Chapter 10

Rex and Nick hunted in St. Paul the rest of the week and over the weekend. On Tuesday Rex swung past the Northside Neighborhood Clinic, only to discover that it had late evening hours only on Mondays and Thursdays; all other weekdays, they closed at 6 PM. The vampire scowled briefly; he'd wanted to ask that doctor lady if they'd had any more trouble. He doubted that they had, but you never knew about these things. Now, though, he was at loose ends. It was early still, but he wasn't hungry enough to want to hunt.

A thought struck him, causing him to grin. He drove around until he found a working public phone, then called the main police station. The switchboard directed his call to the Homicide Division, where he asked for Detective Murphy.

Again he was disappointed; Murphy was on day shift that week. With a sigh, he ended the call, carefully wiping down the phone's handpiece and every other surface he'd touched. He was pretty sure they'd never fingerprinted him in St. Louis, but it didn't hurt to take precautions. With no other options for entertainment, he headed back out to the lair, resigned to a quiet night at home.

Force of habit had him checking his e-mail; to his surprise, he found a message from Ripper. All it said was:

ET phone home. Rip.

It made him laugh, but he climbed back into his Expedition and drove to his hidden cell phone. "Ripper, this is Rex," he said, once the call was answered.

"Thanks for calling," the other vampire said. "Listen, there's a lawyer who wants to talk to you—a JAG lawyer. He's been assigned to represent you, Rex."

"Why do I need to be represented?" Rex was confused now; Taylor was the one who was locked up, not him.

"You're the plaintiff here, he says. You've had something stolen from you, right? Your Pet, Taylor?" the amusement was clear to be heard in Ripper's voice.

"Yes. What about unlawful imprisonment, and abuse of a captive—namely, me—while we're at it?" Rex growled in annoyance. "And my three Childer—I can't feel my youngest anymore, so I know he's dead too."

"All that and more; that's why he wants to meet with you."

"Yes; and then they'll know for certain where I am. I'm not stupid, Ripper."

"He can't tell anyone where you are if you don't want him to, Rex; attorney-client privilege, they call it. Hell, you can meet him in some neutral location, or have someone you trust pick him up and bring him to you. Whaddaya say? It can only help Taylor's case, if they see that you're willing to try to work within the system."

"I will think about it," was all Rex would say about that. He paused, then asked with a chuckle, "Did my gift for Major Greene arrive yet?"

"Oh, yeah," Ripper chuckled back. "We taped it. Tell ya what, Rex: I'll send a copy of the vid with the JAG, if you'll meet with him."

"Hmmm. Bribery may just get you what you want," Rex admitted. "There is another package coming, although the contents of this one may smell a bit. I found more than just vampires, this past weekend."

"I'll make sure they tape that too, then."

"Thank you. Give my Pet my regards, yes?"

"I will. Be…careful, Rex."

"Yes." Then he ended the call and sat in the dark for quite some time, thinking his situation over before finally going home to his lair.

~oOo~

Five more kills over the rest of the week—there were, after all, two of them to keep fed now. More sensational headlines in the following day's newspapers. The online versions had some interesting responses from readers, some of whom seemed to approve of what the now-infamous Vampire Vigilante was doing. The police, naturally, did not agree.

~oOo~

Rex smiled as he watched his young humans playing out on the athletic field Monday afternoon. He had to stay well back from the window to avoid being burned―this building hadn't had the windows replaced with the necro-glass yet―, but it was worth it to see them laughing and looking happy out in the fading sunshine. Today, for some reason, the workmen had left early; he would ask Collins why later. Soon, he was told, the main house would be finished, and the youngsters could be outside longer. That would be a good reward for diligence in their studies.

There were two more teenage boys, and four more young women in the stables now, although he didn't know how long he'd be keeping one of the boys. Eddie, at sixteen, reminded him a great deal of his own Childe, Edward, now lost to him, and not just in name. This one had to be kept on a chain in his quarters, as he lied and stole from the others' rooms, and bullied the younger children. He'd tried to corner young Janet; he was lucky that it had been Collins who'd caught him that day. But he'd been confined closely since then, and was likely to remain so.

Rex shook his head, then went and climbed into his car, carefully parked in a shaded area. He would be so glad, once the house was done and he could park down in the cellars.

It would be dark enough by the time he got back into the city proper, so he headed on out. He had a doctor's appointment, even if she didn't know it yet.

~o~

Rex parked around the back, in the alley where the clinic staff parked their vehicles. He smiled, seeing Dr. Bauneau's car there with all the rest. He locked up, then walked around the block to the front entrance and went in. "Excuse me; I need to have a word with Dr. Bauneau," he told the receptionist, who looked at him with some confusion.

She covered her uncertainty by sliding a clipboard and pen towards him. "If you'll just fill out these forms, sir, then have a seat, one of the nurses will be with you to get you checked in." She turned back to whatever had been holding her attention before he'd walked in, apparently forgetting that he was even there.

For his part, Rex was puzzled at first. He looked down at what this woman had given him, then didn't know if he felt furious or amused. The humor won… mostly. "Woman, I am not here as a patient," he snapped at her, causing her to raise startled eyes to stare at him.

There was no telling what might have happened next, if a woman who'd been there before he'd come in hadn't staggered up to the front desk, trying to return her clipboard of information. Rex caught the overly sweet scent of a human in ketosis, even if he didn't know what the condition was called; his preternaturally quick reflexes let him catch her before she could crack her skull on the corner of the counter.

"Call your doctor, or a nurse, now!" Rex ordered, brooking no argument. "This woman's blood sugar is dangerously off."

"How would you know that?" the ditz behind the desk started to protest, igniting Rex's rage.

"Get someone here, NOW!" he roared, realizing that he'd have to bypass the idiot who guarded the door.

"What is…Oh! Oh, my…" A nurse had come from the back to see what the commotion was about. She wasted no time once she saw the collapsed woman in Rex's arms… this was a long-time patient, a known diabetic with very unstable blood sugar. She pushed open the door to the back. "Quickly, Exam #2, please. Dr. Bauneau? It's Mrs. Gonzalez again."

Rex looked at the nurse. "Her blood sugar is too low; she passed out at the desk," he explained. The nurse just nodded and pulled out an IV set and some collection tubes, and calmly drew a blood sample after finding a vein for the IV.

"What do we have, Laura?" Dr. Bauneau asked as she hurried into the room and began to check over the patient. She ignored Rex for the moment, since he was staying out of her way; she'd only registered that it was a man, and assumed that he was Mr. Gonzalez. The nurse—Laura, apparently—hurried out of the exam room and towards the rear of the building with the filled tubes of blood she'd drawn.

"When was the last time she ate, Mr….Oh!" the doctor said, finally looking in Rex's direction.

"I am terribly sorry, Doctor; I do not know the lady. I can tell you that her blood sugar is too low, if that will help you."

"How do you know that?"

"By her scent, of course—though it may still be too faint for you to detect." Rex tried a gentle smile at her, but her brow creased further in confusion

"Wait… I know you, don't I?" Bauneau muttered—to herself, she thought. Then it hit her. "Yes; you're the man who helped me the day we were robbed. Mr…"

"Julius Alexander, although I asked you to call me Rex," he answered her unspoken question gently. "I just stopped by to see if you'd had any other such problems. I seem to have chosen a bad time."

"No; I'm glad you stopped by…" the doctor began, cutting herself off as the room's phone rang softly. "Excuse me, please," she said as she answered it. Her face got very serious as her lab tech told her about a blood sugar of only 48, and she gave some orders for further tests in response, then muttered that that alone shouldn't have had her passing out.

Acting on an impulse, Rex stopped and cocked his head slightly, listening carefully to the patient. "Did you know that your patient is… expecting, Madam Doctor?" he inquired delicately. At her confused look, Rex calmly explained, "I can hear a second heartbeat, very faint and fast. It is not yours, and I do not have one."

She missed the end of his statement, fixating only on the fact of the pregnancy. She called back to the lab to order one more test, to her tech's surprise, before looking back at Rex. "Do you do that often?" she asked curiously. "Diagnose by smell and sound?"

"I am… aware of certain conditions that way, yes," Rex answered with more caution now. He stopped as Nurse Laura came back in with the fluids that had been ordered, working around Dr. Bauneau, who moved aside and began to write up her notes. The ringing phone drew her attention; Rex watched her face as she received a positive result on the pregnancy test. He smiled gently at her once more when she turned to face him again.

"Can you predict the sex of her child, too?" she asked, a bit acerbically, although she blushed slightly at the tone she'd taken with him.

"No, I'm afraid not," Rex actually chuckled back at her. "There are other things that I can tell about a person, though that requires their blood."

"So… you're a lab tech?" Dr. Bauneau asked, starting to think that she finally understood. Enough time had passed that she had forgotten most of the details of her previous meeting with the vampire, especially those that ran contrary to her established sense of reality. "You're looking for a job?"

Rex reared back, momentarily insulted by her query, then saw the humor in it. He waited until the nurse left the room to fetch something else; the patient was still out of it. He chuckled as he looked at the human before him. "No, Madam Doctor, I am not a lab tech, nor am I seeking employment as such. I just know of such things, because I live on blood. You cannot ignore facts just because you find them uncomfortable, you know."

"I'm not sure what you mean," Bauneau said, but the scent of fear that he detected in the air now told Rex that she had some suspicion of what the truth might be.

"I am a vampire, but I mean you no harm," Rex told her as soothingly as he could. "I have placed you, and this clinic, under my protection. There are very few of my kind living in this city at the moment—truly, only two of us that I know of, but there are enough human criminals to keep me quite well fed. Have you had any further trouble here?"

"No…" she answered, her uncertainty clear in her voice. "You… left those heads…"

"Apparently the warning was enough, then," Rex replied nonchalantly before growing serious once more. "You are here, helping those in need. Those three got what was deserved. You do realize that if you need assistance, you may call on me?"

"Ah…. actually, I can't," she answered, fighting back a sense of unreality and trying not to look around herself wildly for some path for escape.

"Of course you— No, you cannot," Rex corrected himself mid-statement, then picked up a pad of paper lying on the counter. "Forgive me. I never gave you a way to get in touch with me; we were interrupted by the arrival of the police. Here, this is my cell-phone number." He wrote it down and passed the paper to her, ignoring the way her hand trembled. Then he looked more carefully at her, finally noting her distress. "You fear that I am some lunatic, who only believes himself to be a vampire. Some sort of deranged killer, yes? I can prove the truth to you… but you must promise not to scream. I will not harm you. All right?"

She stared at him, then nodded hesitantly. He smiled once more to reassure her, then vamped out. And then Nurse Laura walked into the room.

"Damn it all," Rex cursed softly, then caught the nurse before she could hit the floor.

~o~

They got Mrs. Gonzalez stabilized, then left her under the watchful eyes of a second nurse to adjourn to Dr. Bauneau's office.

"So you really are a vampire," Laura said in wonder, studying the now-human features Rex wore. He has such lovely green eyes… "They never said anything about fang-marks…"

"I use a knife, for just that reason. And I do not choose victims randomly, but only those that prey on the innocent and weak."

"And then something else gets them, once you move on," Dr. Bauneau sighed, feeling discouraged.

"Not really," Rex admitted reluctantly. "I… have taken in some would-be victims. Teenagers and children—runaways. They are being cared for in my lair…"

"So you… what? Drink their blood?" Laura asked, appalled at the notion.

"No! They are much too young for that," Rex protested. "They are the basis for my Stable, yes, but not until they are grown. And even if they stay with me to provide blood, they will not be killed; they are mine, after all, to be protected and cherished… You do not believe me."

"Don't vampires kill their donors? All the movies say…" Laura stopped at the look of disgust that crossed Rex's face.

"Hollywood," he sneered, letting his eyes briefly glint golden. "They know nothing. And popular fiction has much of it wrong as well. What they do show of the truth is portrayed more like the actions of a masterless minion. A low-ranking peon," he explained at their blank looks, then sighed. "It is too long an explanation to go into. Just accept that I do not have to kill if I do not wish to. I can taste their health in their blood. It is very sweet if they are not afraid, and a well cared-for stable has no fear of their Master. Wild humans taste very spicy, from their fear, and adrenalin. Those are also frequently flavored by drugs and alcohol. If you do not believe that my stable is cared for, you may examine them for yourself, Doctor."

"All right," Bauneau replied, taking up the thrown gauntlet. "When? Tonight?"

"If you wish," Rex returned easily. "I will wait here until you finish your hours, then take you to see them. My lair is being renovated, but I will even show you their future quarters, if you wish."

"Doctor, I don't know if this is such a good idea," Nurse Laura tried to caution, but Rex grinned at her.

"You know who she is with; I tell you now that your doctor will be safe with me, you have my oath on it."

Both humans refrained from asking what the oath of a demon was worth. Instead, Dr. Bauneau focused on something else he'd mentioned. "You said you can taste drugs in the blood?" she asked, curious once more.

"Yes, although I may not know what they are at first," he admitted. "Heroin and cocaine I know by taste, as well as LSD and marijuana. Others, I would only know that something was there until you told me what the taste is. Alcohol… I know what the legal limit tastes like."

"And if you can hear a fetal heartbeat, you can hear things like pneumonia and cardiac arrhythmias." Dr. Bauneau actually sounded excited at the thought.

"Yes, I could," Rex said, wondering what this human was thinking now. He didn't have to wait long to find out.

"I wonder if you would be willing to trade services?" she asked, her eyes gleaming.

~oOo~

All in all, Rex felt it to be a good deal. Dr. Bauneau or Nurse Laura would come out to the lair to check his stable once a month, and he would spend several hours every Monday evening at the clinic, pre-testing blood samples. This would save the clinic quite a bit of expense, as they would not have to use reagents for basic screening. Only they three—and, of course, the lab tech, Peter—would know what he was. All the others would be told that he was a second tech, a trainee, to explain his lack of knowledge of the machines that Peter used.

No one would be upset if he missed a Monday due to other "duties;" and he would already be in town to hunt, once the clinic closed for the night.

Yes, Rex thought, pleased. A very good trade indeed, for he would have a good doctor on call in case of emergencies. And humans were such fragile creatures…

~oOo~

"What can you tell me about H386V, Sergeant?" Captain Eric Williamson asked the man seated before him.

"Sir, his name is Rex," Taylor said, not even trying to hide his irritation as he wondered what this was all about. He'd been brought here to meet with this lawyer—a JAG(1) lawyer—but no one had said what was going on. He hadn't been introduced as his lawyer; Taylor wondered if he'd even get one.

"I stand corrected," the lawyer said with a nod, making a notation on the pad before him. "Why did you name him that, if I may ask?"

"Captain, have you ever met a vamp?" Taylor asked, changing the subject. "They're not animals, you know. They think and reason like we do; they have feelings, wants and desires, even if we don't always understand their motivation."

"According to what a number of your superior officers have claimed, that isn't the case," Williamson said, mostly to see how Taylor would respond.

"Yeah, well, that thinking suited their prejudices, and allowed them their abuse and butchery," Taylor sneered. "Whose lawyer are you, anyway?"

"Does it matter?"

"Hell, yeah, it matters. Sir."

Williamson chuckled at that tagged-on military courtesy. "Actually, Sergeant Taylor, I'm supposed to be Rex's lawyer. He hasn't agreed to meet with me yet, though, and it's hard to build a case in his favor on nothing but hearsay from those opposing him."

"He's not gonna put himself back into your hands, Captain. Not after the hell he was put through here," Taylor warned, shaking his head.

"No, and I wouldn't, either," the captain said, figuring that he would get more information by agreeing. "So, what can you tell me about him? Why did you name him Rex?"

"I didn't name him," Taylor answered in disgust. "It's his name; he came with it. I have no idea what his name was before he was turned. He's old, was turned during the Civil War, and he's powerful. He's a Master Vampire. He had Childer—that's a vamp's offspring—but they were killed here. That was Medical's fault."

Williamson had been taking notes; now he looked up sharply. "Medical killed children?"

Taylor had to laugh. "Not the way you're thinking, sir," he answered, getting himself in hand once more. "When a vamp turns someone—makes 'em a vamp, right?—that's a fledge. It can be either a minion or, sometimes, a Childe—they use the old form of the word, with an 'e' at the end. That's only done by Master Vamps, and only if they mean to keep them as a companion through the ages, according to Rex. Some of my other sources say that, too. The bodies they use are late teens or adults; it's the… motivating demon inside that's a 'baby,' that has to mature. Rex's… I guess they would have been teenage demons, or young adults by now; I don't know when he turned them."

"His records from your unit said nothing about him having these Childes."

"Plural is 'Childer.' And no, he didn't tell us about 'em; didn't tell me until after they'd been killed. I don't blame him, either; it would have been one more thing to hold over him. Right now, the only hostage you could possibly have over him is me."

"You said that Medical was responsible for his… Childer's… deaths. How so?"

"You know about the order to neuter troublemakers? Well, that would be like someone cutting you for starting fights, or being drunk and disorderly." He snickered at the horrified look on the lawyer's face. "They're not just animals, remember? Anyway, Rex's oldest—Edward—they gelded him an' a couple others. First patrol he went out on after that, he let the demon they were hunting dust him. He committed suicide, because he wouldn't live as less than a man. And he wasn't the first of 'em to do that, either, though Medical refused to believe that was the reason. It was just one degradation too many.

"The problem was, vamps can… 'sense' their family members. So Rex knew when his Childe dusted—you do know you don't have a body left when vamps are killed, right?" Taylor paused until Williamson nodded. "Okay. So, Rex knew, and so did his other two Childer. They set up a godawful howl of grief, and that attracted Medical's attention. I'm sure you've been told that I watched over Rex like he was my kid—Corey's handler kept a pretty close eye on him, too, though not as good as Patterson used to."

"Patterson?" the lawyer interrupted.

"Frank Patterson. He lost a leg in a fight with a Fyarl demon―they're dumb but strong an' damn hard t' kill―got medical'ed out about eight months back. Rick Dobbs was Corey's handler after that. He was a good man too."

"Okay. Continue, please," Williamson said once he'd gotten the names straight.

"Right. So, Rex an' Corey were protected, but Mason had no full-time handler yet—his old handler got court-martialled for neglect. He had no protection; no one to bitch if something happened to him. So Medical took him for 'testing.' About a week or so later, Rex told me he'd dusted—he felt it happen, sir. I guess Corey did, too. Problem was, those butchers from Medical, they got no answers they liked, so they were gonna go after Rex next. I got orders to take leave for two weeks—mandatory leave orders. That would have gotten me out of their way, and I knew Rex wouldn't survive it. So I set him free. You might want to find out what happened to Corey, though."

"We're already looking into that. It would seem that he's not the only Hunter mysteriously unaccounted for. But that doesn't tell me about Rex. What did you think he would do, once you set him free, Sergeant?"

"Do? I figured he'd kill me, once his chip was disabled," Taylor admitted with a shrug and a wry grin. "He fooled me there."

"I'm told that he did bite you, though."

"Yessir, he did that. But he never meant for it to kill me; just marks me as his. His way of thinking, I was his, not the other way around. I saw he was fed, took care of him—he saw me as what Master Vamps call a Pet, a favored human. And vamps, they don't give up with they consider 'theirs' very easily. He said he'd get me back, so he'll try. I just don't know what he'll do."

"Where would he go, any idea?"

"No, sir, an' I wouldn't say if I did," Taylor answered, defiance in every line of his body now.

"Easy, there; I'm just asking, trying to form an impression of him," Williamson said carefully. Taylor might have been shackled and restrained, but he had been talkative so far. He had confirmed what the other vampires from the Nightstalkers group had told him, even if a lot of what they'd said was merely supposition and hearsay. "We haven't received any reports of sudden activity that could be linked to vampires, Sergeant," he said, trying a new tack.

"He's not stupid, Captain; Rex would know you'd be watching for something like that," Taylor said contemptuously. "He'll still feed, but not so's the authorities would notice anything out of the ordinary."

"Actually, we think we know roughly where he went. He's been in contact with… another group, let us say," the JAG said, not realizing that Taylor not only knew of, but had actually met, some of the Nightstalkers. He passed some newspaper clippings to Taylor. "Does this look like something he might do?"

Taylor looked down at them, then smiled as he read the articles. Finally he looked back at the lawyer. "What's he say?" was his only comment.

"I'm told that he has threatened a bloodbath if you are harmed, or he doesn't get you back."

"Better believe him, Captain. He was a soldier once himself, an honorable man. That part stuck, even if it's kinda demon-y now. When he swears something, he means it."

"I was rather afraid of that," Williamson sighed, leaning back in his chair. "So, how do I get him to agree to meet with me?"

Notes

(1) The Army, as well as the Navy, refers to its legal division as JAG. The initials stand for Judge Advocate General, the same meaning as in the Navy. The Air Force has no special name for its legal service.