I opened my eyes and stretched. It was dusk, and Zeus and Mars' laughing faces looked down on me. Zeus swiped his tongue across my cheek and I screwed up my face. It was about time I found a perch to sleep on—high enough that they couldn't reach me.
"Get off, stupid mutt."
Wagging their stumpy tails, the two Dobermans backed away and waited for me to get up. I took them outside to do their business and stared up at the stars. I'd come to a decision and it was time to tell David and Dwayne. When they appeared, ready to go hunting, I took an unrequired breath and spat out the words before I could change my mind.
"I'm going back."
"What? Back where?" David's yellow eyes narrowed. He was hungry and irritated, not the best mood for me to give him this news in.
"Santa Carla."
"Why the hell would you want to go back after everything that happened?" he demanded.
"You don't need me here. And I'm bored. I want something more."
"Something more than we saw yesterday?" Dwayne grinned.
The pair of them had returned to our current home to find me fucking both a girl and a guy at the same time. Ironic really. The first time I caught David and Dwayne screwing, I'd demanded bleach for my eyeballs. But seeing them together for so long had made me curious. Eventually, I figured if I tried a guy and a girl together, if I really didn't like dick I could take turns fucking her instead. But I'd liked it. Really liked it. Dwayne had thought it hilarious to find the guy sucking my dick. He and David had made themselves scarce and I'd gone on to fuck the guy after a bit of encouragement from both my temporary lovers. Fuck, he was tight. And after I drilled him, I had the pleasure of feeding from them both. For a moment I'd even thought about keeping the guy around, but that idea had lasted just long enough for me to realise it was the sex I liked, not the actual guy, and he'd gone the same way all the others had—down an old dried up well.
"Yes." I nodded, relieved I wasn't capable of flushing. "You two have each other. I've never seen a couple more wrapped in each other."
"So you want what we have?" David raised an eyebrow.
"I don't know. Not really. But I want something."
"And you think you'll find that in Santa Carla?"
"Who knows? Maybe. I can always come back and look for you if it doesn't work out. But I need to do this now. It's been two years. A lot might have changed."
"Yeah, the town's probably been taken over by a new bunch."
"Wonder if Edgar Frog is still there?" Dwayne mused. "It was so much fun tormenting that poor kid. And that friend of his, Sam."
I grinned. Sam had been a complete pussy, but Edgar— don't even go there, I told myself. He was sixteen or seventeen. A child. And a hater of vampires. He'd stake me given the chance. But still I grinned. He'd been a cute kid. He wouldn't be a kid any more. He'd be a man.
"You gonna take the RV?" David asked.
"It's yours."
"We have this." David indicated the deserted ranch house we'd inhabited for the past year. The cellar made the perfect vampire sleeping chamber. "Take it if you want it. The dogs, too. They're yours more than ours."
"Seriously?" I hadn't thought about what would happen with Zeus and Mars. I'd been responsible for them joining us, but David was our leader.
"You love the mutts." David grinned, flashing his fangs. "We're good here. Not even a sniff of a hunter."
"We'll miss you," Dwayne said.
"Nah. You won't." I chuckled. "You don't need me hanging around like a third wheel."
"You know where we are." David's face turned serious. "You can send a message. If you need us, we'll be there."
I nodded.
"When will you go?"
"No time like the present."
And that was it—decision made. We all hunted together one last time. Then I fed the dogs, put them in the RV, and got behind the wheel.
I drove all night, parked up as dawn approached, and slept in the darkened interior. When I woke, I didn't need to feed. I filled up with gas, grabbed a burger and a coke, and drove on. I made it to the outskirts of Santa Carla by the early hours of the morning and again, found somewhere to park and sleep. I slept only because the light and the effect on my body dictated it. When I woke, I was so wired I wondered how I'd spent twelve hours unconscious.
I let the dogs out for a run, gave them a fuss and a feed, then drove the last few miles to park in the familiar parking area by the boardwalk. It looked no different to what it had two years earlier, and the entertainment hadn't changed either.
Screams came from the roller coaster, the smell of hot dogs, Mexican and Chinese snacks, and sweet donuts made my mouth water. Crowds wandered the boardwalk, eating, drinking, chatting and laughing, getting their ears pierced, buying trinkets, and lining up for the coaster and the other rides. Hearts pounded, blood raced, and my nostrils flared. I needed to feed before I did anything.
I grabbed a snack from one of the stalls, wolfed it down, then followed a lone guy back to the parking area. Thirty minutes later, when the tide carried his body out to sea, I returned to the boardwalk. I hadn't realised how much I'd missed this town. Everything had gone to shit two years ago, with first Star's death, then Marko's, leading to us leaving. It had been the right time to go, but I was glad to be back. I wondered if I'd find any of my kind. Usually we didn't stay in the same place long, or at least that's what David had always said. We were the exception to the rule, staying so long in Santa Carla, and then over a year near El Paso, when we stopped driving around aimlessly.
Eventually, I dropped in at the comic book store. I'd been putting it off for a number of reasons. I'd liked the place when I lived here before, both for the comics—particularly the vampire ones that made me laugh—and for the fun of teasing the Frog brothers. They called themselves vampire hunters and it had been Alan who killed Star. Marko killed him in return, but that left Edgar alone and vowing revenge. I doubted he'd forgotten that.
In addition, I put it off because I didn't want to admit to myself I wanted to see how he turned out, and didn't want to discover he might have left. But when I finally looked into the store, there he was, alone, sorting out a new box of comics.
Edgar hadn't changed much. He was still short, fair-haired, and wearing army-style clothing and a red bandana tied around his head. But he didn't look like a kid any more. The baby face and puppy fat had gone. I approached slowly and stopped a few feet away. "Edgar."
He jumped and looked up, eyes wide. Then his brows furrowed and his eyes narrowed instead. "What are you doing back here?"
"Visiting."
"What do you want?"
"Comics, of course." I grinned.
"Right." He curled his lip, then suddenly shifted his gaze and stared past my left shoulder. His annoyed expression changed to alarm. He could never have been a poker player.
"What?" I glanced over my shoulder and caught the eye of a shaggy-haired redhead with a pierced nose. He was flanked by two stocky blond guys with tattooed muscles bulging out of their shirt sleeves. None of them had a heartbeat. Vampires.
The leader spared me a fleeting glance, one eyebrow lifted, but his attention was on Edgar. I slipped away around the centre stand of comics and made my way to the door. I had no intention of leaving until I discovered what the newcomers wanted, but I lurked out of sight. They'd know I was there, but they didn't pay me any attention. Edgar's gaze searched for me and his jaw twitched. He was alone with three bad-ass vampires crowding him. Perhaps he hoped I'd be on his side.
I observed and listened as the redheaded vampire backed Edgar into a corner, threatening him unless he opened up the till and let them take what they wanted. So that was the way it was. Pay up, and they'd leave him alone.
Edgar opened the till and one of the blond thugs emptied it. Seconds later, they walked out, laughing, barely sparing me a glance as they passed.
Edgar slammed the till closed and brushed a hand across his eyes. Facing away from me, he didn't notice or hear me approach until I was a couple of feet away. Then he spun around.
"What the fuck do you want, whatever your name is?"
"Paul," I supplied. "Those guys—I'm guessing they're the resident vampires?"
"Yeah."
"This happen often, does it?"
"What do you mean?" Edgar growled, regaining his composure.
"Them taking your money."
He shrugged. "They won't be doing it for much longer. I'm gonna lose this place if this carries on. I can't pay the bills." He snapped his mouth shut and glared as if he realised he'd said too much.
"How long have they been here?"
"Almost a year. They're worse than your lot ever were. David seemed almost angelic in comparison." He snorted out a bitter laugh.
"You don't have a, um, a partner or anything?"
"I had a brother. Until you killed him."
I didn't correct him and say that I'd had nothing to do with Alan's death. "I'm sorry. Must be tough on your own."
"What do you care?"
"I'm alone, too. I'm kind of in the same boat."
Edgar sneered. "You are not. You're a killer. The walking dead. Just like them."
"They're on my turf, taking stuff from a store I used to like. Do you know the phrase 'the enemy of my enemy is my friend?'"
"What are you talking about?"
"We could be on the same side, you know. I didn't hurt you or your brother."
"You would have, if one of the others hadn't got in first. Alan killed Star, remember? Would you have let him walk away?"
"No." I shook my head. "But it didn't happen that way, did it? I'm not here to cause trouble."
"Then why are you here? Because if I remember correctly, you used to hang around here more than the others, stealing our fucking stock and tormenting us, just because you could."
"Maybe I just missed the place. Wondered if it was still the same." I turned away, scanned the horror comic section, and picked up an issue with a vampire graphic on the front. It was priced at two dollars. I pulled out a couple of bills and placed them on the till.
Edgar ignored the money. "We might have a common enemy, but that doesn't make us friends."
"No, but it could mean we can fight on the same side. You want to keep this store, or not?"
"Of course I do. It was my parents' store."
"Well, then. Perhaps your new security guy can help." I grinned and spread out my hands to indicate myself.
Edgar didn't smile. "What do you want in return?"
"Nothing. Maybe a comic every so often. Which I'll pay for." I rolled up the new comic and tucked it into my jacket.
"You don't want to feed off me or anything?"
"Or anything?" I grinned wider.
Edgard flushed and scowled. This was new.
I backed off and found somewhere to sit. "I'm just gonna sit here and read this." I pulled out the comic again and unrolled it. I didn't look up again until I'd read it from cover to cover. Customers came and went, some just looking, some buying. The other vampires didn't come back. A slight skirmish near the door drew my attention as I was putting the finished comic back in my pocket. A quick glance showed me a couple of kids gathering up a bunch of comics they seemed to be planning on stealing. In seconds, I was at the front of the store, grabbing each by the scruff of their necks.
"You planning on paying for those?" I nodded at the piles of comics in their arms.
"What's it to you?"
"Well now, I just scored a new job here. I wouldn't be doing it very well if I let the stock disappear, now would I?" I released the pair and snatched the comics from them. "Get the fuck out of here. Next time I won't be so nice about it."
They fled, and I turned to the shelf the comics came from, idly putting them back in their places. About a half hour after that, Edgar pulled the display at the front of the store inside and began to slide the doors closed.
"You're closing?" I raised my eyebrows.
"It's midnight. I've been open fourteen hours." He yawned.
"Right. I might just take another one of these." I selected another comic and waved the money under his nose. "Bedtime reading."
Edgar snatched the bills out of my hand. "Get out of here."
"Dusk tomorrow?"
He sighed, considering. "If you must," he said grudgingly.
Smirking, I strode out of the store and went back to the RV to take the dogs for a walk.