Bite Me: A Love Story Chapter 18

18. Carpe zero(prenominal)temMARVINMarvin the big red cadaver dog had d iodine his job. He sit down and woofed, which translated from the dog meant, Biscuit.Nine lamia hunters pa utilise and looked around. Marvin sat in front of a small utility shed in an alley in vino Country, behind a particularly nasty Indian restaurant.Biscuit, Marvin woofed. He could tactile sensation death amid the curries. He pawed the pavement.Whats he doing? state Lash Jefferson. He, Jeff, and troy weight lee side carried Super Soakers loaded with Grandma Lees Vampire Cat Remedy, other Animals had tend sprayers slung on their backs, except for Gustavo, who idea that making him carry a garden sprayer was racial stereotyping. Gustavo had a flame thrower. He wouldnt say where he got it.Second Amendment, cabr whizs. (The guy who sold Gustavo his green card had included 2 amendments from the Bill of Rights and Gustavo had chosen Two and Four, the right to bear arms and exemption from unreasonable search and seizure. His sister Estrella had had seizures as a child. nobueno. For quintuple bucks extra he threw in the Third Amendment, which Gustavo bought because he was already share a three-bedroom house in Richmond with nineteen cousins and they didnt have any room to quarter soldiers.)Thats his signal, verbalize Rivera. He was wearing his UV-LED leather capital and felt care a complete dork. When he sits and does that with his paw hes come out in a body.Or vampire, added Cavuto.Biscuit, woofed Marvin.Hes moreovert with you, verbalise Troy Lee. in that lo vomit upions no lose weightg here.mayhap in the shed, said Lash. Theres no lock on it.Who would leave anything un pattyred in this neighborhood? asked Jeff.Biscuit please, woofed Marvin. They had an agreement As consideration for decision beat(p) things, the cadaver dog, heretofore referred to as Marvin, shall receive one biscuit. There was about flexibility, however, and Marvin understood that in this case, they werent smell for dead hu worldly concerns, but dead redacts, and despite their inherent tastiness, Marvin was non to eat the findees. Biscuit, he rewoofed. Where was the biscuit? It had been months since hed mesh them to the dead things. (Well, it seemed standardised months. Marvin wasnt very good with time.)Open it, said Troy Lee. Well cover you.Rivera and Cavuto locomote to the shed, which was aluminum and had a roof shaped desire an old-fashioned barns. The Animals clotted in a semicircle and trained their weapons on the shed. (Grandma Lee had stayed home to watch wrestling on TV when she realise there werent exit to be any heightencrackers.)On three and so, said Rivera.Wait, said Cavuto. He turned to Gustavo. No fuego. Comprende? Do not fucking light up that flamethrower.S, said Gustavo. They had tested the flamethrower on the basketball chat up in Chinatown. It had a fairly short, wide spray. In other terminology, if Gustavo utilize it in the alley he would prob ably fry them all.Barry turned and sprayed the flamethrowers vanish light with a stream of vampire cat remedy. The flame went discover with a sizzle. Okay, go.On three, then, said Rivera. They all raised their weapons.One, Rivera nodded to Cavuto and grabbed the switch to his top LEDs.Two. Troy Lee crouched and aimed his Super Soaker to the center of the doors, ready to attack in any direction. Cavuto move his Desert Eagle, cocked the hammer, and thumbed by the safety. tripleThe cops threw open the doors and lit up their jackets, the Animals leaned in.Six surprised kittens and a grow cat looked out from a box set on lots of five-gallon detergent buckets.They all looked around, not saying anything. The Animals lowered their weapons. The cops turned off their jackets.Well, thats embarrassing, said Troy Lee.Biscuit, Marvin woofed.They all looked at Marvin. You suck, Marvin, said Cavuto. Those are typical cats.Marvin didnt understand. He had followed the trail, he had made the signal when he came to the end of the trail. Where was his biscuit?Bad dog, Marvin, said Lash.Marvin growled at him, then turned to Rivera and woofed, Biscuit. He was not a bad dog. It wasnt his dent that no one had taught him how to point up. It wasnt his fault they werent looking up, past the top of the shed, up the wall, to the roof, four stories up. Couldnt they lift up them?Biscuit, he woofed.CHET Chet watched the vampire hunters moving below. He understood what they were doing and how badly they were doing it. The other cats had moved away from the edge of the roof, the smell of flame, the sunlight jackets, and the dog had made them weary. A few of them were survivors of the encounter with the little Japanese swords existence, and Asians in general legato freaked them out a little. Although they couldnt see the life auras that a human vampire could, it was still in their instinct as predators to take the weak and the sick, and the concourse below appeared to be neither.Che t, on the other hand, was slight and less of a cat every night. He was bigger than Marvin now, and had lost most of his cat instinct, and whatever he was now, it wasnt a cat. Although he was still a predator, words kept invading his mind, fits that produced pictures in his mind. Abstract concepts whirled around in sound and symbols. His kitty brain had been rewired with human DNA, and what had resulted was not only an alpha predator, but a creature with the capacity for revenge, mercy, and conscious cruelty.Chet watched the group below move out of the alley, led by Rivera and trailed by Barry, the bald, portly scuba piston of the Animals. The kitty part of Chets brain aphorism Barrys bald spot the like a ball of yarn, teasing him to attack. He needed to score it. He went to mist and snaked down the side of the building. He liked climbing face-down, specially since he had grown thumbs, but stealth was the only way to woof off the die one without facing the whole group in co mbat.He rematerialized in front of Barry, on his hind feet, and in advance the ridiculous grocery clerk could call out, Chet thrust his entire paw into his tattle and unsheathed his claws. There was only a slight gurgling sound, and Clint, the born-again, who had been walking frontwards of Barry, turned to see only an empty alley behind him.Chet was already three floors above him on the wall. Barry dangled from Chets claws, twitching, as the huge, shaved vampire cat drank his life away.TOMMY Foo, Tommy said, right in Foos ear. I want you to remember, before you move, at all, that I was the one who wore your sun jacket to rescue Jody from Elijah. So if I see you even look like youre going to touch a switch of any kind, Im going to tear that arm off, authorise?I didnt want to put you in the statue, said Foo for the third time.I make out, Tommy said. Wheres Jody?She went looking for you.Jared started to back away from the door into the kitchen area.You too, Jared. If I dont see yo ur hands for one second, Im taking them off so I dont have to worry some it.Jared waved his hands in front of him like he was drying his nails. Whoa, badass much? Im the one that let you in. I was going to get you some blood.Sorry, stress, Tommy said. He had Foo by the throat, but lightly.Give him the one thats already opened, Foo said.The one with the drugs in it? asked Jared.Foo flinched as if waiting for the sound of his neck snapping. Yes, that one, you fuckwit.Im good for now, Tommy said. Then to Foo, Jody went where to find me? only out. Right after she got you out of the shell. She took half the bills and most of the blood. Abby said that she was at the Fairmont, but Rivera and Cavuto found her. We dont know where she is now.Wheres Abby?Shes at her moms, said Foo.No, shes not. Tommy choked him a little. Shes here. I can smell her. He cocked his head. I dont hear her heartbeat. Is she dead?Kind of, said Jared. She is nossssss-feratu. Thats how she says it. Im so jealous.Did I do that?No, said Foo. She did it herself. You were out of your mind, and you bit her, but Jody pulled you off of her and threw you through the windows. You dont remember? non much. Probably a good thing for you, too.Shes under the mattress, Jared said. Foo made me pass over her there.Im going to change her back. I told you I could do it and I can. Im already working on her batch of serum.And she saw Jody last?Her friend Lily saw Jody coming out of the Fairmont a few nights ago. Abby went there to find her and saw Cavuto and Rivera.Then we dont know if they found Jody while she was out?They didnt. They didnt say anything when they came to get their jackets.Their jackets? Sun jackets? You gave them sun jackets?I have to do what they want. They were going to take me in for statutory rape and contributing to the delinquency of a minor. very? Have they met Abby?Truth, said Foo, as wistfully as you can when youre organism choked.Tommy, let me change you back. Its what you wanted. I ca n do you and Abby at the homogeneous time.No. And youre not changing her. Wake her up.What? Why?Because Im going to go look for Jody and Im taking Abby with me. Im not leaving her here with you guys.Why? Shes my girlfriend. I wouldnt hurt her.Shes my BFF, said Jared. Hes the one who cant be trusted.Im taking her with me. Im not going out there without someone watching my back. Havent you ever seen a abuse movie? When you split up and go off by yourself, thats when the junky gets you.I thought in this movie you were the monster, Foo said.Only if you dont do what I say, Tommy said, a little surprised to hear himself say it. Wake her up, Foo.JODY The last thing she remembered before burning up were the orange socks. And here they were again, fluorescent orange, highway safety orange socks, at the base of a tiny, blood-encrusted man who was fussing about at some sort of workbench.Well, dont you look yummy, she said, and she was surprised at the sound of her own voice dry, weak, and ancient.The little man turned, startled at beginning(a), but then he composed himself, bowed, and said something in Japanese. Then, Sorry, in English.Its okay, she said. This isnt the starting time Ive woken up in a strange mans flat tire where I cant remember how I got there. This was, however, the first time she remembered where she had been on fire at the end of the night. Before it had gone quite that far, the girls she worked with held a lunch period intervention in which each told her, frankly and sincerely, as people who love her, that she was a drunken slut who took all the hot guys at the TGIF bar crawl every week and she needed to knock it the fuck off. So she did.Now, as in those days, she was disoriented, but unlike those days, it didnt even occur to her to be afraid.The little Japanese man bowed again, then took a square-pointed spittle from his workbench and approached her shyly, his head down, saying something that sounded very much like an apology. Jody held up her hand to wave him off, say, Hey, back off there, cowboy, but when she saw her hand, an ash-white dried claw, the words caught in her throat. The little man paused just the same.Her arms, her legs? She pulled up the kimono-her stomach, her breasts-she was shrunken, like a mummy. The effort exhausted her and she fell back into the pillow.The little man shuffled forward and held his hand up. There was a bandage on his thumb. She watched as he raised his hand, pulled off the bandage, and put the point of the knife to the annoy that was already there. She caught his knife hand and ever so gently, pushed it down.No, she said, shaking her head. No.She couldnt imagine what her face competency look like. The ends of her hair were like toffy red straw. What mustiness she have looked like before he had make this, done this too much, she could see.No.With him close, she could smell the blood on him. It wasnt human. Pig. It smelled of pig, although she didnt know how she efficacy know th at. When she had been at her best she would have smelled blood on someone just walking by on the sidewalk. It wasnt only her position that was gone, her senses were nearly as dull as when she had been human.The little man waited. He had bowed, but did not rise up again. Wait, he held his head aside, his throat open. He was bending down so she could drink. Knowing what she was, he was freehand himself to her. She touched his cheek with the back of her hand and when he looked she shook her head. No. Thank you. No.He stood, looked at her, waited. She smelled the dried blood on the back of her hand, tasted it. She had tasted it before. She felt something tacky in the corner of her mouth-yes, it was the pig blood. The aridity wrenched through her, but she fought it down. He had fed her his own blood, obviously, but alike pigs blood. How long? How far had he brought her?She gestured for him to bring her paper and something to write with. He brought her a sketch pad and a broad square carpenters pencil. She drew a map of Union Square, then drew a in the buff figure of a woman and wrote down numbers, many numbers, her sizes. What about money? Rivera would have her things from the room, but she had unfathomable most of the money in other spot. From the brick-work in the apartment, the window frames, the angle of streetlights coming down from above, she guessed she was in a basement apartment right near where shed been running on capital of Mississippi Street. Nowhere else in the City looked like this, was this old. She pointed to herself and the little man and then to the map.He took it from her and drew an X, then quickly drew a rowlock version of the Transamerica Pyramid. Yes. They were on Jackson Street. She wrote a $ where shed hidden the money, then scratched it out. It was hidden in a locked electrical junction box high on a roof, where she had been able to climb easily, two floors above the highest fire escape. This infirm little guy would never get the re.The little man smiled and nodded, pointing to the vaulting horse sign. He went to his workbench, opened a wooden box, and held up a fistful of bills. Yes, he said.Okay, then, I guess youre buying me an outfit.Yes, he said.She made a drinking gesture, then nodded. He nodded and held up the knife again.No, you cant afford it. Animal. She thought about making a piggy sound, but wasnt sure that might not give him the wrong idea, so she drew a stickman on the sketch pad, then Xed it out and drew a first-grade stick piggy, a stick sheep, and a Jesus fish. He nodded.Yes, he said.If you bring me a Christian petting zoo Im going to be disappointed, Mr.-uh- Well, this was embarrassing. Well, youre not the first guy Ive ever woken up with whose name I dont remember. Then she stop herself and patted his arm. Im sounding really slutty, I know, but the truth is I used to be afraid to sleep alone. She looked around the little apartment, at the meticulously arranged tools on the workbench, the one pair of little shoes, and the white silk kimono he had wrapped her in.Thank you, she said.Thank you, he said.My name is Jody, she said, pointing to herself. She pointed to him, wondering if that might not be rude in his culture. But he had already seen her nude and burned up, so perhaps they were past formality. He seemed okay with it.Okata, he said.Okata, she said.Yes, he said, with a big smile.His gums were receded, which made him look like he had big horse teeth, but then Jody touched her tongue to her fangs, which it seemed were not retracting in her new, dried-up state, and she realized that she should probably be less judgmental.Go, okay? She pointed to the sketch pad.Okay, he said. He gathered up his things, put on his stupid hat, and was ready to leave, when she called to him.Okata?Yes.She made a face-washing gesture and pointed to him. He went to the little mirror over the sink, looked at himself covered with blood, and laughed, his eyes crinkle into high smiles thems elves. He looked over his shoulder at her, laughed again, then scour his face with a cloth until he was clean and went to the door.Jody, he said. He pointed to the stairs outside. No. Okay?Okay, she said.When he was gone, she crawled from the futon and stumbled from there to the workbench, where she rested before trying to move farther, to look at Okatas work. Wood block prints, some finished, some with only two or three of the colors on them, proofs perhaps. They were a series, the progression of a black, skeletal monster against a chicken futon, then the gradual filling in of the figure. The care, wrapping her in the kimono, aliment her his blood. The last print was still in the sketch stage. He must have been working on it when she awoke. A sketch on thin rice paper had been glued to the wood block and he was press clipping away the material for the outline-the black ink in the other prints. They were beautiful, and precise, and simple, and sad. She felt a tear rise and turne d so as not to drip blood on the print.How would she tell him? Would she point at the first sketch, the one where the figure looked like a medieval woodcut of final stage himself, and point to his frail chest?The first thing I observe when I saw you was the life aura around you, and it was black. Thats why I wouldnt let you give me your blood, Okata. You are dying.Okay, he would say. Thank you, he would say, with his pertly found grin.