"Elle." Ed prompted as the group pulled up to the empty dilapidated warehouse.
Elle, who had been chewing on her bottom lip, and nervously clinging to the large square tupperware container in her arms glanced towards her brother.
"Rae, Rocks and I are going to go check it out, Okay? I want you to wait here, get in the driver's seat and keep the car running. If you think anything bad is happening or we are in any kind trouble, I want you to drive away."
Elle continued to chew her lip. She gave her brother no verbal response, only a wide eyed look of apprehension.
"Elle. I'm serious." Ed said sharply. He lacked the patience to reassure her and he wouldn't lie.
"You want me to leave you?" She asked, cracking under his glare.
"Only if you think something bad has happened." Rocks interjected quickly, looking at her in the rear view mirror. He did not want to be stranded miles from home without his car just because Elle heard a rat fart and it scared her.
"How will I know if something bad happened?" Elle questioned.
"There will be lots of screaming." Ed replied quickly.
"I made cheesecake." She told them, as though if by some magic; the presence of cheesecake was supposed to act as protection from danger.
"I'm not screwing around, you leave us and you go back home. You run inside you lock all of the doors and the windows and you stay there until dawn." Ed said.
"Hide under your bed with the garlic salt too." Rocks added, grinning. When he received a particularly harsh look from his friend he rolled his eyes. "Garlic is good for the skin."
"Something's wrong with my skin?" Elle questioned, lifting a hand to her cheek.
"No." Rocks said quickly. "I was just being an ass."
"As usual." Rae muttered from beside Elle.
"You're skin is perfect." Rocks said, turning in his seat and giving her his best smile. He could only hope his words would pacify the teenager as easily as they had upset her.
It worked; he'd repaired the damage he'd done. Elle smiled in a less self conscious way and he found himself staring at her. For the first time in six years he'd realized she was growing up. Though she hadn't fully matured, it was now painfully obvious she was no longer the frightened child he had helped rescue, at least not on the outside.
"Quit complimenting my sister, it's weird." Ed snapped, tearing his friend out of his stupor.
Rocks replied with a simple indignant snort.
"Is everyone ready?" Ed asked.
"Sure am." Rocks stated, turning forward in his seat once more. His eyes found their way to Elle's reflection in the rear view mirror however. "Rae, you ready Ninja girl?"
She nodded assertively.
"Okay, let's do this, Elle get in the driver's seat." Ed ordered, exiting the old black Plymouth barracuda and moving his seat forward so Rae could get out.
Rocks did the same for Elle, though she stumbled. He managed to catch her before she ate pavement and then nudged her into the driver's seat. She pulled her door shut as her brothers head popped in through the passenger's side.
"Keep the doors locked." Ed told her, pressing the lock down on his door before closing it.
"Shouldn't we crack a window for her or something?" Rocks joked while stretching.
"She'll be fine." Ed stated.
Rocks knocked on the driver's window, and gave Elle an assuring grin and a wink.
She smiled back nervously.
He walked around the back of the car and stood, shoulder to shoulder with Rae and Ed.
Behind them, Elle's face was now pressed against the passenger's window glass, watching with wide eyed wonder. This was the first time they had ever brought her along with them. She often spent her nights watching infomercials, baking, waiting for them to come home. Now she was in the action, or as close to it as she believed she would ever come in her life.
"She's staring at us." Rae stated without looking over her shoulder. The small woman sounded as highly irritated as she was. Elle belonged at home, she wasn't a fighter. In Rae's opinion the girl was a house pet.
"She's excited." Rocks defended. "This is the first time she's been out with us in…"
"Ever." Ed finished, walking towards the warehouse.
Soon Rocks fell in step with him as Rae separated herself from them.
"Think this is actually on the up and up?" Rocks asked casually.
"Let's hope so or we'll be up fucked creek without a ride home." Ed answered, leading the way towards the warehouse.
"What do these guys call themselves again? The night pigeons…the night walkers?" Rocks joked.
"Nightstalkers." King informed them, stepping out from behind an old dumpster.
Rocks stared at the gun aimed directly at his forehead.
"See, this is why we should have guns!" Rocks complained loudly, giving Ed a sideways glance. His expression of great concern changed to that of arrogance when he saw a small glimmer of silver from behind the man pointing a .44 at his skull.
"Too loud." Rae whispered. Her long silver katana emerging from the shadows as she placed it at the base of Kings throat.
Everyone was silent, uncomfortable, confused.
"Who are you?" Ed asked, squinting at King.
"Who are you?" Abby retorted, rounding the corner of the warehouse, aiming her bow directly at Rae's head.
"Who are you?" Rocks, asked glaring at Abby.
"I am Hannibal King," King said, feeling the cold metal of Rae's katana inching closer to his skin. "and I am currently considering change of carrier, I hear 'The Burger Drive' is hiring, and though I am very good in roller skates I'm afraid the short shorts would be a little tight in the crotch."
"He must be mentally retarded." Rae commented, pulling her katana away from King's throat and stepping away from him.
"Actually, no." King told Rae while holstering his gun.
Abby lowered her bow, another dangerous situation defused by King's mouth. She knew he got lucky, but one day that mouth of his was going to get them killed. She glared in his direction.
"I'm Ed…" Ed said in a very serious manner. "I don't like strawberry flavored ice cream."
"It's not for everyone." King said, rubbing his neck.
"Abigail Whistler." Abby introduced herself, putting the arrow she held back into the quiver on her back.
"Rocks, and I'm a Scorpio." He said, pointing to himself, then to Rae. "And that's our ninja, Rae Ryuto."
"We don't have a ninja." King whispered, looking at Abby.
A door from the side of the warehouse opened and Kevin stepped out, lighting a cigarette.
"Oh hey, you guys made it." He greeted, walking towards the group.
"Yea, we made it." Ed said cheerfully.
Elle was sitting in the driver's seat of the old 1968 barracuda, her knee's pulled tightly to her chest, her cheesecake in the passenger's seat. She ran her fingertips over the many small scars encircling her neck. The rough little reminders of the time she had spent feeling terrified, guilty, and unclean.
Elle was snapped out of her thoughts when the light taste of copper hit her tongue. She had been chewing on her bottom lip again and a little to zealously. She sat up straight and looked at herself in the rear view mirror. Her lips were swollen and red. Bee stung, attractively so in a macabre sort of way. She looked her neon glow in the dark watch; the time read 10:24 pm...
She would inhale, exhale, and continue to wait.
They could have at least cracked a window.
"Where were you man, you're supposed to be out here keeping people from pointing guns at me." Rocks complained, setting his beer down on the table before him.
There they were nightstalkers and the unnamed vampire hunters, sitting around the table, drinking beers as if they hadn't just nearly killed one another.
"Oh yea, sorry about that but I had Indian food like three hours ago and I've been on the john since." Kevin told them. "I'm telling you, I straight up disrespected that toilet."
"Indian food." King agreed.
"Where's your cousin, man?" Rocks asked.
"Oh, Dex? fuck I don't know, in there lookin at dude porn or something."
"I don't look at dude porn." Dex whined, walking into the room. "I like the ladies."
"Sure you do, man." Rocks said with a wink.
"He loves the schlong." Kevin muttered, taking a drag off of his cigarette.
"When did you turn into such a chain smoker?" Ed asked.
"When I realized how totally fucked we are." He replied.
"How fucked are we?" Rocks asked, leaning back in his seat.
"I think I should have another beer." Ed stated, getting up and walking to the fridge.
"Kevin, can I talk to you a minute?" Abby asked suddenly..
"Sure thing Abs." Kevin looked at her, tapped her cigarette on the ashtray beside his left hand and stood.
Abby stood and walked out of the room, Kevin trailed behind her.
"Are the two of you together?" Ed asked King, pointing towards the direction Abby and Kevin had gone.
"No." King said, "He is a tease."
"This is all of them?" Abby asked, "That's only three people in there."
"Yea, but, lil bit in there." He said, jerking his cigarette towards the room they had just left. "She's like a…"
"A ninja?" Abby questioned, unimpressed.
"Exactly!" He said, snapping his fingers. "You should see her fight she could kick Blades ass… if you see him though, don't tell him I said that."
"Three people against thousands of vampires, Kev?"
"Look, the only people I know who are in this very disturbing business are the people I've sold the cure to." He admitted. "I am not that popular Abs."
Abby sighed.
"I'll try and get more, but I'm telling you if Mr. happy go shoot in there keeps pointing guns at them, they aint gonna help. Not to mention, a lot of them.. not that interested in getting killed." Kevin told her.
Elle was still curled up, her knees pulled up against her chest and her head tilted back towards the ceiling of the barracuda.
The rain was falling hard now, thunder boomed, lightning licked the sky.
"Blade isn't here?" Rae asked, the first words she'd spoken since accusing King of suffering from retardation.
"Yea, no." King said. "We lost chocolate thunder..."
"He's gone." Dex stated.
"Wait, is this the vampire dude that can be in sunlight?" Rocks questioned.
"Yea." Ed answered. "So he did go AWOL?"
"That's why we need you." Abby informed them, stepping back into the room. "One year ago, we released daystar, a biological weapon we had hoped would be able to kill vampires, hundreds of them at once. We killed a lot with the first release of the virus, but we pissed off a whole lot more. Since then, king and I have been going out at night, killing what we can. I'm sure you all have noticed lately there have been less of them?"
"Yea." Ed admitted. "Don't tell me it's not because we've been doing such a good."
"It's because they are under us, they've moved into the sewer systems." King told them, "Something got them scared, There are hundreds down there, easy."
"Fuck you." Rocks said in disbelief.
"Thank you for the offer, but you aren't my type." King told him.
"It's true, we saw it." Abby confirmed. "We were out, we saw one, but he ran, he lead down a manhole. Once we were down there, we realized it had been a trap."