CHAPTER VII
A/N: Hey y'all. I've been having a hard time with the document manager here on . Hopefully, it's fixed now!
Dumah stared in wide-eyed shock at the movie he'd gone to see. He was completely horrified by it. At first, when the vampire in the film had said "the lion fell in love with the lamb", he had been mildly amused. And when the vampire family in the film had claimed to be "vegetarian vampires", Dumah was perplexed. But what had really offended him was the scene where the young male vampire had taken off his shirt and stepped into the sunlight.
Dumah had looked forward to this scene, hoping to see a dramatic suicide scene. But, instead of bursting into flames or dying the slow, agonizing death that had claimed so many of Dumah's own fledglings, the vampire in the film had....sparkled. Like there were diamonds under his skin or something.
Disgusted, Dumah stood up and stormed out of the theatre. He was aware of the eyes of dozens of adolescent girls on him. One of them stood up and followed him as he made his exit. He walked faster, hoping to evade her. To his dismay, he heard the girl start to walk faster, too. Frustrated, he stopped and turned around. "What do you want, girl?" he snarled, using his most threatening tone of voice. He had never borne any love for humans, and, with the exception of Amara (and possibly Rupali), he especially loathed the self-indulgent, self-important humans of this world. The girl shrank back, then straightened. She was a very short, very plain girl with glasses and short, wavy auburn hair. She was a little chubby. Dumah would have guessed her to be about nineteen years old. Too old for that ridiculous movie by all accounts. "You...you're one of them, aren't you?" she said. "A vampire," she said quietly. "But...how come you don't sparkle?" Dumah couldn't help himself. He hated humans, he hated this world, and he especially hated sparkling vampires! In one swift motion, he grabbed the girl, snapped her neck, and buried his fangs in her throat, letting the fresh, warm blood flow into his mouth. He could have died from the sheer pleasure of it. He had spent too many weeks drinking chilled blood with Ice. He'd forgotten about the thrill of the hunt. How had this world's vampires allowed themselves to become so CIVILIZED? Dumah thought that the vampires ought to take their place as the rulers of this world! A shot cracked the air and Dumah felt a brief, sharp pain in his shoulder. He looked up and saw a man in a blue uniform aiming a pistol at him. Dumah narrowed his eyes. How dare that impudent mortal interrupt his feeding! The man shot again, and Dumah easily dodged it. Then he dropped the girl's body, and, with an animalistic howl, leapt at the man with the gun.
"One of what?" Dumah growled.
"Hey, Amara, where's Dumah?" Ice asked about three hours after he left. "That movie should be over now, shouldn't it?"
I looked up from the plate I was washing and shrugged. "Dunno." Without another word, I went back to washing the dishes. But something definitely didn't feel right. Dumah typically never ventured out without Ice or Rupali. When he did, he always came straight back.
"You don't think he's gotten into any trouble, do you?" I asked Ice. She shook her head and brushed a few golden strands of hair out of her face.
"He can take care of himself." With that, Ice walked into the living room and switched the TV back on.
"This is Nancy Butz with KMQX-TV, here in Butte Falls. We have a report of a double-murder downtown, near the movie theatre. The victims are 19-year old Amadea Franz and 38 year-old Robert Downs, a local police officer. We have an eyewitness report here..."
Now that was intriguing. Butte Falls is a small town. Double murders don't happen often. I strained to listen to the news report.
"Like, this guy was talking to that mousey girl. He was hot. Like, omigod! Really hot! With this long black hair...he looked kinda like one of those Gothy types, yanno? Anyway, he was talking to her and then he just flipped sh--" Here, the interview was cut off by a short, shrill beep, "Oh, oopsies! I'll watch my language! Anyway, he just reached over and broke the poor girl's neck, and that cop guy across the street saw what was going on and started shooting at the hot crazy killer guy, and, like, the killer guy jumped at the cop and, like, tore out his trachea. Or something. Except there's no blood. Anywhere. Fu--" There was another beep, but the witness went on talking, "Scary!"
I dropped the plate I was washing. Ice swore and turned off the TV.
"We have to find him!" she said. "Before...before they do!"
"Ice, the cops are going to find him. He stands out in a crowd. And if you think I'm going to let you harbor a fugitive..."
Ice shook her head. "The cops? Who gives a shit about them? They're the least of Dumah's worries."
"Not if they catch him!" I countered.
"They'll get there before the cops will. Come on, Amara, let's go!" Ice's gray-blue eyes flashed.
I shook my head. "He'll come back."
"Not if they find him."
"Ice," I said slowly, trying to hide the fact that I no longer had any patience, "Who the fuck is this enigmatic THEY you're so worried about?"
"The local chapter of the International Council of Elder Vampires," Ice said, evenly.
I groaned and threw my hands up in the air. Vampires! Everywhere!
"He broke the law, let him deal with it," I said. Ice only smiled and shook her head.
"It isn't that simple. I really, really don't want to have to explain to them about why Dumah doesn't know our laws. There's not even any guarantee that they'd believe me. Look, they'll put a stake in his heart. Or throw him into a river. Or bury him alive. We have to find him."
Loathe as I was to admit it, I was growing fond of Dumah, and, furthermore, no one was going to put a stake in his heart unless it was me, dammit!
"So, you'll help me find him, right?" Ice asked.
"Absolutely."
