City of Whispers (City of Whispers #1) (7 page)

“We could just put them in the furnace and light it,”
suggested Seth.

I rolled my eyes at him. “That’s a great idea Seth,
that way my entire apartment building can smell like burning vampire corpse.”

“Oh, yeah.” He looked kind of sad and I almost felt
sorry for him.

“Whatever,” I mumbled. “Look that wasn’t a terrible
idea let’s just get them out on the street.”

“My grip slipped you know,” Seth said. “Otherwise I
would have killed her instantly, no noise. That’s usually how I do it.”

“Oh yeah, hundreds of vampires, right?” James rounded
on him. “You’re lucky no one got killed down here because of you. You’re lucky
that woman didn’t kill
you
. You ought to be thanking Scott.”

“Look I had it under control okay...”

“Oh yeah under control, that was under control. I’ll
tell you what...” James’s face was turning bright red and so was Seth’s.

Paulo looked exasperated. “Can we please just let this
go?”

“Ailis was almost killed,” James yelled.

“Clearly not,” Seth shot back.

“Look I’m fine except for a few scratches,” I said.
“The first one is always hard, don’t worry about it.” As annoyed as I was with
Seth I knew that deep down he had to be feeling embarrassed, and there was no
sense making him feel worse. But then again, what did he mean by saying I
hadn’t
almost been killed? I couldn’t think about it then. I just wanted to clear
my head.

10

The others insisted I go upstairs, and said they would bring the bodies up. I
climbed the stairs, and joined Beth outside with John and Rebecca. All three of
them looked agitated.

“Hey guys,” I said, “your dad is fine you know.” I
tried to sound cheerful for the kids. “In fact, he’s pretty awesome. He’s doing
some serious vampire cleanup work down there.”

They looked at me wide-eyed and I wondered whether I’d
said the right thing. I remembered Tony’s comment about their mother living in
the subway tunnels drinking rat blood, and tried to change the subject. “Did
you guys see the three kitties run out of here?” Rebecca nodded and we fell
into an awkward silence. I had never been good with kids.

Tony and Scott came up the stairs a few minutes later.
They were carrying a bloody sheet between them.

“Hey, why don’t we go look for those kitties?” Beth
suggested quickly. “I bet they’d like something to eat.” Rebecca and John
nodded enthusiastically. It appeared they took to Beth better than to me.

Beth took their hands. “You want to come too Ailis?”

I shook my head. “No thanks. I’m kind of tired. You
guys go ahead. Let me know what you find!” I smiled at the kids. I wondered how
this would affect them in the years to come. Even if we were rescued today, how
traumatized would they be, especially if their own mother had turned into a
vampire?

I found a clean-looking spot in the sun and sat down
on the curb. At least it was warm out. It would have been worse if the virus
had come during the winter. The nights would have been longer and it would have
been unbearably cold, especially without the heat on.

Leila was outside as usual, wielding orange wedges. I
thought she really was meant to be a soccer mom. As soon as Beth and the kids
left she asked me about what happened in the basement. I told her we found some
vampires and killed them. I didn’t feel like talking about it. I was still
trying to absorb what had happened and how I had almost been killed.

Tony and Scott dumped the body they had brought up
from the basement into the street where it started to smolder and then burn. It
didn’t smell wonderful, but my block had always smelled like garbage, so I
wasn’t fazed by it.

I saw Tony looking around. Then he spotted Beth with
the kids just up the street.

“Beth took John and Rebecca to look for the cats,” I
told him. “Don’t worry, they’ll probably just head to Bryant Park and wait for
the rest of us to walk over and join them.”

Tony looked nervous.

“Look Tony,” Scott said, “we really appreciate your
help, but you’ve got kids and they come first. Go take care of them if you need
to. We’ve got this under control.”

Tony looked grateful. “Thanks...are you sure?”

“Yeah, don’t worry about it, we’re fine.”

Tony was about to move off, when he seemed to notice
my left wrist. “What happened to you?” he asked suspiciously.

“Oh.” I looked down and saw I had several deep
scratches. I was so busy thinking about how close I had come to being bitten
that I had forgotten about the scratches. Now that I thought about it, my wrist
was starting to hurt. At the same time, I felt oddly comforted by the bright
red blood. It was living blood. Remembering the black vampire blood oozing from
the woman in the basement made me shudder.

“They’re just scratches,” I said nonchalantly, but I
didn’t feel so confident that they weren’t dangerous. How sure was I that the
virus was only transmitted through bites? What if a scratch could be just as
lethal?

“From a vampire?” Tony was very direct.

“Yes, she caught me off guard, grabbed my arm and
almost bit me, but James jumped in and saved me.”

“You sure they’re just scratches?” Tony turned to
Scott. Leila had stopped smiling and started to move away from me.

“Yeah I saw the whole thing,” Scott said. “I just
wasn’t as quick as James. Trust me. They’re definitely just scratches. She
didn’t even come close to being bitten.”

I thought that was a pretty big lie. I had come damn
close to being bitten and he knew it. Still, could the virus be transferred
through a scratch? I was beginning to feel nervous. I thought the sun was
starting to feel extra warm on my skin. I wasn’t burning was I?

Tony sighed and turned back to me as if reading my
mind. “You’ll be fine,” he said. “I’ve been scratched. My wife...” He trailed
off.

“Thank you,” I said. “You’ve put my mind at ease.”

Tony nodded and thanked Scott again and half-walked,
half-jogged down the street toward Beth and the kids.

“Do you need any help?” I asked Scott.

“No seriously, we’re fine. We’ll be done in a few
minutes and we can all go get some lunch.” I wasn’t sure I had much of an
appetite for lunch, yet. Scott paused. “You did good down there.”

“Thanks.” I smiled, and Scott headed back into the
basement.

“Well, maybe I’d better help get lunch ready in the
Park,” Leila said. She had been staring at me wide-eyed ever since Tony pointed
out the scratches.

“Do you need any help?”

“No, no, not at all.” She shied away from me. “Just
let Scott and the boys know.”

“Yeah, sure.”

Leila practically ran away toward the Park, shooting
quick glances back the whole time. Maybe she thought I was going to chase her
down in broad daylight and bite her.

The guys, even Seth, hauled the bodies up and Kim
brought some of the heads up wrapped in a sheet. James and Dwayne carried the
last body. The head had been cut off but was still kept in the tarp with the
body.

It was the female with the white-blond hair who had almost
killed me. Her eyes and mouth were still open. I could see her fangs. They were
white as ivory with perfect points. I shuddered to think how close those points
had been to my jugular. I was glad she had been decapitated. Otherwise, she
would have looked as if she could get back up.

As soon as she was out on the street in the sun, her
skin began to smoke and burn. It was disgusting, but I couldn’t tear my eyes
away.

Dwayne started back for the basement.

“Do you need any help or any supplies?” James asked.

“Nope don’t worry about it. That super kept plenty
down in the basement,” Dwayne replied. “I just wish I had something to weld
with, but if we use some of those heavy shelves down there we’ll be fine.
Nothing’s coming through that hole ever again.”

“What hole?” I turned to James who was lighting a
cigarette. “And since when do you smoke?”

“Since I was fifteen,” he replied. “I quit two years
ago, but ever since I talked to my parents on the radio I’ve picked it back up.
Maybe when we get out of here I’ll quit again.”

I nodded. I couldn’t fault him. I was impressed he had
made it so long under the circumstances. “So what hole was Dwayne talking about
and why is everyone still in the basement?”

“In the utility closet, where you killed those last
two vampires, there was a manhole in the floor.”

“Wow, I totally missed that.”

“Well it was pretty dark, but Dwayne spotted it. We
pried it up, and there was a ladder that went down about eight or nine feet
into a good-sized concrete room. It looked like there was a tunnel connected to
the room.”

“Oh my God, no one went down there did they?” I
started to get up.

James put his hand on my arm and eased me back down.
“No, of course not. I did ask Seth if he’d like to volunteer, though.” He
grinned, and so did I.

“I thought he was a veteran killer now?”

“Apparently not quite. Anyway, no one went down there
and we have no idea where that tunnel might lead. It could lead to a sewer or
it could lead to the subway. It looked like it was headed west, so maybe it
goes to the B, D, F, M. Who knows? It must go somewhere. We figured that’s how
they were getting in. One thing’s for sure, no one cares enough to go find
out.”

I nodded. “I don’t know why there would be a tunnel to
the subways, but it might explain why there were so many vampires in the
basement. The subway tunnels would be the perfect place for them to hide during
the day. Thank you again, you saved my life.”

“Well you were pretty bad ass down there, killing
three vampires, two of them practically at the same time.”

“By the way, how are you that speedy?” I asked. “I
mean if you hadn’t been there like lightning that blonde would have bitten me
for sure. I’d be dead right now.”

James took a long pull on his cigarette. “I wasn’t
that speedy.”

“Yeah you were. She was fast. She caught me totally
off guard.”

“No.” James frowned. “I wasn’t. If she hadn’t
hesitated I wouldn’t have made it in time. She caught us all off guard.”

I felt
goosebumps
rise up on
my arms despite the warmth of the day. “What do you mean she hesitated?”

“I mean she hesitated,” James insisted, frowning more
deeply. “She had your head pulled back, your neck was exposed…the only thing I
could think was that I should have made you all get dog collars or you should
have at least been wearing a turtleneck. Stupid, I know.” He paused and took a
few drags on his cigarette while I waited for him to continue.

“She had your head pulled back, and there I was
frozen, thinking about how you should be wearing a turtleneck, and she went
right for your neck and right when she was there, I mean she was
right there
…”
James held his fingers up about two inches apart. I knew what he meant. I could
still feel her cool breath on my neck.

“She was
right there
Ailis, and she stopped.
She got this funny look in her eyes like she was confused or stunned or
something. I don’t even know what it was. She even pulled back the slightest
bit and made this sniffing noise like she was smelling something and that’s
when I finally reacted. I grabbed her shoulder to pull her away from you enough
that I could stake her, and I just put it right through her back. I can’t even
believe it took me, or any of us for that matter, that long to do anything.”

I didn’t know what to think. Up until now I had
pictured these things as killing machines. Why would this one hesitate before
biting me any more than I would hesitate before taking a bite of chicken?

“And then there were the guys who moved back when you
opened the closet door.” James shook his head. “I don’t understand.”

“Well now you’re going overboard,” I said quickly.
“Only the one stepped back and I think I hit him in the face when I kicked the
door in.”

James grinned. “You hit him in the face? That’s a good
one, but you still can’t explain the blonde.”

He was right, I couldn’t explain the blonde. Could it
somehow be connected with the vampire that had killed my neighbor and then
moved right past my own apartment? Was I some kind of vampire repellant?

“Well, even if she hesitated, you still saved my life
and moved quicker than any of those other guys, and I really appreciate it.”

“You’re welcome,” James replied. By now the others
were coming out of the basement. Dwayne declared the manhole had been sealed by
moving a heavy shelf over it. He had with him the useful supplies from the
closet which he said he had taken before sealing the door.

After lunch we planned to bring the rest of the
supplies up from the basement. Dwayne would seal the basement door so that
nothing could get in from the basement, but we could still get in if we needed
to turn the furnace on in the winter.

“Jesus,” James said when he learned the plan. “Let’s
not plan on being here that long.”

I suddenly remembered the cats. I hadn’t seen any
bodies in the basement. “There weren’t any cats in the closet when you sealed
it were there? Or down in the basement?”

Dwayne laughed at me. “No, definitely not. I’m in
construction, remember? I know I
gotta
watch out for
cats and everything else when I’m sealing something up. One time tearing up a
floor I just laid down was enough to learn that lesson.”

“Well so that’s something else we’ve learned today,”
Scott chimed in. “Ailis is vampire-resistant, and vampires don’t care for cat
blood.”

Everyone laughed lightly, but looked at me like I was
a bit of a circus freak. I tried to laugh as well, but felt strange. Was it
true? Was I vampire-resistant? It sounded silly, but I couldn’t understand why
the blond vampire had hesitated. Maybe I hadn’t hit the male vampire with the
closet door, maybe there was something different about me. It wasn’t a theory I
cared to test.

“Come on let’s go to the park,” I said. “After almost
becoming someone else’s meal I’m ready to eat.”

James put out his cigarette and we walked to Bryant
Park. When we got there, we found Beth, Tony, the kids, and some of the others,
but Leila was missing.

“That’s odd,” I said. “She told me she was coming to
the Park to help get lunch ready. She specifically told me to tell you guys she
was going.”