Avenging Autumn: Seasons Change Book 1 of 4 (15 page)

The second store specialized in women’s
clothing and, though Jack found the lace teddy in the window damn
sexy, he decided it was probably best to keep walking.

The space on the far corner of the building
housed a small book store. Jack walked in and was amazed at the
amount of old books the owners of the place were able to fit in the
tiny store. He wasn’t much of a reader, but he was sure Benny and
Autumn would love to check the place out.

He browsed a couple of sections and was about
to leave when he noticed a little doorway at the back of the store
that was separated by strings of colorful beads. The sign above the
door read “Adults Only”.

A smile stretched across Jack’s face and he
rubbed his hands together mischievously as he passed through the
beads.

Inside, the small room’s walls were lined with
racks upon racks of adult magazines. If Jack Writeman was able to
mold his own personal heaven, this would be it.

Against the back wall, he found several white
boxes with yet another sign attached. This one read; “Back
Issues”.

With a sudden nervous glee, he began to search
through the back issues of Playboy and after only a few second he
found what he was looking for.

He held the magazine up in front of him and
could swear he heard a choir of angels sing its praise.

After making his purchase, Jack went back to
the motel.

At around 5:00pm, Benny woke up to the sound
of someone knocking at his door. Reaching for a 9mm he had grown
rather fond of, he looked down at Autumn and found her staring
blankly up at the ceiling.

“
Autumn?” Benny asked, with a touch
of concern apparent in his voice. “Are you alright?”

She looked at him and smiled, “I’m fine,” she
ans-wered dreamily. “You don’t have to worry about the gun, it’s
only Jack.”

Benny stared at her for a long moment, and
then another knock came from the door. Wrapping a sheet around
himself, he walked around the bed to the door, keeping the pistol
in hand despite his wife’s prediction of his brother’s
presence.

Benny cracked the door open and saw Jack’s
face on the other side on the other side. “Hey, bro, I found a
little shit kicker bar down the street, I was wondering if you’d
like to come and have a drink with me?”

“
Sure,” Benny said, “just give me a
few minutes to get dressed”

Benny closed the door and began to pull on his
pants. Autumn sat up and began to dress as well. After the two of
them were fully clothed, Benny bent and gave his wife a long deep
kiss.

“
Just remember,” she said, “Frank
wanted to be back on the road by 6:00, make sure you two are back
and ready.”

“
Aye Aye, Captain,” Benny said with
a salute.

“
Fuck you,” Autumn returned,
giggling.

He kissed her again, “I love you.”

“
I love you too, Benny.”

On the other side of the door Benny found his
brother sitting on the hood of some stranger’s car, smoking a joint
and reading a beat up copy of Dracula by Bram Stoker.

“
Where’d you get that?” Benny
asked.

“
Oh, there’s a little used book
store across the road, there,” he pointed to a small unmarked
building next to the diner, “I wasn‘t able to get any sleep, so I
found a piece of sheet metal to patch up that hole in the roof of
the hearse, (and don’t worry, I’ll turn that into a bitchin moon
roof when we get back home), I also decided to do some exploring
around town. Oh, look at what else I found,” he picked a brown,
paper bag up off the ground, reached inside and produced a slightly
beat up Playboy magazine.

“
The Tiffany issue,” Benny said,
feigning interest.

“
Yeah, I finally got it back for my
collection. Man, that book store must have had hundreds of back
issues.”

“
Is that right?” Benny said as they
began to walk.

“
Yeah,” Jack continued, “and you
know, this is really a nice little town. They got everything you
need right here on Main St. There’s a liquor store, a church, a
diner, a bar, they even have a small electronics store that has a
limited selection of CD’s.”

“
Really? Did they have anything
good?”

“
No, everything was
shitty.”

“
Okay. So, are you going to get to
a point sometime soon?”

“
I’m just saying; this is the type
of place I could see myself retiring someday.”

“
Well that’s cool. Where the hell
are we, anyway?

“
I have no idea.”

Ten minutes later, they were walking into a
small country, western bar. Benny rolled his eyes when he heard the
twang of the latest rich kid complaining about how hard he’s got it
blaring from the jukebox in the corner. “Alright,” he said, “but
we’re only staying for a couple of drinks, you know I can’t stand
this backward, butt fucking, hick music for very long, and just so
you know, if they start playing dueling ban-jo’s I‘m fucking
sprinting out of this dive.”

“
Alright, alright.”

They walked over to the nearest table and sat
down. A few minutes later they were approached by a waitress who
looked like she might have been pretty thirty years ago. Jack
ordered two shots of whisky rye, and shortly after the two men were
toasting the breasts of some up and coming actress that Benny had
never heard of.

“
I’m telling you, man, they’re a
good size and look fantastic,” Jack finished.

“
I’ll have to take your word for
it, Jack.” Benny re-sponded, slinging the warm liquid down his
throat. “So, is there a specific reason you wanted to get me
here?”

Jack pulled a small bottle of clear liquid out
of the pocket of his pullover. “Just this, Benny, I want you to
take a shot of this with me.”

Benny glanced around the bar, “I don’t think
these people would appreciate you bringing outside alcohol into
their establishment.”

“
Ah, don’t worry about them,” Jack
said as he re-filled the shot glasses. “Cheers!”

Benny picked up his glass and gave his brother
a look of doubt.

“
C’mon,” Jack said, faking hurt at
Benny’s hesita-tion, “I’m your brother, have I ever let you
down.”

“
Well, no, not recently anyway,”
Benny braced him-self for what he assumed to be moonshine and drank
the liquid down. Much to his surprise, there was no burning
sensation in his throat, or terrible shock to his taste buds. As a
matter of fact, the stuff didn’t have a taste at all.

“
What do you think?” Jack asked,
after downing his own.

“
Is this…water?”

“
It’s not just water, its holy
water. I’ve been drinking it all day. You see, I got this idea; if
we drink a bunch of holy water and one of those fuckers sinks their
teeth into us, what do you think will happen.”

Benny shrugged his shoulders.

“
Jesus Christ, Benny, use your
imagination, if they get one of us we’ll take one of them with us.
It’s brilliant, right?”

“
That is pretty clever,” Benny
admitted, “but, since when are you so anxious to fight more of
these things?”

“
The cornfield, man, fighting those
werewolves was just such a rush. Me and the Old Man really fucked
them up out there, you know? I know this is going to sound corny
(no pun intended), but we’ve never been a real close family, I mean
you and I have a good relationship; we hang out, shoot some pool
and get fucked up once a week. The past few days I’ve felt closer
to you guys than ever and I know Dad feels the same
way.”

“
Yeah, I know what you mean,” Benny
said with a smile, although he was only partially listening. His
attention had been averted by two well dressed individuals who had
just walked in.

Jack could tell by the change in his brother’s
posture that trouble had just pulled a seat up at the bar. “Who is
it?” he asked.

“
Two men, very well dressed, one of
them keeps stealing glances this way.”

“
Suns not down yet, couldn’t be
vampires.”

“
I guess,” Benny said
uncertainly.

The two men threw back a shot each, then slid
off their stools and walked toward Benny and Jack.

“
You boys look familiar, have we
met before?” the black man asked.

“
I don’t think so.” Benny
answered.

The other man spoke in a deep voice, “Why
don’t we buy you a couple of drinks and maybe we could figure it
out?”

Benny glanced out the window and saw the sun
was quickly setting. “Sorry, friends, but we really must be hitting
the road.”

“
Maybe we could persuade you to
change your mind,” the black one said. They each reached into their
jacket pockets and pulled out small leather wallets and, like bad
ac-tors in a 70’s cop show, flipped them open to reveal F.B.I.
credentials.

“
Yeah,” deep voice said
sarcastically “now it’s com-ing back to me, you’re two of the three
guys wanted by the F.B.I. for going on a killing spree across the
country.”

Benny’s heart must have skipped three beats,
as a sudden feeling of hopelessness filled his entire body. He
dropped his hand stealthily to the butt of the gun that was tucked
in his belt. He couldn’t let it end here.

Autumn was dressed and ready to go when Frank
came knocking at the door.

“
C’mon, we got to hit the road,
it’s almost sundown.” Her father-in-law glanced around her room and
added. “Where are the boys?”

“
You haven’t seen them?”

“
No.”

“
They went for a drink at a bar
down the street, but they should’ve come back by now, I just
figured they were with you.”

Frank looked down the street with concern. “We
bet-ter go find them.”

A few hundred miles away, Odin Sway was
standing in a dimly lit room next to the lord of his clan, watching
in awe as their god quietly approached them.

Deppleo is the beginning, the father of all
vampires. The torchlight seemed to bend away from him as he passed,
creating an ever present shadow over his presence. No one had ever
been privileged enough to behold the true identity of Deppleo, but
Odin felt greatly honored just to be standing in the same
room.

“
Oh, Great One,” the vampire lord
said, bowing low, “lend us your wisdom in this time of
tragedy.”

“
I have no wisdom to share,” the
god said in a low rumble, “though my anger is overflowing. These
humans have killed far too many vampires already and I’m beginning
to think all of our years spent building a superior species have
been wasted. Obviously sending an unlimited supply of lesser
vampire after them is not working, so I will leave it to you two to
come up with a solution to this problem. However, I want to make
one thing understood; I want the killing of my child-ren to stop,
or I will hold the both of you personally responsi-ble. Do I make
myself clear?”

The vampire lord stared unblinkingly at the
dark form before them, “You are positively transparent in your
directness.”

“
Good,” Deppleo said as he turned
to leave, “now if you’ll excuse me, I am a busy man these
days.”

“
Of course.”

Odin thought it was best to keep silent and
watch the old god disappear into the darkness at the corner of the
room. The vampire lord then raised one hand above his head and
snapped his fingers. A few seconds later a bat flew in through an
opened window and fluttered patiently around the two
vampires.

Vlad seemed to be searching for the right
thing to say to the newcomer. Finally he let out a series of
squeaks and screeches and the bat flew up through the window from
which it came.

“
Now, Odin, my friend,” The ancient
vampire said with a satisfied smile, “we will let your new found
fan club find their way here, then I will welcome them in my own
spe-cial way. I do so love surprises.”

Benny was a split second away from setting his
guns ablaze on the F.B.I. agents when he heard his father’s
boom-ing voice; “Hey, Boys, where you been. Are you going to
in-troduce me to your new friends?”

The old man gave Benny a look that seemed to
say ‘don’t do anything stupid’ and Benny slowly removed his hand
from the gun.

“
Hey, Dad,” Jack interjected, “this
is Agent Anderson and Agent Fields of the F.B.I.” The two agents
reached inside their pockets and produced their I.D.’s once
again.

“
Wow, feds huh? I don’t think I’ve
ever had the pleasure of meeting real life F.B.I. agents. Let me
ask you something; is there really a division for weird shit like
on that show ‘The X-files’?”

Ol’ deep voice gave Frank a disbelieving look.
“You don’t know how often we get that question.”

Just then, the front door of the bar banged
open and several sharp dressed gentlemen walked in. Frank moved to
the seats directly in front of the agents and leaned in to whis-per
to them. “Look, I’m going to level with you guys. Where on a
mission to avenge my daughter-in-law, who came back from the dead
and is waiting outside in the car, and the men who are responsible
for her death are vampires, five of which we were able to kill
while they were sleeping, but the sixth one keeps getting away from
us and we’ve had to kill a number of vampires and werewolves who
have gotten in our way. Now, those guys who just walked into the
bar are vampires and they are here looking for us, so I have to
tell you if you value your lives you’ll get up and walk out of this
joint right now, because some scary shit is about to go
down.”