Somebody in Boots

[dirtywhiteboy]

Years ago, Ruben had wondered how long it would take for the sun to burn him into ashes. It had been a random notion, one he hadn't seriously entertained, but he thought of that time every now and then. For a man who couldn't see himself in a mirror, he was strangely reflective.

It was three a.m. The bars had announced last call an hour ago. Even in Las Vegas, some laws still held. If you wanted to drink after two in the morning, you had to go home or somewhere else.

He was stepping over the legs of the dead man in the alley, heading towards the sidewalk. He'd learned to eat quietly. Someone would probably find the body eventually, most likely an unlucky garbageman. Nevada was warming up, careening towards summer.

There was a pale moon trying to shine down through the light pollution, and Ruben turned his face up towards it. The moon was cold, remote, but it was also kind. It wouldn't burn him.

Comments

[dori_bell]

“I don’t mind.” The sweater she wore was old, threadbare at the elbows, and the skirt wasn’t a favorite. Worse things than blood drops had been washed from her garments over the years, stains and scents her legal mother hadn’t wanted to know about. “You could let me help. I’m good at being bait.”

She led the way into the open and a taxi drove past them, lifting her skirt and hair in its breeze. “But if you want to do it yourself, I’ll watch. I’m good at watching, too.” An insect from a nearby street lamp landed on her sleeve and flitted up to her neck. Dori caught it in her palm and the wings stopped beating.

[dirtywhiteboy]

The vampire made an amused noise, cracked the knuckles of his left hand one at the time. "If'n ya want, I can act like I'm tryin' to get you," he said amiably. "There's always some Christless fool that wants to play hero, 'specially when there's a pretty girl around."

He rubbed a spot above his eye with his thumb, looked ahead of them with his preternaturally sharp vision. Because he was so skinny, he could fool people too. His victims ranged in size from big and fat to the fast runners. The big ones cried more when they realized it was over, but the quick ones took some work to catch. Decisions, decisions...

A cab slowed half a block up, and the rear door swung open. Ruben breathed in oxygen he had no use for. His chest expanded. The passenger alighted on the sidewalk, short and chunky. He was carrying a duffel bag. The vampire let the breath out. His hand touched Dorothy's small shoulder as the taxi rounded the nearest corner and disappeared.

"Count to three," he told the girl. "Then scream and start runnin'."

[dori_bell]

Dori smiled at him.

Then she began to walk, employing the fast and stiff-legged gate of a girl who had finally figured out that something was not right and she could be in trouble. Tightly she squeezed her upper arms and cast worried glances over her shoulder at the Bad Man. Then she broke into a run, her breath coming in sharp bursts. “Help me,” the cry quiet and uncertain at first. She tore past the man with the duffel bag and made a ‘wrong turn’ into a secondary street. “Help me!” This time louder. There was a skidding sound of shoes on asphalt as she realized she’d come upon a dead end.

When she turned around to face the Bad Man, her eyes shone with fat, wobbling tears. Real tears.

[dirtywhiteboy]

He cut his speed in half when he went after her, putting on his drunk act, and Duffel Bag shouted "Hey!" when Dorothy called for help a second time. The vampire put a little more speed into it, bumped the human's shoulder as he ran past. Something heavy struck him in the small of the back, and it knocked him just a off-balance. What the hell was in that bag, bricks?

The would-be rescuer came hurtling at him, and fingers skated down the back of Ruben's coat, looking for purchase. They moved into the shadows, the light from the streetlamp failing to cut through the dimness. The mortal grabbed his coat collar, tried yanking him back.

They were out of sight now. Ruben let his face shift, fangs springing to the forefront as his brow ridged. He wondered if Dorothy had ever seen that up close either.

[dori_bell]

The girl’s hands fluttered at her mouth. “Oh!” She watched Ruben get yanked backward, her narrow shoulders heaving as the vampire’s assailant kept engaging, with no idea of the mess he’d gotten himself into – yet. All because he’d been a bystander who wanted to save her.

Would Ruben show off? Make the incident last longer than necessary? She had no taste for torture or bludgeoning. The pleasure was in the death throes. “Quick..quickly!” she whispered, eager to watch, with a furtive look past them to make sure no one had seen. She dared a step closer. Not too close – she didn’t want to be punched in the face. She bruised like a soft fruit.

[dirtywhiteboy]

"Suffer the little children to come unto me."

The words were distorted because of the fangs, and Ruben yanked free of the human's grip, then spun on one boot. In the dimness of the dead-end street, it was difficult to see, but his eyes were lit from within by something unnatural. Something inhuman. Duffel Bag screamed, tried to backpedal.

Too late.

The vampire knocked him down, slamming the stocky body against the concrete. He could be perfectly brutal when he felt like it, make it last, but now was not the time for games. Dorothy had said she'd wanted to watch, and by God, he was going to let her watch.

It didn't last long, not once he'd battened on. Once Ruben heard the heart stutter to a halt, he drank another sluggish few mouthfuls, then released the bite. His belly felt overly full.

He toed the body, studying t. They never looked like much afterwards. He wondered if God would take this one, or if the devil had dibs.

[dori_bell]

Dori had stayed out of the way during the scuffle, but now she came around the length of the body. She lowered herself into a crouch near the man’s head. His eyes were open still and so she leaned closer, dirtying her knees on the pavement, all the way until she was nose to nose with the corpse and its fading warmth. The ends of her hair stuck to his neck wound.

Life faded. Impulses stopped firing in the brain. Muscles slackened. In the air around her, Dori imagined that she felt the man’s spirit tethered to the body like a balloon on a string that had not yet been cut.

She raised her eyes to Ruben.

“After I’ve taken a life I feel different.” If he were to see it, Ruben might notice a slight pink in the girl’s cheeks, a new vibrancy in her eyes. Her excitement lent some of that now. She sat up straight. Her hair was stained red at the tips. “Do you feel him inside you at all? His life, I mean, or is it just his blood?”

[dirtywhiteboy]

"Blood is life, Dorothy. It tethers what's within, keeps it from flyin' away. The soul's the shiny prize, but without the red stuff that flows from the heart, that sparkle fades in a hurry."

Ruben was studying the girl now, having already lost interest in the corpse. He thought he heard his stomach contents slosh when he stepped towards her, but that might have been an illusion. He crouched down close to her, his features shifting back to normal. His eyes were bright, like an overly curious bird.

"What are you?"

[dori_bell]

“I thought you knew.”

He had given her something to think about – blood being life, an interesting perspective since she usually took it without spilling the stuff. If blood was life, so were cells, energy, breath.

The girl ran her fingers through her hair until she reached the damp, sticky ends. Dori sucked on the fine strands until they looked clean. It tasted like a penny.

“Death.”