David and Emily took Anna home, which thrilled her since it meant she did not have to stay a week in a motel and eat out every meal, and especially since it allowed her to watch the bowl games she was otherwise missing.  Emily shook her head and wondered what it was about football that could be so mind numbing.  Dad enjoyed the company, especially when they rooted for opposite teams.  Mother certainly had no interest in football, but she did not mind giving up the kitchen one evening so Anna could cook a Chinese feast.

“Better than take out,” Tyler praised.

Anna and Emily were called out on several occasions, and David drove.  Emily brought her sword.  Anna carried her case with her spear in two pieces.  David had an army knife, but he mostly stood back and watched in awe, especially when Anna and Emily devastated a colony of five.  The vampires had taken refuge in the basement of a neighbor’s house since the neighbor was in Europe over Christmas.  They imagined they were safe, but as Anna said, they were still too close to home.

“The hard part is the children,” Lieutenant Anthony admitted, but he was getting his squad into shape and even Marion did not hesitate to behead a six-year-old that looked at her with puppy-dog eyes.  “Like night of the living dead,” the Lieutenant concluded.

It was New Year’s Eve and Anna was thinking that things were well enough along she could afford to return to her antique shop and Emily could afford to return to school.  “He has my number and yours if we are needed,” Anna said.

“I understand,” Emily agreed, but she was still concerned and her face showed it.  Thus far, Brad, Duncan and Hoover had not been found.  She feared as long as they were at large, this epidemic would never be cured.  She spent one whole day on the phone talking to people who had been even remotely friends with one of the trio, but none of them could give her a lead on their whereabouts.  Emily imagined they had some secret hideout where they met after school or over the holidays and summer vacation.  She guessed they were now using that place as a home base.  She assumed it had to be somewhere near one or more of their houses, or near the school, but her searches thus far had proved fruitless.

“Don’t worry,” Anna assured her.  “They will be found.”

“You know, I never liked Brad,” David admitted.

“Me neither,” Emily said.  “But it took me a while to figure that out.  Excuse me.”  She stepped outside to the front porch.  She wanted to call Pierce and wish him a happy New Year.  She sat on the porch swing.  She focused on her phone.  She never imagined that Brad and his companions would attack her house.

Emily ducked, but the rock grazed her shoulder.  As she scrambled for the front door, the three vampires moved to cut her off.  “Help!” she yelled, but doubted she was heard over the touchdown.  She did then what she had never done in her life.  She screamed.

Brad, Duncan and Hoover all paused at the scream, like their brains were trying to interpret the sound.  Then Brad spoke, but it was not Brad.  “Time for that beating we promised,” he said, and the three jumped her and dragged her down.

Emily fought back, but they had her in an awkward position between the swing and the wall where she could not get any leverage.  They hit her, and if they focused on that they might have seriously hurt her, but instead they were focused on trying to sink their teeth into her and she only had to hold off their faces.

The front door opened and Anna and David each tackled one.  David landed on Hoover in the front yard, but Hoover was strong enough to push him off.  Anna kicked hers off the porch and let her half-spear do the talking.  She easily separated Duncan’s head from his shoulders, and she let her spear swing wide as Hoover tried to stand.  Her arm was not long enough.  She sliced Hoover’s neck but most was untouched.  The vampire might have healed its neck if David had not been there with his army knife to finish the job.

Emily shoved Brad back.  He hit her hard and turned her head.  The punch slammed her into the wall.  She hit him back, harder and he crunched against a porch column.  Emily saw Tyler standing there with her sword in his hand.  She grabbed it as Brad realized what happened to Duncan and Hoover.  He turned to run, but Emily was faster, and her arms were long enough.  Brad’s head popped off with one swing.

Wicked!” Tyler yelled as Marion, the policewoman came running up the front lawn.  A second police car came roaring in, siren, lights and all.  Marion made a quick assessment, whipped out her badge and flashed it at the officers.

“Marion Hartley,” she said.  “Department seven.  You two need to watch these stiffs and make sure they don’t get up.”  Marion got her phone out.  Emily already had hers out.

“Anthony, we got the trio,” Emily said.

“Three more bodies fit for the fires of Hell,” Marion said and both phones closed together.  Emily stared down at Brad’s face.

“Hard to believe I actually dated that guy,” she said.

“That had to be fun.”  Marion responded with a large dose of sarcasm.

“Not.”  David agreed.

Anna was already back inside.  They saw Anna clean her blade like it was an everyday occurrence.  “What did I miss?”  Anna asked.

“My team scored again while you were out,” Emily’s father rubbed his hands together.  “Twenty-eight to seven.  That means you owe me twenty-one cents.”

David, Emily and Anna Lee sat quietly in the police interrogation room where they waited and wondered if the police might provide lunch.  Anna had said to let her do the talking and Emily was inclined to agree.  David hardly knew what to say.  Thus far, Anna had said little more than hello and the kind of pleasant things about the weather and such questions as a person new in town might ask.  Emily gave most of the pleasant answers.  David stayed quiet for most of the trip from the airport.  He preferred to keep his eyes on their police escort, and on the road.

Now in the room, David sat in his fatigues and examined the forty-year-old woman closely.  For all of her age, different appearance, cultural differences—being both Chinese and from New York City—he concluded that there was something very Emily about her.  He eyed his sister Emily, her all-American, mid-American self, and concluded there was something shared with this woman in return, only he had no idea what that might be.  He was about to ask when the door opened.  Lieutenant Anthony, an older man in a suit, and a policewoman with a steno pad and pen came in with an extra chair.  The policewoman sat by the door.  Anthony stepped up to the table with some folders in his hands.  The older man stepped up beside him.

“Sit down, Lieutenant, sir,” Anna invited.  The older man sat, but the Lieutenant was not inclined to do what he was told.  He slammed his folders on the table and leaned toward the group.

“Damn it, you need to start giving some answers.  I need more to go on than you have given me.”

“How about sit down and shut-up,” the older man ordered, and Lieutenant Anthony reluctantly sat.  “Miles Hilton,” the old man introduced himself, kindly.  “His boss,” he added with a thumb in the Lieutenant’s direction.

“I will tell you everything,” Anna said sweetly, though it was clear she meant everything they would need to know.  “You have heard of the Men in Black?”  It was a rhetorical question but Lieutenant Anthony answered.

“Fairy tale.”

“Well, Emily is a new but valuable member of an even more secret organization.  We deal with things that normal channels cannot hope to handle.  You may need to call on her when she is in town.  She may call on you at some point so you need to be ready.  And you need to not question what she tells you, no matter how outrageous it sounds.”

“But vampires?”  The Lieutenant simply could not wrap his mind around it.

Anna turned to Mister Hilton, a person more her age that she felt she could commiserate with.  “Maybe Mister Anthony is not the best choice for a liaison.”

“He would be my choice,” Mister Hilton said.  “I spoke to your Tomlinson in New York.  He explained a lot, but Anthony needs to hear with his own ears.  Let him see a few things and he will get on board.”  Lieutenant Anthony looked at his boss, like he did not appreciate being talked about when he was in the same room, but he said nothing.

“Vampires.”  Anna started again.  “Demons cannot infect a host body unless given permission.  When they have someone alone, they offer death or eternal life.  Of course, it is a lie.  The person dies when the blood is drained and the demons move in.  It is the demon that lives in the body that is then somewhere between life and death.  Tradition calls them the living dead, and it is not a bad description.”

“Eternal life or death?”  David spoke up.  “What kind of a choice is that?”

Anna nodded.  “But you would be surprised how many people would rather die than live, as they imagine, demon infested.  People are not so stupid, at least that was true in the past.  This recent idea that vampires can have souls and can be lovers and all sparkling inside has not helped one bit.  The truth is, vampires are incapable of love.  The normal, human feelings and emotions die with the person.  Vampires can fake it for a time around family and friends, but it is only to help them get into a position to feed.  But believe me, demons cannot love.  They can only lie, steal, kill and destroy.  It is their nature.”

“Why the blood?”  Mister Hilton asked.

“Because, though I am not a doctor, the human system that regularly replaces and makes blood in our bodies is one thing that shuts down rather quickly at death.  Vampires need blood to keep their bodies alive as we do and what they cannot make, they take.  When demons move into a body that has been completely drained, where the person has died, they need to feed right away.  For every minute delay between awakening and feeding, the body dies a little more and the brain in particular shuts down.”

“So if you can keep a new vampire from getting the blood it needs it will eventually die.”  Emily said, though it was a question since she was not entirely clear on the subject herself.

Anna nodded again.

“But crosses and stakes?”  Lieutenant Anthony was trying.

“The cross is a powerful symbol of judgment.  Demons fear it.  The sun does not hurt them like in the movies, but they hate the light.  They are creatures of darkness.  Metal weapons conduct whatever spiritual energy they need to heal.  They can completely heal almost any wound, and rapidly.  Natural wood does not conduct the energy to heal. Stuck in the heart, it will interrupt the flow of blood, but the vampire will not die instantly.  They may struggle for a minute or more, and if they can pull the stake out, they can still heal themselves.  Beheading is the only sure way to cause instant death.  A body without a head is not worth inhabiting.”

“So what do we do?”  Mister Hilton leaned forward.

“We follow them home.  Demons know just about everything.”  She turned to face Lieutenant Anthony.  “They will say things to you, intimate, personal things, twisted and distorted truths about your life to cause you pain and make you doubt yourself.  Do not listen.  Meanwhile, what the vampire actually knows is contained in the brain of the one they inhabit.  They are instinctively drawn to home, work, and friends because it is all they know.  That is their flaw.  They are brilliant, but have absolutely no common sense.  I once asked a man if he was filled with demons.  The man answered, “No, there are none of us in here.”

David and Lieutenant Anthony laughed, but it was a nervous sort of laughter.

Anna pulled out a photograph with a business card attached.  “George Marcos,” she named the man.  “He was infected in New York but lives here in Columbus.  His family may already be dead or infected.”

“Infected?”

“Consider it a plague,” Anna said while Emily brought out her pictures.  She was up late scanning them out of her yearbook and enlarging them to print.

“Brad Marcos and his buddies Duncan and Hoover.  They were the ones that attacked the two women and infected the one that went after my little brother.”

“He is fine,” David interjected.  “Mother dragged him to the doctor’s this morning or he would have been here.”

“Better not,” Anna said.  “I don’t mind the military, but this is not for high school gossip.”

“Or any gossip,” Mister Hilton agreed.

Emily spoke up.  “I think Brad and his friends were infected Thanksgiving.  That is at least a month of activity.”

Lieutenant Anthony was thoughtful and turned to the policewoman by the door.  “Marion?”

“Fifteen since the first of November, all drained of blood,” Marion reported.  “I could check back further.”

“I did some checking, too.” Mister Hilton interrupted.  “We had a special unit on the force that handled things like this in the past but it was especially quiet for the past twenty years and they did mostly regular police work and eventually retired.  I am guessing it is time to get things up and running again.”  He looked at the Lieutenant.

Lieutenant Anthony looked thoughtful.  He had another question.  “So how do we identify the infected ones?”

Anna put the same thoughtful expression on her face.  “They hate the sun, though it does not kill them like in the movies.  They hate the cross.  There are ways, like when a family reports that one member has suffered a complete personality change.  But to be sure, the only sure way is to catch them in the act, like Emily did.  That is standard police work.  It is best to catch people in the commission of the crime.”

“Marion?”  Lieutenant Anthony turned his head again to the door.

“I’m not being your bait,” Marion responded.

Matthew clicked off the lights and carefully closed the door.  The sign on the door said ‘East & West’ in bold letters, and underneath, in smaller print, it said ‘Antiques & Collectibles’.  The Manhattan store fit snuggly on the border between Little Italy and Chinatown.

“Another day without an incident,” Matthew said to himself with a smile.  “Keep it up and I might be able to pay my rent this month.”  He rattled the door to be sure it was locked, turned the collar of his coat up against the wind, and walked off whistling Jingle Bells.

The man across the street, who stood in the shadows of the night, watched every move.  When Matthew disappeared into the crowd, the man looked again at the body at his feet.  The card he held had the symbol of a simple circle with three squiggly lines that came out of the top of the circle.  The man now knew what that symbol stood for.  The man had also met the owner of the East and West and he now knew something special about her.  The thoughts moved slowly, sluggishly through his dead brain, but after a while he smiled.  He imagined what might be in that hole-in-the-wall shop.

###

Anna Lee slipped out of the taxi in front of her antique shop, one of a million nondescript places in New York City.  It kept her afloat financially, and allowed her to pursue the artifacts and special pieces that most of the world had forgotten.

Anna picked up her duffle and slung it over her shoulder.  She picked up her large, square but very thin case by the strap handle and started toward the door to the stairs that would take her up to her rooms above the shop.  The big, thin case she carried looked like an artist’s case that might hold canvas, palate and paints, but the ancient Chinese inscriptions on the outside of the box suggested something else.

Anna paused and stared before she figured out what was wrong.  A light got left on in the back of the shop, one that should not be on.  Maybe Matthew left it on when he closed up, she thought.  That was not a problem.  She would just go in and turn it off.  She fumbled for the keys in her purse and eventually found them under some tissues.  She opened up, but did not get past the entrance.  She stopped.  She smelled something and immediately bent down to open her big, square, thin case.

A person was going through the jars that Anna kept hidden behind the counter.  Anna did her best to sneak up close enough to stop the person quickly, but did not succeed.  The person must have smelled her in return when he turned and let out an unearthly scream.  He swung a fist at Anna’s head.  Anna ducked, swung back and connected with the hip bone where it sounded like something broke.  The person shrieked again and kicked out.  This foot struck home and Anna found herself flung back into a glass case that shattered.  Luckily, her thick winter coat absorbed the broken glass.  She rolled free as the person tried to leap on her, heedless of the glass shards.  When it bent down, Anna swung from the floor.  The half-spear with the axe-like head swung true and the person’s head fell to the floor.

Vampires have a peculiar smell.  Anna always likened it to the smell of lavender and death.

Anna got out her phone.  She told Matthew he was going to have to get the cabinetmaker in the morning.  She left a message on police Detective Tomlinson’s phone.  “The rash has broken out again.”  The mortuary picked up.

“The usual cremation?”

“Yes, the fires of Hell,” Anna said, and she looked at the business card taken from the vampire’s pocket.  It was George Marcos, that nice tourist from Ohio she met recently in the gallery in Soho.  It did not take much to put it together.  She hated to leave New York, but Tomlinson had a whole staff trained to deal with this kind of outbreak.  She did not know about elsewhere.  She fingered the plane ticket she took from the vampire’s pocket.  It was a ticket to Columbus, Ohio.

************************

Emily is going home for winter vacation…to Columbus Ohio.  You know, she could use a rest after first semester.  Stick with the holiday chapter…be sure to come back tomorrow, wednesday and Thursday for The Elect, Freshman Year.

Happy reading