, Claire had been quiet all night. She wasn't drinking-not that we'd have let her, at sixteen-and she wasn't saying much, either. She also wasn't looking at me. She was staring out at the Morganville night.

"He's coming back," she finally said. "Your dad's not going to give it up, is he?"

I exchanged a look with Michael. "No," I said. "Probably not. But it'll be a while before he gets his act together again. He expected to have me to help him kick off his war, and like he said, his time was running out. He'll need a brand-new plan."

Claire sighed and linked her arm through mine. "He'll find one."

"He'll have to do it without me." I kissed the soft, warm top of her hair.

"I'm glad," she said. "You deserve better."

"News flash," I said. "I've got better. Right here."

Michael and I clinked gla.s.ses, and toasted our survival.

However long it lasted.

The Ghost of Leadville.

Jeanne C. Stein.

Jeanne Stein is the best-selling author of the urban fantasy series, The Anna Strong Chronicles, but "The Ghost of Leadville" is a different sort of fantasy. Set primarily in the past it features a historical character-Doc Holliday-who was a legend in his own lifetime and later became part of a larger mythology. You don't have to be a vampire to achieve a form of immortality.

Stein lives in Denver (which isn't far from Leadville) where she is active in the writing community, belonging to Sisters in Crime, Romance Writers of America, and Rocky Mountain Fiction Writers. In 2008 she was named RMFW's Writer of the Year and last year, her character, Anna Strong, received a Romantic Times Reviewers Choice Award for Best Urban Fantasy Protagonist. The sixth in the Anna Strong series, Chosen, was released in August 2010. She has numerous short story credits, as well. She is also one of the editors of RMFW's award-winning anthology, Broken Links, Mended Lives.

My name is Rose Sullivan. Although I've been on the earth for two hundred years, I was turned on my twenty-fifty birthday. I am eternally frozen in the physical form of a twenty-five year old. Blond hair, blue eyes, five feet two inches tall, one hundred pounds. I am small in stature which means men sometimes make the mistake of thinking a childish mind resides in this rather childish body. They only make the mistake once. I am preternaturally strong, as are all vampires, and have no tolerance toward those who try to intimidate me-or others. If I see an injustice, it is in my nature to correct it.

It isn't always easy being vampire. There are rules to be followed. Most humans are unaware of our existence. Just as they are unaware of other supernatural beings living amongst them. It has to be. The great secret must be preserved. Humanity has shown how it reacts to that which it does not understand. Destroy first. Ask questions later.

And so I have survived as a vampire for two hundred years. Living in big cities, mostly. Able to last as long as forty years in one guise-the latest a museum curator in New York. My specialty was early Americana. Convenient since I was born to missionary parents in the American west in 1809.

But one can only do so much to disguise a face and body that do not age. It becomes apparent when all those around you take note of your "youthful" appearance that is time to move on. A hasty resignation because of "family problems," a quick transfer of funds to whatever new ident.i.ty I've adopted and a brief goodbye to the human hosts who have provided me sustenance during my stay. They, the few who are guardians of the secret, do not question. They are used to the plight of the vampire. They know to take the money and pleasure offered in return for blood and form no attachment. It has always been so.

And so I shed the skin of the old persona and adapt a new one in Leadville, Colorado in the year 2009.

I've decided this time around to eschew bright lights and settle into a quiet existence in a quiet little town. I've also decided to write a book. Why not? Look at a current bestseller list. The one hot topic on all the charts is vampire romance. Who is in a better position to write about vampire romance than a female vampire who has certainly experienced her share of romance? And besides, it's a chance to set the record straight, albeit under the ruse of fiction, about many things having to do with living a modern vampire life. It's not all bad. Not by a long shot.

There is another reason I chose to make this incarnation that of a writer. It's a solitary existence. I've had my fill of city life and being forced to live among people. The smells, the noises, the desperation of a population trying to cram all of life into a few decades burdens the spirit of a vampire. I'm ready for a change.

I bought a nicely restored Victorian on the edge of Leadville. I stumbled on the place last year while on a research trip, visiting early mining sites in preparation for a museum exhibit. Leadville nestles in a fold of the Rocky Mountains, hidden, protected. At the height of the gold rush, fifty thousand called this place home. Now there are barely two thousand people living here. The climate is harsh, the most often heard comment is that Leadville has two seasons-this winter and last winter. But temperature is irrelevant to a vampire. And Leadville's one lasting claim to fame is an opera house, built to entertain the miners during the long winter. It has been restored and opens its door to the public in the summer when a flock of faithful opera fans make the trek up from Denver to enjoy the old building's perfect acoustics. It is a gentle reminder of a gentler time. I fell in love with it at first sight.

And so I find myself comfortably ensconced on my living room couch, laptop computer open, finger poised over the keys to begin this novelist's journey. My eyes, however, keep drifting upwards, through the window at the other side of the room, drawn to the mountains rising like stark, grey monoliths against a cloudless November sky.

A familiar landscape.

Truth be told, this is not the first time I've lived in Leadville.

Memories flood back.

No, I lived here once before.

Leadville, 1884 Hyman's Saloon "Rose. Come on over here, gal. I have someone for you to meet."

I look up. Sunny Tom's face is wreathed in a grin, his dozen gold teeth flashing in the bar light like fireflies on a summer night.

Are you sure? I ask him. I've been keeping an eye on the poker table. Miners flush with gold dollars and full to the brim with whiskey are normally good for business. But when the cards turn against them, the whiskey takes over. Bullets are never good for business and at this moment, both the whiskey and the cards are turning against one youngster new to both. I raise an eyebrow at Tom. This could turn ugly.

He shrugs. He pay for his drinks?

A nod.

Then f.u.c.k him. This is more important.

My gaze sweeps over the slight figure of a man standing beside him. Sunny Tom is six feet tall, two hundred pounds. The stranger with him is maybe five foot ten, one hundred forty pounds. He's dressed like a dandy, striped pants, white shirt, cravat with a diamond stickpin that winks at me as I approach. He has a hat in his hand and a big Colt revolver on his hip.

He watches me with a predator's eye. He's even-featured with a square chin, light brown hair, full mustache. Not bad looking. Must be a big spender if Tom is sending him to me.

I tilt my head, taste the air around him. He's sick. Consumption. It hovers about him in a bilious cloud.

I hold out my hand. "Rose."

He takes it, brings it to his lips. "John Holliday, ma'am. Pleased to meet you."

Sunny Tom probes my head, waiting for the connection to be made. I lift a shoulder in a half-shrug which prompts an exasperated, John Holliday? You don't know the name? How about Doc Holliday? That ring any bells?

Tom turns his smile back on Doc Holliday. "I will leave you in Rose's most capable hands. Have a very good evening."

He saunters away to take my place near the poker table, winking as he pa.s.ses. Have fun.

With a consumptive? Tom is past before I can skewer him with a properly caustic reply.

He runs the saloon, I run the girls who work it. There are only two people who know the truth of our relationship. Sunny Tom and me. We are both vampires. Running a bar that specializes in wh.o.r.es and whiskey keeps us both in what we need. Human blood.

He's set me up tonight with a consumptive. It's not the illness I resent. Vampires are impervious to human disease. It's the taste of the blood.

My shoulders bunch a little at the prospect but I put on a sweet smile and take my place beside Doc at the bar. He half turns toward me and the diamond at his neck catches and reflects the light in a rainbow burst. I reach up and touch it with the tip of a finger. "Nice bauble, Mr. Holliday."

His smile is tinged with bitterness and regret. "A gift from my mother before she died. Unfortunately not the only thing she left me." He is looking down the bar and with a flick of a finger, summons the barkeep.

Holliday orders whiskey for himself, turns to me. "What will you have?"

"Gin." I tap a finger on the bar. Sam has worked for us for twenty years and he interprets my order with a nod and a grin.

He turns his back on us and pours.

I touch Holliday's hand. "What brings such a famous person to Leadville?"

"I guess you could say my mother." This time there's no mistaking the irony heavy in his tone.

He reads the question in my eyes. He shakes his head, but the hard lines of his mouth soften. "The climate. I've been told it is better for one who suffers with consumption to live in a dry climate."

An honest answer. My eyebrows lift in surprise. It is only in the last few years that consumption has been found to be infectious. Yet he says it openly. Maybe because I am only a wh.o.r.e, bought and paid for, and the answer is of no consequence. The health of his wallet is all I should be interested in.

The bartender places our drinks in front of us. Holliday takes a long pull, draining the gla.s.s, orders another. I sip at my drink. It's only water. I learned long ago to keep a clear head when working. Alcohol goes directly into a vampire's system and we are as susceptible to its effects as humans. It took an unexpected and unprovoked attack from a drunken miner to teach me that lesson. Vampires are not easily killed, but we feel pain. I bore the marks of that attack for two days. The miner suffered the consequences for a much briefer period. He was dead in two minutes.

I watch Holliday surrept.i.tiously, over the rim of my gla.s.s. Standing this close to him, his reputation as a cold-blooded killer seems exaggerated. His speech is soft, his inflection subtle. He is neither loud nor imposing.

Not an indication that he doesn't like his s.e.x rough, I remind myself. The mildest mannered men are often the ones who find it satisfying to take their frustrations out on a female.

"So, Rose." Holliday dabs at his mouth with a finger. "What do you do for excitement in Leadville?"

"The gaming tables here, of course," I reply with a smile. "And Horace Tabor opened his opera house just last week. Emma Abbott is performing. Her voice is wonderful. If you're planning to stay for awhile, you really should catch a performance."

He nods and signals for another drink. "Perhaps I will." He looks toward the tables. "Business appears to be good."