Dave Zeltserman - Blood Crimes Book One

“Thanks for the advice.”

Hayes drained his drink and poured himself another one. He could sense that all of them had moved closer to him.

“You mentioned something about more killings earlier…” Serena started.

It all clicked in place then. With a clarity of thought, Hayes knew what had happened with Jim. He knew why those killings happened, why none of the witnesses remembered seeing Jim’s girlfriend in that theatre.

“Yeah, I did mention something like that,” he said.

“You think my Jim was involved?”

“Yeah, I do.”

“Donald, I am paying you quite a lot of money for your services.”

He nodded. His throat had tightened, and he knew he’d have trouble talking. He tilted his glass and finished off what was left of his second scotch. It helped.

“It looks like he killed two more people today,” he said. “Both members of a local Cleveland drug gang. The Blood Dragons.”

“What an adorable name,” Serena said. “Yes, I do like that name. Any guess why my Jim would do something like that.”

“I have a guess. I think he got in some trouble with them. Maybe he took something of theirs, and maybe they took something of his to get their stuff back.”

More curious than anything else, she asked, “What would they take of his?”

“His girlfriend.”

One of her companions snorted out a loud laugh.

“That reminds me, Donald, you never did fax me that girl’s drawing.”

Hayes nodded, fished a copy of the drawing out from a folder and handed it to Serena. It was purely reflex, he couldn’t help it, but he turned to look at her and found himself staring at Serena’s mouth. He understood why it had looked so big and red before. It had been smeared with blood, so much so that it looked caked on. He then looked from her to the others. Their clothing was bullet-riddled, splotches of blood covered both it and their skin. One of them had a four-leaf clover-like pattern of gunpowder burns in the middle of his forehead. Hayes thought he had smelled gunpowder earlier when he was in the car with them.

“I think I could use another drink,” Hayes said.

“I think you’ve had enough, Donald. I’m afraid I might get a bit tipsy if I allow you to have another.”

All of it made sense then. Those bodies missing all that blood, Serena and her companions splattered with it. Their freakish looks…being able to rip a man’s arm off…tearing another man’s head from its body…It was insane but it all made sense.

Hayes made a move for the door. Serena showed an amazing quickness and stepped in front of him, grabbing both his arms. It was like being held by steel bands. He couldn’t move.

“Donald, I have been very impressed with your work, otherwise I wouldn’t be having you join our little family. I know you may not think so right now, but you should feel quite honored.”

“You must be satiated from before,” one of the others was telling her. “If you’d like I could take care of him. That wouldn’t be too gay, would it?”

She laughed at that. “I don’t think so, but Donald and I have developed a very special bond. He’s been aching for my touch for so long now that it would only be right if I did the honors.”

She looked hard into Hayes’ eye. All he could see were two empty dark holes.

“Please…” he said.

“You’re quite welcome,” she told him.

She picked him up and swung him to the floor, then bent over him. Her lips touched his throat. They were like ice. With some shame he realized he was both terrified and excited. He was unable to move, unable to breath, his heart pounding as he waited. It seemed a long time before she bit his throat, her teeth sinking deep into his flesh. He knew she had severed his jugular. It hurt, but not as much as he would’ve thought. He closed his eyes and waited to die. Death didn’t come, though. Instead it started hurting. Bad. And it only got worse. Like he was on fire. Like he would go out of his mind. The world disappeared on him, leaving him nothing but pain. Before too long he wished he were dead already.

Zach bound Hayes’s wrist and ankles using strips that he had ripped from a spare bed sheet taken from the hotel room’s closet. The PI moaned softly, but mostly lay still on the floor. Zach pulled on the strips and tightened his knot. He stood up, faced Serena and wrinkled his nose as if he smelled bad cheese.

“That sheet is some sort of polyester-cotton blend. We’d be lucky if it were even a hundred thread count.”

“I know, darling.”

Zach’s head pivoted slowly in a half circle as he took in the room, his disgust showing plainly on his face. “Unbelievably tacky,” he said.

“Think of it as roughing it for a night, darling. Like we were camping.”

Zach nodded sullenly. Wilfred had joined him so he could prod Hayes in the back with the toe of his boot. The PI stirred slightly, but not much more than that.

“Do you think that’s going to hold him?” Wilfred asked.

“For a few hours maybe,” Zach said. “But after that I don’t think so. We could use some chains.” He shifted his gaze to Serena. “Is he worth this annoyance? If we got rid of him we could find someplace nice to spend the night. Why stay cooped up in this dump?”

Serena used her index finger to wave Zach closer to her, then placed both hands on his chest. She leaned forward and licked some of the dried blood off his face. The blood was from one of the cops they had massacred earlier and not from any of them so she had no problem digesting it.

“Darling,” she whispered in his ear, “we’ll be fine for the night. And yes, he’s worth it. He is a very clever snoop and could come in handy when we try to find Jim again.”

“We already found him once without his help.”

“I know. But that was luck. Jim knows we’re here now. It’s not going to be so easy the next time.”

“How do we know he hasn’t already taken off? That’s what I would do if I were him.”

“But you’re not him, Zach, darling. Jim wouldn’t do that, at least not without his precious girlfriend. As long as he doesn’t find her over the next twenty-four hours, Mr. Hayes could be very useful to us.” She leaned in closer to Zach and lowered her whisper so that only he could hear her. “And don’t be jealous, my sweetheart. No matter how many I add to our family, you’ll always be my favorite.”

He grunted, tried to maintain his sullen frown, but was obviously pleased with himself. The door to the room opened and the third surviving member of Serena’s group walked in, a duffel bag swung over his shoulder, and his arms loaded with luggage and a cooler. His forehead was still blackened with gunpowder from when Jim had shot him. He set everything down, found a corkscrew by the mini bar, then sat on the couch and tried to pry out a bullet that had lodged between his gum and tooth.

“I thought you were supposed to be some sort of hotshot martial arts sword guy,” Wilfred said to him. “Jim kicked the shit out of you.”

The vampire shrugged, removed the corkscrew from his mouth so he could talk.

“It wasn’t that asshole,” he said. “It was the sun. That’s what kicked the shit out of me. If I get another chance with him after the sun’s down, I’ll cut him to pieces.”

“I only want you cutting off his legs and arms,” Serena warned him. “Jim is not to be killed.”

The vampire nodded dully and went back to digging out the bullet. His body was swaying slightly from side to side-giving the impression that he was on a boat listing in a storm. He still looked woozy from the shots he took to the head.

“So that’s it,” Wilfred said, waving a hand casually at Hayes. “We’re just going to wait here until he wakes up?”