An Apostle of the Lord, Chapter 38
When Eddie returned home to Indiana, he saw that Captain Fyter had already learned and perfected throwing the frisbee in a graceful arc that returned it to his hands. A shirtless dragon-winged Victor was in the air trying to catch it, with encouragement from Vladimir below. The few times he did catch it brought cheers from the others.
Meanwhile, Scraps had her sewing fingers on and was working on Viktor's shirt. "See, she explained to Eddie, "I overlap an inch down here and wider as it goes up until at the collar I stitched in two long velcro strips. When Vik's wings pop out, the velcro gives and the shirt opens without tearing. When he pulls his wings in, all he has to do is reach back to press the velcro back together." She held up the completed shirt and Wogglebug nodded his approval.
Eddie recounted his adventure in Kansas and the professor had questions.
"So, did you check to see if these 'eyes' were connected directly to the organs?" Wogglebug asked.
"We didn't check."
"And did the 'eyes' have pupils or irises?"
"No, they were plan, kinda like a couple of whitish globes."
"And I bet you didn't find any separate drops of the creatures' black goo. Am I right?"
"Uh, come to think of it, no!"
"I know how the creature operates then." Professor Wogglebug elaborated: "Those aren't eyes and the goo isn't exactly a liquid meant to wash over the victim to dissolve it. What's happening is, the pores around the 'eyes' are secreting long strips of flesh around the victim to keep it encased. They also hold in the radiation that the two globes emit over the victim that breaks it down. The only gap is on the ground and I recall you had said before there was always a black smudge on the ground. The ground was radiated. If you had given the body to me, I would probably be able to tell you why the salt one stayed levitated and how the organs create the body copies and the black skin that I consider to be bladders for the goo rather than the skin of a creature."
"Wow!" said Eddie. "I'll tell Castiel and the others. The creatures seem to be after the Winchesters. I don't now why..."
"Dean and Sam have done something somewhere that has threatened them. They are protecting their kind." Wogglebug returned to overseeing Scraps' progress on Viktor's clothes. "So, if you do something similar to his pants, he can produce a tail, too, and not tear the pants, right? That's brilliant, Scraps!"
Eddie turned and phoned Castiel. "Hey, Castiel! I have a new place for the creatures' bodies. Yeah, call Professor Wogglebug. He wants to study them. I think the Winchesters will be happy to be rid of the corpse in their icebox.
About then, Captain Fyter returned. He had left the boys in the yard to toss the frisbee between themselves. "They're almost worn out," he commented. "Shall we test their vocabulary now and see how much has sunk in?"
At Beryk and Anica's sanitarium – the 'Vam San' – in St. Louis, Claire Novak had just arrived at the front door, a bit apprehensive, considering the last time she almost became vampire food. Sheriff Mills was not far behind her.
Anica met them at the front entrance. "Glad to see you two," she said cheerfully. "We are really excited about the changes here and I especially want Claire's okay."
The first thing they notice upon entering was that the wall and panels between the lobby and the dining hall had been torn out. In its place was a waist-high solid wall topped with some cris-crossed slats giving it an outdoor garden effect. The long table had been replaced with several smaller ones and a permanent serving table sat just inside from the kitchen. Claire approved the change.
"And this you will really like!" Anica promised. She pushed open the double doors into what had been the iron lung hall. The devices were gone and couches, table lamps and a pool table were gathered together in the middle of the room. Two men were papering the wall in a flowery peach and rose design on a background of green leaves and light gray swirls. The tiled floor had already been carpeted in deep green.
"Guys, come here for a minute," Anica called to the gray-eyed men and introduced them to the girls. "This is Hank. This is his brother Joseph. Beryx called them in from our base in Newark. They live here now and will be our grounds keepers. Thanks, guys!"
Anica directed them into the kitchen where a woman was peeling potatoes. "This is our cook, Monica from here in Missouri. She and the boys will be living here, along with three more that haven't arrived yet. Everyone will be on Eddie's blood mix and the healthy meals she prepares."
"Does this mean two more for supper?" asked Monica.
Jody attempted to bow out, but Monica insisted they eat before driving back to Sioux Falls. Jody and Claire graciously accepted the invite and found themselves enjoying the meal and conversation with the residents.
During the meal, Jody noticed Beryx wasn't there.
"He's still in New Jersey, scouting for residents." Anica said. "It's hard to break vampires away from their superior stand over humans and get them to understand adapting to associating with them as equals."
"So all vampires look down on humans?" Jody asked.
"Yeah," piped up Hank. "Putting your food on an equal standing is absurd if you are addicted to consuming it. You can't allow feeling sympathetic to humans if their blood is the sole source of your life."
"Think of it this way," added his brother Joseph. "Do you eat venison? Someone goes out among innocent deer and shoots one of them dead and drags away its carcass. Or compare the earlier set-up here with the trucks and iron-lungs with a cattle farm. Cow are kept in pens and fed specifically to fatten them up and one day some are herded into a van to be mass slaughtered. Explain that rationale to a cow. Oh, hey, sorry, we eat meat and you are made of, well, meat we like to eat."
"But there 'are' vegetarians who reject eating meat," asserted Claire.
"And here we are, the vegetarians of vampires," finished Joseph.
The conversation moved on to other topics, including addition of hall cameras and how Anica can get help when problems arise with contrary vampires or unknowing vampire hunters.
The conversation was so pleasant, Jody and Claire decided to stay overnight in the guest rooms and have breakfast, too.
Monica served steak and eggs for breakfast and Hank and Joseph tore into them like lions on a gazelle. Claire and Jody looked over at Anica who just shrugged her shoulders and smiled.
"Hey!" Hank said to Claire while baring his fangs and sliding his tongue over one of them. "At least I still have good use for fangs when a good steak is served."
"And if you ever come and one of the guests get out of line, just find me. I can protect you with these," He held out his hand to show off an impressive set of claws.
Claire whipped out her dagger and held it up to Hank's hand. "Mine's bigger! I can take care of myself."
"I believe you totally." Hank grinned.
In New Jersey, Beryx walked down the dingy hall of a tenement's third floor. The entire building housed only vampires and it smelled like it. No mealtime smells of Italian ravioli or Polish sausage. Just smells not unlike the medical wastes piled behind the illegal backroom clinics and drug dens of the surrounding poor neighborhood.
He addressed a group of six recruits in one of the rooms. It wasn't difficult to do talk them into leaving this hell hole. Given the rampant diseases, drugs, and malnutrition in the area, most of the vampires were sickly from feeding off the local population. They all agreed to accompany him back to a promised better life in St. Louis.