Chapter Eight
I think it started with the large vampire who looked like one of those no neck bouncers with a wraparound radio mic outside a bar that really does need a bouncer, not just a burly events manager. He reached up and grabbed Mercy's arm. Good luck with that I thought maybe he'd end up spewing. For a second she looked down at him and she smiled, I know she smiled and then he got up and I knew she was dead and then something began to happen, his whole body started to glow blue and then burn from the inside out. First him then as the others grabbed at her one after the other they all burned. I expected the air to smell of burnt flesh, I'd been around too many witch burnings not to know the stink of burning flesh. There was nothing, I touched one of the bodies as I stepped over it. It wasn't even hot. I caught up with Mercy in the hallway.
"What the fuck is that all about," I said pointing at the bodies behind me. "We came for information not a fucking bloodbath. How'd you do that anyway, just another part of your thing, I suppose!" I was more than a little angry I was thinking how Grayson, the head of this little nest, would take to, I turned my head to count, nine of his family being slaughtered.
"Call me evil, that wasn't exactly the way I thought we should approach this, haven't you heard the saying less is more?" I was loathe to grab her arm to gain her attention, I had only had the vomiting and passing out experience I hoped never to advance to the spontaneous combustion stage.
She turned and looked at me, she had a look on her face that in all my many years on this earth and in hell I have never seen. It was absolute pity and power.
"I could hear them Yadi, all of them." There were tears beginning to run down her plump cheeks.
"What do you mean, hear them, hear who" I was beyond confusion and was also trying to keep an eye out for any other vampires who might feel like reeking vengeance on the girl who just decimated their nest.
"Who they used to be, the people they were before they were vampires and they were begging me to release them, to put them out of their misery. They couldn't bear to watch as more and more people died by their hands or who were tortured just for fun. One fed on a little baby and she couldn't bear it any more, she once had a kid herself and she couldn't stop. I did what they wanted, I let them go, I think it was a kindness don't you?"
I brushed some dirt of my dress and tried not to look at her, it was somehow painful.
"Well whatever it was, it's going to cause even more trouble now. Promise me you won't fry Grayson, we need his help remember, not even if some little voice comes wheedling round you and begs you to kill him". I couldn't answer her question, I know fuck all about kindness.
As we moved further into the house it grew darker. Eventually we came to a room that seemed a little more elegant than the others, which wasn't hard, a moth-eaten throw rug would have been stylish in this décor. There was a large bed at the far end of the room and from it came a voice, rather raspy as if he was having a hard time remembering how to talk. The tall lad I stabbed earlier stood beside the bed looking a little sheepish.
"Come in, I believe you want a little favor," he sounded old, some vampires made it past the thousand year old mark, I had met some in the old days in the old countries where vampires were revered as little gods. The old ones knew how to survive without drawing attention to themselves too much.
A woman slunk in giving us a wide berth and whispered in Grayson's ear. He looked up and his eyes almost glowed.
"People that come demanding favors shouldn't start by killing my children. It's impolite to say the least." I hoped Mercy would keep her mouth shut and let me do the talking, I could probably put it down to an incident involving overzealous and thirsty vampires and a pissed off demon. Of course she didn't, why for one moment would I have thought she would do the sane thing, the easier thing.
"I wasn't intending disrespect but I really couldn't ignore them, that would be rude." Mercy's voice had regained some of its cockiness.
Grayson rose slowly to his feet and walked slowly across the room, I wasn't sure if he was trying to look intimidating or his legs weren't that good anymore. His face looked in need of renovation much like the house.
"So you did this, what should I do with you," he came closer intending, I suppose, to give her the full benefit of his crumbling face and yellow fangs that were now openly on view.
He looked and then he stepped back and then looked at me,
"What have you brought to my house, what thing is this, go whilst you still can?" he looked at me and I could tell the bravado was to hide his fear. He was afraid of Mercy.
"I'll go as soon as you tell me what you know about me. You know something I can tell but you don't know you know it." Mercy was not going to budge, those vile boots of hers were planted on the threadbare rug and she didn't intend to leave until she got something out of the old skeleton.
"Mercy here was found on 1st September fifteen years ago on the steps of a hospital here in Milwaukee. She has a burning desire, should I say to find out who her parents are." I couldn't help get a dig in about the crispy corpses on his step, "I am thinking nothing in the past eighty years has got by you in this city that might be regarded as a little on the odd side. We need to know what you know."
"I know many things but nothing about this creature," he pointed at Mercy in a very dramatic way, old vampires tend to go in for over the top theatrics.
"Your name used to be Frederick Hoffer, you were turned by a man who came to your village to sell some sheep. You used to like torturing animals, like cats and birds, you were thinking of taking a child and torturing them before you killed it and you thought you could blame it on the stranger …..but he caught you fucking a sheep that night. Then he showed you what he was and then he fucked you, he used to call you his little lamb, sort of Broke Back Mountain with wool. You really are one twisted little bag of shit, even before you were a vampire." Mercy's voice was getting louder and more confident, Grayson began to retreat but Mercy kept getting closer and closer to him. I could smell his fear, I could clearly smell that he had wet himself.
"There's no voice left here pleading to get out, you were like this shriveled raisin of a soul before that vampire ever set eyes on you. I think I'm going to puke." I was quite enjoying myself, the girl had the bit between her teeth and was doing a splendid job of literally scaring the old vampire shitless.
"…and you can stop gloating over there, I think I'm doing all the work here you useless excuse for a demon." That stung, you can criticize your own but not in front of company, especially vampires they could be really smug.
"Ok, let's play good cop, bad cop. I, Mr Grayson, present you with the possibility of saving your wrinkly little skin. My friend here has a certain skill set that you have witnessed, I suggest if you want to stay cold rather than toastie you rack your desiccated little brain for anything that might help Mercy here, who is I have to point out an impatient little teenage bitch who might also be having a bad time menstruating." Mercy gave me one of, what I would come to call, grossed out faces; there were a lot of those faces yet to come.
"You've watched Taken haven't you," she whispered in my ear, "a certain skill set, I like that." She turned her attention back to glaring at Grayson who she truly did seem to find repulsive not just because he was elderly and now literally incontinent but because she could see something even worse inside him, lack of personal hygiene and a needy complexion was not the worst of his situation.
"Sixteen years ago, let me see, let me see, I think I heard some rumors about something happening in South Milwaukee that had some people a little spooked." Mercy took another step closer to him and he fell back on the bed.
"Not enough old man, details, we need more details other than some people were spooked."
"There was a church congregation convinced that they knew when the second coming was going to happen, in fact it was imminent."
"There are always people thinking the end of the world is nigh, that the apocalypse it round the corner. The book of revelation has been used for centuries to predict all sorts of crap, death and destruction and the world just keeps rumbling on."
There had been some close calls I had to admit , the Winchesters were busy bees stopping and sometimes causing lots of shit and Crowley himself wasn't above messing with the end times. He liked the status quo, it was balanced, kept everything ticking over nicely. I was a status quo fan myself. Don't mess with something that isn't really broken, or rather the world might be a bit wobbly but somehow it will putter on if we just leave it be.
Mercy nudged me to get me back on track.
"So this church, why was it out of the ordinary and not just the usual crowd of apocalyptic wannabees who think the Rapture is definitely going to include them going someplace lovely despite the fact that they are cheating on their wives or are desperate to be important because frankly they aren't." I could tell I was working through a few issues about such people as I spoke.
"They had miracles, they said they had real miracles, stuff to prove that he was among them already."
"Name of church?" Mercy was wanting to cut to the chase I could tell.
" The Church of the Blessed Light."
"Pastors name?" I decided to go along with her short hand approach.
"Think it was something like Stephen Goodbody," Mercy stepped a little closer to him. "It was definitely Stephen Goodbody but the church petered out and I think he left to go to another church Philadelphia way or that's what I heard."
I could see he was telling the truth, vampires are very fond of their skins and this one had held onto his for over four hundred years.
"Let's go, we got what we came for." I nodded towards the door, "No need to make more of a mess than we have to Mercy."
She seemed almost away in another world and I had to call her back. She turned and made for the door, I could see she was mulling something over.
As we got in the car I wondered why she had spared the old man but not the others.
"Because he's already dead, there's no soul in there anymore, no humanity left." Mercy's knuckles were white as she squeezed the steering wheel tight.
"So we just let him go on killing others or turning people into vampires? Not that I have any major objection to that, other than the fact that he was a singularly unattractive individual "
"No," she said it so quietly I could hardly hear her, it wasn't until we were a few blocks away turned the corner and saw a fire truck rushing in the other direction that I saw the plume of thick black smoke rising above the roof tops behind us. There was a huge violent boom as if a gas line had fractured beneath a house and blown it to kingdom come. I smiled at the phrase until kingdom come, we were now off to find some people or a pastor who had a very real sense that the kingdom had come, well they did sixteen years ago at least.
