Chapter 9: Vampires at Midnight
Peter scanned the packed classroom of the observatory. They'd finished a careful headcount of all the kids and adults. Ethan and Amita were the only children missing. And then there was the biggest kid of them all—Neal. Peter suspected he'd seen them take off and had gone after them, but the thought provided little comfort. He couldn't get a signal on his cell phone. Neal was probably having the same problem.
For once, Mozzie was all business. Peter was surprised at what a reassuring, solid presence he was. If this was what Mozzie was like during a heist, it was clear why Neal valued his help so highly. When the occasion demanded it, Mozzie was at his best. He'd delegated some of the older kids to be his assistants and they were devising activities to keep the children entertained.
El and Janet had helped question the campers. Roberto Cordera, a trustworthy boy Peter knew well from the spring telescope workshops, had seen Neal near the observatory building with Ethan but hadn't spotted Amita. Had she already been dragged off by vampires? Dean and Sam said they targeted the stragglers, the weakest ones. Peter shoved that dire possibility aside. He needed to stay sharp. Imagining the worst didn't help anyone.
Travis, still in his Vulcan uniform, had gone upstairs to fetch machetes. As soon as he returned, he and Peter would head off to search for them. The buses to take the kids back to camp weren't due to arrive for another forty-five minutes. Peter was leaving El, Janet, and Mozzie in charge. As long as everyone stayed inside, they should be safe. He hated that El was caught up in this. She was doing a good job of keeping her emotions in check.
When Travis returned, he had the machetes wrapped in towels so the kids wouldn't know what they were. He handed Peter a GPS tracking unit as they stepped outside. "I brought two in case we get separated. Neal has his watch on but so far the signal's not coming through. The tree canopy is probably causing too much interference. Once we're closer, we may be able to draw a bead on him."
"Based on what Roberto said, Amita most likely headed for the fireflies in the same area where Mozzie saw them. If Neal had spotted vampires, he would have taken them into the woods." While they were talking, the sound of a fast-approaching car was heard accelerating around the bend. An instant later the Impala pulled into view. Peter breathed easier at the sight of it.
"Why are you outside?" Dean demanded as he and Sam jumped out of the car. "Get back in the building."
Peter explained what had happened while Travis paced the lot, trying to get a signal from Neal's watch. "We feel confident we know where the kids were going and hope Neal's with them. It's only about a fifteen-minute walk from here. Have you seen any vampires?"
Sam nodded. "Fast-moving shadows in the woods. We passed two groups on our way here."
Peter's heart plummeted at the news.
"Bobby's been on the phone to other hunters," Dean added. "They're spreading out in the park, but the forest covers over four thousand acres."
His words trailed off, but the conclusion was obvious. The vampires were needles in a haystack.
"We heard about a sighting near Ghost Lake," Sam added, "but they took off before the hunters could get to them. Whatever they're up to, they're not treating this as an all-you-can-eat buffet."
Dean jerked his head in Travis's direction. He was now standing at the edge of the parking lot. "What's Spock doing?"
"Trying to get a signal from Neal's watch." Peter strode over to Travis. "Any luck?"
"Still nothing."
"I bet you can show me how this toy works," Dean said. "There's no need for the two of you to be exposed."
"That's a non-starter," Travis said flatly. "Peter's already told me what to expect. I can swing a machete as well as he can."
Dean eyed him skeptically. "A Vulcan on a vampire hunt?"
"I'd say I'm the perfect choice," Travis asserted calmly. "Vampires won't like my green blood. Some say I already look demonic. Perhaps the vampires will think I'm one of them."
Dean smiled appreciatively. "Okay, Vulcan, you won yourself a spot."
"We can't go to the firefly location by car," Peter warned. "It's at the edge of a large meadow, and you don't know where it is."
"No skunk cabbage to hide our scent this time," Dean cautioned.
Peter shrugged. "We're wasting time. Let's get started."
"Wait!" Travis exclaimed, "I got a ping."
"Where?" Peter demanded.
Travis studied the display on the unit. "It's not at the edge of the meadow but southwest of here along the ridge of the mountain slope."
Peter studied the location on Travis's digital map. The observatory was built on the summit of a mountain ridge that ran parallel to Shades of Death Road. "That has to be at least thirty minutes away. It's in the rocky part of the ridge. Let's get moving."
As they hiked the trail through the meadow, they constantly scanned in all directions. The occasional low rumbling hoots of a Great Horned Owl alerted them to its ghostly presence. Midway through the meadow, the owl startled them by flying silently directly overhead. The meadow grasses rustled with the scurrying whispers of its prey—field mice and voles.
Before they started, Peter had warned the group to be careful about snakes. His heart somersaulted into his throat when his flashlight shone on glowing eyes, but it was a false alarm. The eyes belonged to a fox, not a vampire.
The trail forked at the boundary between the meadow and the woods. One branch led to the southwest, the other north. The area where he and El had stopped to admire the orchids was only a short distance to the west. The forest was dominated by large white pines. It had been a wet spring and the undergrowth was lush on either side of the narrow trails.
"This way," Travis whispered, indicating the fork to the southwest.
There continued to be no sign of vampires, but no one was letting down his guard. The trail took them along rocky outcrops scattered among dense brambles and trees.
Travis approached Peter. "I think I know where they are. This is close to the cave Mozzie discovered. They must have sought shelter there."
When they arrived at the cave, Travis confirmed that the signal was coming from inside. Peter understood why Neal had chosen it. The shallow entrance was less than three feet high and hidden by brambles. They'd have to crawl to get inside.
"I'll go first," Dean insisted. "It may be a trap." Before the others could object, he was already on his hands and knees, but Peter was right after him.
Once they were within the cave, they could stand upright. It was completely silent when they entered. Had Neal and the kids been dragged off and the watch left behind? Their calls were going unanswered. They used their flashlights to check for hidden recesses.
"Neal, it's me, Peter." Peter could hear the strain in his voice. No one responded, and he called again. There were some narrow crevices. Had Neal managed to snake inside one? Was he lying unconscious? No sign of the kids.
"Peter?" The high-pitched, quavering voice sounded scared.
"Ethan! Is that you? You can come out now. It's safe. Is Amita with you?"
"We're both here!" Amita called out. First one then two small heads poked out from a crevice on the far side of the cave. It was partially obscured by overhanging rocks. The kids must have had help to get inside.
"Was Neal with you?" Sam asked, lifting them out one by one.
Ethan nodded vigorously, handing Peter Neal's watch. "He led the bad guys away. He told us you'd find us."
"Did you see the bad guys?" Peter asked.
Amita tugged at his hand. "There were five of them. They ran like Roadrunner."
"Like a bird?" Travis asked, looking puzzled.
"No, the cartoon. They were so fast all we saw were blurry streaks."
Peter exchanged knowing looks with Dean. Somehow Neal had managed to keep the kids from knowing the truth.
The kids were dirty but uninjured. They didn't appear scared and were treating it as a big adventure. Peter was reminded of Tom Sawyer and Becky. Fortunately for these two, it didn't wind up being as scary a story.
But they still had Huck Finn to rescue. Ethan told him Neal was heading north from the fork in the trail. He could be anywhere by now.
"Two of us need go back to the observatory with the kids in case the bad guys return," Sam said.
Dean eyed Peter dubiously. "I don't expect I can convince you to go back with them?"
"Don't waste your time."
"Sam and I'll go," Travis offered. "We can stay together till the fork."
Once the excitement wore off, Amita and Ethan were falling asleep on their feet. Travis and Sam each scooped one up in their arms as they walked back.
They retraced their steps to the fork without incident. The spotty cell phone coverage continued to be an issue. Neal still wasn't responding and Dean couldn't reach Bobby, but Peter was able to contact Mozzie. All was quiet at the observatory. El and Janet had set up an impromptu dorm with the mats they normally used outside and the younger kids were already asleep. Mozzie promised to hold the bus for their return.
When Sam and Travis turned toward the meadow, Peter and Dean headed north up the mountain. It brought back memories of Peter's previous hunt for vampires with Dean in the South Jersey swamp. They needed to use their flashlights to avoid tree roots and rocks. Since they were already broadcasting their presence, there was no need to keep quiet. In any case, vampires would have been able to smell them before they saw the lights.
Peter stopped in mid-thought. Here he was analyzing a vampire's movements as if he were any other criminal. Unbelievable. Travis teased Mozzie about Mulder being in the basement of the Bureau's headquarters in New York. Should Peter open an office for supernatural criminals next door? Or even better, he'd send all his reports to Mulder and let him handle it.
"Does Neal do this a lot?" Dean asked, cursing as he stumbled over a fallen branch.
"Wander off and need to be rescued? He does have that inclination. His GPS watch is supposed to take care of the problem."
They trudged on in the darkness, calling out Neal's name. Peter was keeping his curses to himself. Focus on what was important. The kids were safe. Huck Finn would be too.
But after twenty minutes with nothing to show for it but bug bites, the grizzly in him was starting to emerge. When they were on vampire patrol the previous night, Dean had recounted some of their recent jobs. From the sound of it, Dean and Sam had to extricate each other out of similar situations twenty-four seven. At least Neal had the courtesy to give Peter the occasional day off.
"Hi, guys!" A voice called out from a distance to the side of the trail. "Miss me?"
Peter stopped in his tracks as Neal scrambled through the underbrush to reach them.
Dean shone his flashlight to light Neal's way. "Battle wounds?"
"I'm good. How about Amita and Ethan?" he added anxiously. "Did you find them?"
"They're fine," Peter assured him. "Travis and Sam took them back to the observatory. Prove to us that you're in as good of shape."
Neal forced his way through a thicket to stand beside him. In the light of their flashlights, he looked grimy and exhausted with an assortment of scrapes and a t-shirt that was destined for the rag bag, but no blood or fang marks. Peter took his first decent breath in hours.
Neal explained how he'd climbed a tree to escape the vampires. "I ran like hell, but it took longer than I'd hoped to find a suitable tree. I finally had to jump from an oak tree to a pine and then finish the climb."
"Did you see them again?" Peter asked.
"Yeah, they passed right underneath me about five minutes after I climbed the tree. I couldn't figure out why they hadn't caught up with me, but for vampires, they were slow. When they were close to my tree, they stopped and sniffed the air for a few minutes. I could see them talking among themselves. They must have decided I wasn't worth the effort, because they took off. I waited a few minutes and then decided it was safe to come down. I was on my way back when I saw your flashlight."
"How were you able to see them?" Dean asked. "They don't use flashlights, not with their night vision."
"They had a human torch with them. Maybe it was one of the pure-bloods? There were six of them, but this one was different. His skin glowed like it was lit by an internal fire. And here's the other weird thing. He was stark naked. He looked human, but you'd need oven mitts to touch him."
"Huh." Dean looked at Neal doubtfully. "A man-sized firefly? That's a new one."
Neal shrugged. "Maybe Mozzie was right after all. Those fireflies were the advance guard of a giant firefly invasion. Just wait till I tell him. When we first spotted the vampires, I was sure there were five of them, but when I returned to the meadow they were standing in a circle around this guy."
"Could you see the human torch's face?" Peter asked. He refused to call him a firefly. There were limits.
Neal shook his head. "Not well. He had blond hair. He was slim, tall, and glowed. That's about all I could tell."
As they walked back down the trail, they were all keeping a careful watch for vampires—glowing or non-glowing—but didn't find any.
Neal continued to grill them about Ethan and Amita.
"You coached them well," Dean said. "We didn't know anyone was there till Ethan finally responded to Peter's voice."
"They were brave kids, a lot braver than me," Neal admitted. He tripped and Peter reached out to steady him. "Sorry, tree roots haven't been my friends." He seemed embarrassed by his shakiness.
"You're having a delayed reaction to what occurred," Peter said, staying close to offer more assistance if needed. "I know the feeling well."
"I've had plenty of narrow escapes," Neal huffed. "But this one did a number on me."
Dean shrugged. "Cut yourself some slack. When you're responsible for others, it can take a while to snap back. It's especially bad when kids are involved. You'll be all right."
Surprised, Peter looked at him with a new appreciation. He was about to say something similar, but Dean said it better. "It could have been worse," Peter added, trying to lighten Neal's mood. "No ghosts, right?"
His attempt fell flat as Neal's only response was to wince.
Dean stopped him. "You saw the ghost of Jenny?"
He shook his head. "No, forget it." Glancing over at Peter, he muttered, "Vance better not come back as a spirit."
Vance was the man who'd kidnapped Neal as a child and had come within a hair's breadth of killing him. Running alone at night in the woods? Yeah, that would dredge up some unwanted memories.
Dean was still looking puzzled. "Not all monsters are supernatural ones," Peter explained.
He nodded in sympathy. "You got that right."
#
Neal woke up early even though it was well past midnight by the time they went to bed. He was a light sleeper and something had awakened him. A few grunts were coming from one of the bunks. That was probably Dean. He'd stayed overnight with them since Chloe had already left. Bunk beds in a dorm room were a part of camp that Neal wouldn't miss.
Still, he'd slept better than expected. No nightmares about vampires or Vance in the woods. But what a dream. Neal kept thinking back on it.
He slipped quietly out of bed and closed the door to the bunk room behind him. When he entered the kitchen, he was surprised to see Sam already up and the coffee made. He was sitting at the kitchen table with his laptop powered on. Satchmo wagged Neal a greeting from his position on the floor next to Sam.
"What time did you get up?" Neal asked, pouring himself a cup of coffee.
"A half-hour ago I guess."
Neal glanced over at him. He had shadows under his eyes and looked like he should have spent at least a couple of extra hours in bed. "Couldn't sleep?"
Sam rubbed his eyes and nodded.
"I know the feeling. Nightmares?"
"Not exactly, just strange."
"Can't be stranger than mine."
Sam chuckled. "Wanna bet?"
"I don't need to. I know I'd win. I dreamed I was Manet painting in the meadow." Neal didn't describe what happened. He'd keep that embarrassing incident to himself.
"That's nothing," Sam scoffed. "I was wearing a toga at some ancient temple, spouting poetry. There was a Vestal Virgin. She and I . . . " Sam stopped and grinned sheepishly. "Let's just say that she'll need to find a new job. Don't tell Dean. He'd never let me live it down."
"That's not so bad. You should be glad it wasn't that woman in a veil you were dreaming about."
Sam shrugged acknowledgment and took a sip of coffee.
"Are you thinking of asking Maia out?"
"My subconscious certainly is."
"Your subconscious has good taste."
What was good for Sam wouldn't be a bad idea for him either. That new art student who'd taken possession of the studio next to his at Columbia was friendly. He should ask her out. Neal's time in the country, even with a few vampires thrown in, had been just what he needed. He'd been able to put some distance between himself and what had happened with Fiona.
Travis strolled in. He yawned as he helped himself to a cup of coffee. "You two got up early. Any fresh vampire reports?"
"Nah. The vamp-ometer hasn't let out a peep," Sam said.
"Do you have a vamp-ometer?" Travis asked, suddenly looking much more awake. White Collar's tech expert evidently expected to hear about an electronic marvel and was crestfallen to hear Sam was instead referring to Bobby.
"Do you plan to tell Richard about the vampires?" Neal asked.
Travis nodded. "I'm looking forward to it."
"He probably won't believe you," Sam warned.
"You don't know Richard," Travis countered. "He's from New Orleans. They take supernatural events very seriously down there."
"He made me a voodoo doll last fall to exorcise evil spirits," Neal added. "Back then I thought it was a joke. Now, I'm not so sure."
"And don't forget the one he keeps in his fencing locker," Travis pointed out. "Richard's attended a few séances when he was a college student at Tulane. He's told me some pretty wild legends about Louisiana creatures, including not a few vampires. Have you ever heard of a Rougarou?"
"No, what's that?" Sam asked.
"Some sort of wolf-human hybrid that stalks the swamps, sucking human blood from their hapless victims. Richard says there are so many legends about them, they must exist. His family claims to be descended from the pirate Jean Lafitte and there are stories about his ghost being seen in the swamps around New Orleans."
Neal knew Richard was into science fiction, but he hadn't heard about his interest in the paranormal. Now it made sense why Travis had treated the news of vampires heading for the park so seriously. For someone who scanned the skies for signs of extraterrestrial life, Dean and Sam's search for monsters on Earth must not seem that unusual.
Travis explained how Richard had read Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles and they'd inspired him to delve into the old tales of New Orleans vampires. "I remember him telling me about a French count from the 1700s who supposedly still visits New Orleans. Have you ever killed any vampires in New Orleans?"
"Not yet," Sam said. "But the way their numbers are increasing, we may not have long to wait."
Travis pursed his lips for a moment. "We're planning to visit Richard's mom in New Orleans next year. It will be my first time there. We may need to drive rather than fly. Taking a machete on board a plane could present issues."
Neal doubted he would be so nonchalant about it, not after last night.
"Do Jones and Diana know about your encounters with witches and vampires?" Travis asked.
"Peter's been keeping it a secret. You're the only other one at White Collar who knows what really happened to Hagen."
"That he was possessed by a demon named Crowley? Yeah, I can see where that would be difficult to explain to the Bureau. I plan to read what Peter wrote in the file about that incident when I return to the office." He turned to Sam. "Now that you know about the pure-bloods, how will they factor into your work?"
"We'll spread the word around. Eventually one of them will surface and we'll have to deal with it. Hopefully pure-bloods can be killed like regular vampires."