Chapter 24
CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
D emetrius was in the pink tiled bathroom of his house, watching himself wince in the mirror as he slowly peeled away the hospital tape holding the bandage in place on the side of his head. He jumped, tugging on the tape a little harder than intended when someone outside the front door shouted, “Trick or treat!”
He’d deliberately left the porch light off to signal they were not passing out candy. Was it a vampire trick to gain access to the house? If it was a vampire, would he be attacked, or would he be taken to where Cody and the others were being held? Should he allow himself to be taken and maybe help figure out a plan to escape?
He made a face at his reflection as he heard Cody’s voice in his head: “savior complex.”
A heavy pounding on the door followed by two people shouting, “Trick or treat!”
Leaving the bandage hanging partway down the side of his head—it was Halloween, after all—Demetrius inched slowly down the hall to the door. He pulled a cross from his back pocket and paused to take a steadying breath, his hand on the knob. With a sudden yank, he opened the wooden interior door and thrust the cross toward the storm door.
“Took you long enough,” Jugs said.
“We know your porch light is off, you curmudgeons, but we had to show off our costumes,” Agatha said.
Demetrius’s legs nearly gave out from the wave of relief he felt. “Oh, God, you guys. Get inside. Come on.”
“Nice bandage,” Jugs said as he opened the storm door and waved for Agatha to precede him. “You going for some kind of murder victim look?”
“Trying to avoid that, actually.” Once they were inside, Demetrius leaned out to look up and down the street, checked the sky overhead, then shut and locked the door.
“Where’s Cody?” Agatha asked. “He might enjoy our costumes.”
“Costumes?” Demetrius took them in. They wore coveralls with the Ghostbusters logo, backpacks with tubes running out of them to long light up devices. “Oh, Ghostbusters . Yeah, you look great.”
Jugs frowned. “I told you they’d be a couple of downers and this would be a wasted trip.” He looked back at Demetrius. “Where’s Bonker? Were you two having sex or taking naps?” Turning toward the hall, Jugs shouted, “Bonker! Get your lazy, late-in-life bisexual ass up and come out here to ooo and aah over our costumes.”
“Cody’s not here.”
Demetrius couldn’t help the quiet hitch in his voice. As he turned away from them, he saw Agatha giving him a closer look.
“That’s a real bandage on the side of your head,” she said, approaching. “What’s happened? What’s going on?”
“Oh.” Jugs’s voice had softened. “Oh, hell no. Nope. No way. Another monster case? And on Halloween, for God’s sake?”
Agatha placed a hand on Demetrius’s shoulder. “Tell us what’s going on.”
Demetrius drew in a breath, faced them, and gave a shaky smile. “I was trying to keep you two out of it.”
Jugs groaned and looked up at the ceiling, shouting in his deep, wall-rattling voice, “Fuck!” Once that was done, he approached Demetrius and pulled him into a strong, warm hug. Demetrius’s resolve cracked, and a quiet sob slipped free as Jugs pressed him to his muscular chest.
“Yeah, I know,” Jugs said quietly. “I’m sure you’re tired of it, too.”
Demetrius allowed himself another few seconds of comfort before extricating himself from Jugs’s arms. He wiped his eyes and ran a hand under his nose before giving them an embarrassed smile.
“Sorry. It’s been a long few days.”
“There’s no need to apologize,” Agatha said. She stood beside Jugs and looped her arm through his.
“You can say that,” Jugs said, making a face as he wiped at his coveralls. “You weren’t just motorboated by a sob.”
They all laughed at that, which felt amazingly good to Demetrius. Then he took another breath, shrugged, and said, “Well, we’ve got vampires now.”
Demetrius caught them up in record time. When he’d finished, Agatha and Jugs sat side by side on the couch, their backpacks sitting at their feet. Every now and then Jugs whispered, “Vampires,” and idly rubbed the material covering his forearms where over the summer he’d been scratched by a zombie and nearly died.
“Worse than werewolves?” Agatha asked.
“Vampires can fly,” Demetrius said. “Well, at least one of them can. The one they call Father. He’s supposedly thousands of years old.”
“Thousands?” Jugs said.
“Thousands.”
“Any idea where they’re being held?” Agatha asked.
Demetrius shook his head. “I suspect it’s somewhere in town, but I haven’t figured out the identity of their Renfield.”
“Renfield? Like from Dracula ?” Jugs said.
“Right. Vampires need a human assistant to do things for them during the day and protect them while they sleep,” Demetrius said. “If we can figure out who that is, I think we’ll be able to find Cody and the others.” His phone buzzed, and Demetrius pulled it from his pocket and read the text. “It’s Amelia. She and Otis and Eileen are on their way here. Oliver and Dave and Clarabell are coming over as well.”
Jugs and Agatha looked at each other.
“We’re already dressed for it,” Agatha said.
“Yeah, I know. But I wanted to go trick or treating,” Jugs said with a little whine in his voice.
“Juggy Bear, I will buy you all the candy tomorrow,” Agatha said in a quiet, sexy tone, then leaned in closer and whispered. “For half off.”
“You know just how to woo me,” Jugs said, and they kissed.
“Juggy Bear?” Demetrius said with a smirk. “You do realize I’ll have to tell Cody that one.”
Jugs gave him a gentle glare. “Fine. You can tell Bonker that fun little pet name my amazing girlfriend gave me. But only because he’s being held hostage by a vampire and I know it would give him the will to live.”
Demetrius’s smirk slipped into a sad smile. “Yeah, it would. It will. And we’ll find him. I know it.”
“Fuck yeah we will,” Jugs said, getting to his feet. “Because we’re the fucking Critter Catchers, and vampires are just big, mean critters. Now, what weapons do we have?” He picked up his backpack and turned it back and forth. “Because these proton packs are just backpacks with old vacuum tubes coming out of them.”
“Come on into the dining room, and I’ll show you.” He stood and smiled. “And thanks for jumping in to help.”
“Nowhere else we’d rather be,” Agatha said.
“Well, I could think of quite a few places,” Jugs said as he followed them into the dining room. “But we’re here, so we’re helping.”
Before everyone arrived, Demetrius put together some food for Trevor, and Agatha and Jugs accompanied him outside. Jugs shook his head as Demetrius doted over the raccoon.
“We used to get paid to evict those little bandits,” Jugs said.
“This one’s not so little,” Agatha pointed out.
Demetrius smiled as he tossed Trevor a blueberry. “He’s well-fed. And he wanted to be with us for some damn reason.”
“Do the neighbors complain?” Jugs asked.
“I don’t think they know about him yet,” Demetrius said. “Lucia’s threatened to write us up a couple of times.”
“That’s pretty much a daily occurrence, isn’t it?” Agatha said.
“Yeah, pretty much.” Demetrius rolled another blueberry to Trevor. He wondered how Cody and Lucia were getting along wherever they were being held. He was sure Zenona was trying to keep the peace, as usual. Something he could relate to.
Headlights splashed across the front of the garage as a car pulled into the driveway, and Demetrius led the way out of the backyard to greet Dave and Oliver.
Once everyone had arrived, Amelia and Otis caught them all up on the latest Isaac Wilkerson had heard on his police band radio.
“It sounds like there are already some disturbances in the main business area,” Demetrius said.
“That’s right,” Otis said. “Most of the downtown businesses have stayed open late to pass out candy and try to get sales from all these tourists.”
They made a loose plan to drive downtown, park behind Margie’s, and join the crowds. If they could find a vampire, they might be able to find Cody and the others. Demetrius rode with Jugs and Agatha, Oliver and Dave took Eileen and Clarabell, and Amelia and Otis brought up the rear. Parking spaces were at a premium, but they all finally met up at the back entrance of the pass through alley to Main Street, located between Breyerson’s Frame Shop and Antonio’s Italian restaurant.
“Stay with another person at all times,” Demetrius said. “Use the holy water squirt gun first. It won’t hurt humans, but it burns vampires.”
Michael suddenly appeared beside him, startling all of them. Jugs and Agatha raised their squirt guns, but Demetrius lifted his hands and said, “No!”
“Nobody moves that fast,” Jugs said, eying Michael with suspicion.
“I am a vampire, it’s true,” Michael said. “But I’m on your side.”
“He is,” Demetrius said. “He’s the medical examiner I told you about. He and Zenona have been trying to find Aldrik and Xavier for a while now.”
“Doing a shit ass job of it,” Eileen said with a sniff.
Demetrius let that go, though he had to agree with her. “Keep your eyes open. If you get in trouble, holy water first, then crucifix, then a stake to the heart.”
“I had a tussle with Aldrik last night,” Michael said, “but wasn’t able to follow him when he left. I have a feeling he and our father will want to do something showy for Halloween. And most likely take some of these tourists out as well.”
“This fucking town,” Jugs muttered, looking around.
They split up, Demetrius staying with Amelia and Otis, Eileen joining Dave and Oliver, and Clarabell going with Jugs and Agatha. Michael sped off to make rounds on his own.
The streets were packed. People in all manner of costumes roved the sidewalks and browsed the shops open long past normal closing times. The usual Halloween music like Michael Jackson’s “Thriller,” “Monster Mash” by Bobby Pickett, or “Purple People Eater” by Sheb Wooley played from several storefronts. Costumed revelers danced and laughed and accepted candy from store employees. Demetrius was glad to see many people making purchases as well. If the town was going to be invaded by vampires, at least the small business owners would get a bump from it.
As he was jostled within the crowds on the sidewalk, Demetrius noticed how good the decorations he and Cody had hung on the streetlights not too long ago looked. Now, not even a full week later, that day seemed like another lifetime. Demetrius had to tamp down the worry and anxiety that threatened to override his already overstimulated nervous system at the thought of Cody still missing and possibly dead. Or turned into a vampire. If he let himself think along those lines, he’d be useless.
A familiar face, big, pale, and scowling, appeared just in front of him from out of the crowd. It was John the Bastard. He shouldered his way through the crowd, eyes down, mouth curved into that permanent frown. Demetrius recalled watching John enter the hospital room where his wife was trying to fight off cancer. She needed him to care for her, and Demetrius wanted to warn him to get off the street. Before he could think of the right words to encourage John to go back home, he was past him without meeting his gaze.
Demetrius stopped and turned. John’s broad back and stooped shoulders cut a wide swath through the crowd. He shouldered his way between two men with glowing red eyes and very realistic fangs. They men sized up the people swarming around them, selecting their victims and completely ignoring John as he lumbered past. The men moved fast, lunging forward to grab a couple of revelers and sink their teeth into tender skin.
“Vampires!” Demetrius shouted.
“Yeah! Another skit!” one of the tourists said, and a cheer went up from the crowd. People stopped to watch, holding up phones to capture video of the vampires feeding.
“Looks so fucking real!”
“Get back,” Amelia called to the people around them, her voice stern and carrying over the music and noise of the crowd. It was a reminder to Demetrius that she had been an elementary school teacher for over thirty years. Amazingly, it had the desired effect, and people stepped back from the two vampires who stood behind their victims, still latched on to their necks.
Demetrius brought up his squirt gun and blasted first one vampire then the other in the face with holy water. The flesh blackened immediately and smoke drifted into the night sky as the vampires released their victims and sped off down the street, shrieking in pain.
“What the fuck?” a man standing near Demetrius said. “Nobody can move like that. What the fuck was that?”
The victims sat heavily on the sidewalk, and their friends moved in to help, keeping people from stepping on them as the crowd started to move again. Demetrius looked up the street, trying to catch a glimpse of the vampires, but they were out of sight. He and Amelia helped the victims to stand and encouraged them and their friends to get off the street.
“What was that?” one of the friends asked him. He was dressed as a scarecrow, a straw-covered canvas bag over his head, eyes wide within the ragged eyeholes.
“A vampire,” Demetrius said. “Get indoors and don’t let anyone inside you don’t know.”
“For real?” the scarecrow asked.
“For real,” Amelia said. “Go on, get your friend inside.”
Screams erupted down the street, and Demetrius hurried toward the commotion, Amelia and Otis right behind him. People ran in all directions, bumping and jostling him as he forced his way against the tide toward the source of the panic. A group of vampires had nabbed several victims and fastened greedy mouths on their necks. One brave friend, a skinny man wearing a headband with werewolf ears that now sat askew on his head, hammered at the back of the neck of one of the vampires who fed from a pale, wispy girl who was turning decidedly more pallid.
Demetrius raised his squirt gun, but before he could pull the trigger, Xavier stepped out of the shadowed entrance of a nearby alley. The streetlight revealed him in all his terrifying glory. The bald scalp, upturned nose, and long, pointed ears that made him look more like a bat than a man. His wide mouth with thin lips and nightmarishly long fangs. Pale arms that ended in massive hands with long, multi-jointed fingers tipped with claws.
Xavier strode into the light proudly, as if putting himself on display for all to see. He approached the man trying to detach the vampire from his girlfriend and placed a big hand on the back of his head. With a flick of his wrist, Xavier tossed the man behind him into the dark alley.
That casual violence snapped Demetrius out of his stunned gawking.
“Hey, fuck face!” he shouted.
Xavier stopped and turned glowing red eyes on him. Demetrius forced himself to look at Xavier’s chest to avoid being hypnotized by him. He was about to pull the trigger on his squirt gun when someone bumped his shoulder from behind, and he staggered to the side. When he’d regained his balance, Demetrius saw John the Bastard trudge right past Xavier without a second look, a takeout container of food in one hand. And, interestingly enough, Xavier actually stepped aside slightly to allow John to pass.
It all came together in a flash of insight.
John the Bastard was the Renfield.
His wife was in the hospital receiving special care way out of John’s means.
John held the only key to the locked basement at the DPW.
Shrieky Pete had said there were demons right beneath their feet when he’d confronted Demetrius in the hospital elevator.
“I know,” Demetrius said to himself, then turned to look for Amelia and Otis. “I know where they are!”
But Amelia and Otis were struggling with two elderly vampires who had grabbed the barrels of their squirt guns. Demetrius clenched his jaw and released a stream of holy water that drenched the vampires and several people around them. The vampires released Amelia and Otis and ran off into the night as the people who’d been hit glared at him.
“What the fuck?” one girl shouted. “That had better just be water.”
“Get off the street!” Amelia shouted back. “He’s saving your life!”
Demetrius turned in place, trigger depressed and sending a stream of holy water into the crowd as he moved. He drenched the vampire feeding on the pale, thin girl, gratified when it ran off. People shouted and cursed, but no one burned. Right before the jet of water reached Xavier, it fizzled out, reduced to a dribble. Demetrius cursed and checked the gun. The reservoir was empty.
“Fuck!” He turned toward Amelia. “I’m out of water!”
A strong hand gripped him by the throat, choking him. Demetrius dropped the squirt gun and grabbed the steadily tightening fingers. The skin was cold and clammy, and the fingers long and immovable, cutting off his air. He was lifted off the ground, kicking his feet as his mouth opened and closed, trying to gulp in even the smallest gasp of air. Xavier drew him close, lips turned up into a terrible smile.
“You’re out of time, as well.”
A blast of water hit the side of Xavier’s head and splashed across Demetrius’s face. Smoke rose from burning skin that crackled and blackened. Xavier shrieked and released him, dropping Demetrius to the sidewalk before vanishing in a whirl of smoke, leaving behind the smell of rot and burned flesh.
Choking and gasping as he sucked air through his bruised and burning throat, Demetrius looked up. Amelia stood several feet away, fingers tight around the plastic squirt gun. People scrambled for safety around and away from her. He smiled and she managed a shaky smile in return, then pushed her glasses up her nose and started toward him.
Before Amelia reached him, hands gripped his upper arms from behind, and Demetrius shouted. But Oliver stood to one side of him and Dave the other, each of them holding one of his arms.
“You’re okay,” Dave said. “It’s just us.”
He sounded so much like Cody in that moment, Demetrius had to fight back tears. Accepting their help, he got to his feet and turned his head slowly back and forth to test the muscles in his neck. That old injury he’d sustained from Esther the lake monster would most likely show up in the next day or two. As long as he survived the night.
“Are you all right?” Amelia asked.
“I am, thanks to you,” Demetrius said.
“Oh, ash trees,” Amelia said. “You’ve done it for me.”
He leaned in to hug her, then looked around. Dave, Oliver, Eileen, and Otis stood in a loose group, each holding a squirt gun. “We need to find Jugs, Agatha, Clarabell, and Michael. I know where Cody and the others are being held. And I have a plan.”