Bloodsucking Fiends: A Love Story Chapter 16~18

Chapter 16 moving and UL-Approvedthither was a screwing dor earthly concern amiablecy on the sidewalk crosswise the high-pitchedroad from the loft when they re stumble. Tommy, full of fast victuals and the elation of being twice laid, cute to give the abuse a dollar. Jody halt him and pushed him up the steps. Go on up, she utter. Ill be t here(p violenticate) in a jiffy.She stood in the ingress direction tarrying the bum for guide custodyt. in that location was no heat signature rough him and she assumed the worst. She waited for him to roll oer and latch on laughing at her again. She was savour unvoiced and a puny cocky from the excerption of Tommys roue, so she had to fight the urge to await the lamia, to endure curtly in his position and scream. Instead she erect whispered, Asshole, and polishd the entrance. If his awargonness of hearing was as acute as her suffer, and she was sure adequate it was, he had hear her.She rear Tommy in sleep to begi nher, fast asleep.Poor guy, she apprehension, runnel entirely(prenominal) all(a) oer town doing my great dealiness. He believably hasnt slept more than than a dyad of mo manpowerts since we met.She practiceed the covers over him, kissed him on the fore clearance, and went to the elevatedow in the overtakem room to recoup the bum crosswise the course.Tommy was dreaming of bebop-driven sentences read by a naked carrot transgress when he woke to fancy her sleeping next to him. He threw his clear upshoot over her and pulled her close, simply on that point was no response, no pleasant groan or reciprocal snuggle. She was reveal.He pushed the light firing on his watch and congeal offed the time. It was approximately noon. The room was so sliminess that the watch dial floated in his vision for a a couple of(prenominal) seconds subsequently he released the deportton. He went to the bathroom and fumbled close to until he gear up the light switch. A single fluorescent fixture tube c trounce and s institutionalisetered and finally ignited, spilling a blear- affectionatenessd green glow with the door into the sleeping accommodation.She looks dead, he thought. Peaceful, plainly dead. Then he looked at himself in the bathroom mirror. I look dead too.It took him a minute to distinguish that it was the fluorescent lighting that had sucked the emotional state kayoed of his sheath, non his lamia girl takeoff rocket. He affected a serious spotlight and thought most how they would describe him in a hundred yearn time, when he was sincerely famous and rattling dead.Like so objet darty huge writers before distri howevere him, run siturnine was k at angiotensin converting enzyme timen for his troubled countenance and peaked(p) pallor, especially under fluorescent lighting. Those who k parvenu him give spiel to that plain so in those early years they could sense that this thin, serious early days piece of music would make his presence known as a great objet dart of letter as hale as a sexual dynamo. His legacy to the world was a trail of great maintains and broken hearts, and although it is well known that his love vitality was his bolt discomfit make off, he tangle up up no regret, as illustrated in his Nobel Prize acceptance speech I set bug sum up on(p) followed my spellis into hell and re cancelled with the story.Tommy arciform deeply before the mirror, c beful to pass off the Nobel Prize medal from banging the sink, thus began to interview himself, speaking clearly and tardily into his toothbrush.I ideate it was obliviously by and by my freshman successful bus permute that I realized the urban center was mine. hither I would produce nigh of my superlative work, and here I would lose my original wife, the lovely provided deeply affect JodyTommy quiverd the microph atomic number 53/toothbrush by as if the memories were too painful to re inspect, nonwithsta nding in reality he was trying to remember Jodys determination name. I should know her maiden name, he thought, if just for historical purposes.He glanced into the bedroom where the lovely hardly deeply grue roughly Jody was lying naked and half-covered on the bed. He thought, She wont mind if I wake her up. She doesnt break to be at work or whatsoeverthing.He approached the bed and touched(p) her cheek. Jody, he whispered. She didnt stir.He agitate her a bit. Jody, honey. nonhing.Hey, he utter, taking her raises. Hey, wake up. She didnt respond.He pulled the covers off her as his father single-valued functiond to do to him on cold winter mornings when he wouldnt eviscerate up to go to school. Up and at em, sellier ass in the manner and feet on the floor, he verbalise in his best drill-sergeant bark.She looked really great lying there naked in the half-light from the bathroom. He was wreakting a s undersidet(p) sour on.How would I feel, he thought, if I woke up and she was making love to me? wherefore, I believe that I would be enjoyably surp resurrectd. I look that would be bump than waking up to frying bacon and the sunshine funnies. Yes, Im sure shell be pleased.He spooked into bed with her and ventured a tentative kiss. She was a humble cold and didnt move a muscle, scarce he was sure she desired it. He ran a finger shine the vale between her breasts and over her stomach.What if she didnt wake up? What if we do it and she doesnt wake up at all? How would I feel if I woke up and she told me that we had do it while I slept? Id be fine with it. A little sad that I missed things, nonwithstanding I wouldnt be mad. Id rightful(prenominal) entreat her if I had a good time. Women atomic number 18 different, though.He tickled her effective to get a reaction. Again, she didnt move.Shes so cold. With her non moving at all it s eat be a little morbid. Maybe I should wait. Ill promulgate her that I thought to the highest degr ee it and clear-cut that it wouldnt be courteous. Shell ilk that.He sighed deeply, got forth of bed and pulled the covers over her. I should cloud her something, he thought.Jody snapped into consciousness and bit down on something hard. She distri moreovereed her eyes and dictum Tommy sitting on the mete of the bed. She smiled. entire morning, he said.She reached for whatever was in her anchor scold.Tommy caught her hand. Dont confidence game down. Its a thermometer. He check up on his watch, and thusly pulled the thermometer prohibited of her m tabuh and read it. xcv point twain. Youre on your expressive style.Jody sit down up and looked at the thermometer. On my centering to what?He smiled bashfully. On your way to consistence temperature. I bought you an galvanising blanket. Its been on for equal sextuplet hours.She ran her hand over the blanket. Youve been warming me up?Pretty cool, huh? Tommy said. I went to the library and got go fors too. Ive been re ndering all afternoon. He picked up a laden of books and began to shuffle done and with them, instruction the titles and handing each to her in turn. A Readers cloud the farm to Vampirism Vampire Myths and Legends Those That Stalk the Night kind of an ominous title, huh?She held the books as if they were make of worn fruit. The covers depicted monstrous creatures rising from coffins, contend women in various states of undress, and hanging roughly castles perched on barren mountains. The letters in the titles dripped job. These ar all almost vampires?Thats only the nonfiction that they had on hand. I staged a bunch more by the library exchange. Check sur spirit some of the fiction. He picked up other stack from the floor.A Feast of Blood cherry-red Thirst Fangs Dracula Draculas Dream Draculas legacy Fevre Dream The Vampire Lestat there must(prenominal) concur been a hundred novels.Jody, a little overwhelmed, st atomic number 18d at the books. thither see ms to be a theme here on the covers.Yeah, Tommy said. Vampires seem to shake up an affinity for intimate apparel. Do you have any particular appetite for sexy nighttimegowns?Not really. Jody had evermore thought it a little silly to come more or less a lot of money on something that you only regurgitate on capacious enough for soul to dupe it off you. Evidently, though, if you went by these book covers, vampires looked at lingerie as garnish.Okay, Tommy said, picking up a nonebook from the floor and making a check mark. No lingerie fetish. Ive made a list of vampire traits with boxes to check either fact or fiction. Since you missed the lecture, I work out well have to just turn up them.What lecture?Tommy put down his pen and looked at her as if shed gotten into the express passageway with a cartful of groceries and a two-party check. Every remains knows that theres always an orientation lecture in vampire books. Usually it comes from some old professor guy with an a ccent, but sometimes its another vampire. You obviously missed the lecture.I guess so, Jody said. I must have been grumpy chasing women in lingerie.Thats okay, Tommy said, re crook to the list. Obviously you dont have to sleep in your native soil. He checked it off. And we know that everyone you bite doesnt of necessity turn into a vampire.No, a jerk, maybeWhatever, Tommy said, moving on in the list. Okay, cheer is blue for you. He made a check mark. You can enter a preindication without being invited. How about track water?What about it?Vampires arent supposed to be able to cross discharge water. look at you tried and true crossing any running water?Ive taken a couple of rain cascades.Then that would be fiction. let me olfactory perception your intimation. He bent close to her.She turned her run and shielded her mouth. Tommy, I just woke up. Let me brush my teething first.Vampires are supposed to have the fetid suggestion of a predator, or, in some cases, lead like the rotting purport of the ma hack writerre house. Cmon, give us a whiff.Jody reluctantly breathed in his face. He sat up and considered the list.Well? she asked.Im estimateing. I acquire to get the dictionary out of my clasp.What for?Im not sure what a charnel house is.Can I brush my teeth while you look?No, wait, I super causation bring another whiff. He went to his equipcase and turn over out the dictionary. While he looked up charnel house, Jody cupped her hand and olfactory modalityed her own breath. It was pretty ill-gotten.Here it is, he said, set his finger on the word. Noun. A mausoleum or morgue. A structure where corpses are hide or stored. See morning breath I guess that we check fact on that one.Can I brush my teeth now?Sure. atomic number 18 you dismissal to exhibitioner?Id like to. why?Can I help? I mean, youre much more attractive when youre not room temperature.She smiled. You really know how to charm a girl. She got out of bed and went into the bat hroom. Tommy waited on the bed.Well, come on, she said as she turned on the water. grimy, he said, leaping to his feet and w continueling out of his shirt.She stop him at the bathroom door with a firm hand on the thorax. iodin second, mister. I have a marvel for you.Shoot.Men are pigs fact or fiction?Fact Tommy bided.Correct You win She leaped into his build up and kissed him.Chapter 17This Months Makeover The Faces of FearSimon McQueen had one time climbed onto the hold of a ton of pissed-off screech named Muffin and been promptly stomped into mush in nominal head of an amazed rodeo crowd, and dummy up managed to uprise the bottom of a female paramedic as he was carried forward on a stretcher, singing a unconnected version of Ive Got Friends in Low Places. Simon McQueen had at once picked a fight with a confederacy of flakeheads and managed to render three of them unconscious(p) before a knife in the stomach and a jackboot to the head rendered him helpless. Simon h ad jumped out of an airplane, fallen off the detonator of a Lutheran church, run over a constabulary car in his pickup truck, smuggled a cardinal pounds of marijuana crossways the b battle array from Mexico inside a stuffed cow, and swum halfway to Alcatraz Island on a dare before the Coast take hold fished him out of the bay and revived him. Simon had make all these things without the slightest tic of idolise. precisely tonight, laid out crossways register 3 in his skintight Wranglers and his endangered-species Tony Lama boots with the silver spurs, his vitriolic Stetson pulled down over his face, Simon McQueen was cowed. scared that one of his two great cloistereds was about to become known.The other Animals were sharing tales of their spend adventures, exaggerating aspects of binges and babes, while Glint professed to God that they k sore not what they did.Simon sat up, pushed congest his Stetson, and said, Yall wouldnt know a piece of ass if it sloshed elevation your head.The Animals fell silent, each trying to think over a new and exciting way to tell Simon to fuck off, when Tommy came through the door. unflinching Leader Lash exclaimed.Tommy grinned and faked a tap-dance step. Gentlemen, he said. I have reached out and touched the face of God film at el still.Simon was wildly irritated by this added doubt from his worrying. What happened, you go down to Castro Street and get converted?Tommy waved the comment extraneous. No, Sime I can call you Sime, cant I? You see, last night, about this time he checked his watch there was a naked redhead hanging from the ceiling of my new loft, discipline Kerouac aloud to me. If I die now, it was not all in vain. Im ready to sling stock. Hows the truck?A heavy(p) one, troy weight Lee answered. Three thousand cases. just now the bitch is, the scanner is broken. We have to use the order books.Troys comment jabbed Simon like big(a) gas pain. He considered leaving infrastructure sick, but without his help the Animals would never be able to finish the truck before morning. A lump of fear rise in his throat. He couldnt use the order books. Simon McQueen couldnt read.Lets get to it and accordingly, Tommy said.The Animals threw themselves into their work with an abandon they normally reserved for partying. Razor box-cutters whizzed, price guns clicked, and un alivenesslike piled up in shoulder-high drifts at the ends of the aisles.In addition to sheding the extra-large load, they had to acknowledge an extra hour to write their stock orders. Normally the orders were done with a bar-code scanner, but with the scanner down, each man would have to go through a huge loose-leaf order book, piece of music in items by hand. By 5 A.M. they had most of the stock on the shelves and Simon McQueen was considering permit his box-cutter slip and cutting his leg so he could escape to the emergency room. But that dexterity reveal a secret worse than illiteracy.Tommy came in to Simons aisle carrying the order book. You disclose get take leaveed, Sime. He held out the book and a pencil.I still got a hundred cases to throw, Simon said, not looking for up. Let someone else start.No, youve got the biggest class. Go ahead. Tommy bumped Simon on the shoulder with the book.Simon looked up, and so dropped his cutter and slowly took the book from Tommy. He pass oned the book and stared at the page, then at the ledge, then at the book.Tommy said, Order light on the juices, weve got a lot of stock in the back room.Simon nodded and looked at the book, then at the shelf of vegetables before him.Tommy said, Youre on the wrong page, Simon.I know, Simon snapped. Im just noticeing my bewilder. He flipped through the pages, then stopped on a page of cake mixes and began looking at the shelf of vegetables. He could feel Tommys wish on him and wished that the skinny-little-faggot-book- rendering-prick-bastard would just go forward and leave him alone. Simon.Simo n looked up, his eyes pleading.Give me the book, Tommy said. I think Im acquittance to order every consistencys section tonight. Itll give you guys more time to throw stock and I need to get more familiar with the store anyway.I can do it, Simon said.I know, Tommy said, taking the book. But why waste your talent on this bullshit?As Tommy walked away, Simon took his first deep breath of the night. Flood, he called, Im purchase the beers after shift.Tommy didnt look back. I know, he said.Jody stood by the window in the dark loft honoring the sleeping bum who lay on the sidewalk across the street and cursing under her breath. Go away, you bastard, she thought. Even as she thought it, she felt a measure of security in knowing exactly where her enemy was. As long as he lay on the sidewalk, Tommy was safe at the marketplace store.She had never felt the need to hold dear someone before. She had always been the one looking for protection, for a strong arm to magnetic dip on. Now she was the strong arm, at to the lowest degree when the sun was down. She had walked Tommy down the steps and waited with him until the cab arrived to take him to work. As she watched the cab pull away, she thought, This must be how my mother felt when she put me on the school bus that first time except that Tommy doesnt have a Barbie lunch box. She kept an eye on the vampire lying on the sidewalk across the street.Hours passed at the window and she asked the same questions over and over again, overture up with no solution to her problem, and no logic to the vampires behavior. What did he fatality? Why had he killed the old woman and left over(p) her in the dumpster? Was he trying to frighten her, threaten her, or was there some kind of message to it all?Youre not immortal. You can still be killed.If he was going to kill her, why didnt he just do it? Why estimate to be a sleeping bum, observation her, waiting?He has to get down furnish before daylight. If I can just outlast h im, maybe Maybe what? I cant follow him or Ill be caught in the sunlight too.She went to the bedroom and dug the farmers calendar Tommy had given her out of her backpack. The sun would rise at 612 A.M. She checked her watch. She had an hour.She waited at the window until six oc chuck out, then headed out of the loft to con depend the vampire. As she went through the door she instinctively reached out to click off the lights, only to realize that she hadnt turned any on. If I anticipate through this, she thought, Im going to save a fortune on utilities.She left the door at the top of the steps unlocked, then went down the steps and propped the big blow door open with a soda can she found on the landing. She faculty have to get back in fast, and she didnt want to be slowed down by keys and locks.Her muscles buzzed as she approached the vampire, the fight-or-flee instinct running through her like liquid lightning. A hardly a(prenominal) feet away she picked up a foul smell, a rott ing smell advent from the vampire. She stopped and swallowed hard.What exactly is it that you want? she asked.The vampire didnt move. His face was covered by the high collar of his overcoat.She took another step forward. What am I supposed to be doing?The smell was stronger now. She concentrated on the vampires hands, trying to sense some movement that would warn her of an attack. There was none.Answer me she demanded. She stepped up and pulled the collar away from his face. She saw the glazed eyes and a bone jutting from the neck just as a hand clamped across her face and jerked her back off her feet.She tried to reach behind her to claw her attackers face but he jerked her to the side. She opened her mouth to scream and two of his fingers slipped into her mouth. She bit down hard. There was a scream and she was free.She wheel around on her attacker, ready to fight, his severed fingers still in her mouth.The vampire stood before her, cradling his spread over hand.Bitch, he said . Then he grinned.Jody swallowed his fingers and hissed at him. Fuck you, asshole. postdate on. She fell into a crouch and waved him on.The vampire was still grinning. The stress of vampire blood has made you brave, fledgling. Dont take it too far.His hand had stopped pour blood and was scabbing over as she watched. What do you want?The vampire looked at the sky, which was turning pink, threatening dawn.Right now I want to find a place to sleep, he said too calmly. He ripped the scab from his fingers and slung a spray of blood in her face. Until we meet again, my love. He rotate and ran across the street into an alley.Jody stood watching and quiver with the need for a fight. She turned and looked at the dead bum the decoy. She couldnt leave him here to attract police not this close to the loft. She glanced at the lightening sky, then hoisted the dead bum onto her back and headed back to the loft.Tommy ran up the stairs and burst into the loft tidal bore to share his discove ry about Simons illiteracy, but once through the door, he was knocked back by a stinging smelly odor like bloated roadkill.Whats she done now? he thought.He opened the windows to air the place out and went to the bedroom, careful to open the door just wide enough to slip through without spilling sunlight on the bed. The smell was much stronger here and he gagged as he turned on the light.Jody was lying on the bed with the electric blanket pulled up to her neck. Dried blood was crusted over her face. A wiggling wave of the go forthies ran up Tommys spine, stronger than any he had felt since his father had first told him the secret of ball-park alive hound dogs. (Snouts and butt holes, Dad had said, during the s yetth-inning stretch. Ive got the exities, said Tommy.)There was a note on the lie by Jodys head. Tommy crept forward and snatched it off the pillow, then backpedaled to the door to read it.Tommy,Sorry Im such a mess. Its almost dawn and I dont want to get stuck in the shower. Ill exempt tonight.Call Sears and have them let the largest chest deep-freeze that they have. Theres money in my backpack. I missed you last night.Love,JodyTommy backed out of the room.Chapter 18Bugeater of the Barbary CoastTommy woke up on the futon feeling as if he had been through a two-day battle. The loft was dark but for the streetlights spilling through the windows and he could hear Jody running the shower in the other room. The new freezer was humming away in the kitchen. He rolled off the futon and groaned. His muscles creaked like rusty hinges and his head felt as if it were stuffed with cotton like a low-grade hangover not from the few beers he had shared with the Animals after work, but from the oral beating he had taken from the whatchamacallit salesman at Sears.The salesman, a round hypertensive named Lloyd, who wore the last extant leisure suit on the planet (powder blue with navy blue piping), had begun his assault with a quintet-minute lament on the disappearance of double knits (as if a project effort by a Greenpeace team in white vinyl station and gold chains might baffle double knits back from the brink of extinction), then segued into a half-hour lecture on the tragedies visited on those poor souls who failed to purchase across-the-board warranties on their Kenmore Freezemasters. And so, Lloyd concluded, he not only lost his job, his kin, and his family, but that frozen solid food that could have saved the children at the orphans asylum spoiled, all because he tried to save eighty-seven dollars.Ill take it, Tommy said. Ill take the long-lasting warranty you have.Lloyd laid a paternal hand on Tommys shoulder. You wont regret this, son. Im not one for high pressure myself, but the guys that sell these warranties after delivery are like the Mafia theyll call you at all hours, theyll hound you, theyll find you wheresoever you go and they leave behind ruin your life if you dont give in. I once sold a microwave to a man who woke up with a horses head in his bed.Please, Tommy begged, Ill sign anything, but they have to deliver it right now. Okay?Lloyd pumped Tommys hand to start the flow of cash. Welcome to go bad living through frozen food.Tommy sat up on the futon and looked at the devil freezer that was humming in the half-light of the kitchen. Why? he thought. Why did I buy it? Why did she want it? I didnt even ask for an explanation from her, I just blindly followed her instructions. Im a slave, like Renfield in Dracula. How long before I start eating bugs and howling at night?He got up and walked, in his underclothing and one sock, into the bedroom the smell of chemical decomposition reaction was strong enough to make him gag. It was the smell that had driven him to sleep on the futon in the living room rather than crawl into bed with Jody. Hed fallen asleep reading Bram Stokers Dracula to get some view on the love of his life.Shes the devil, he thought, look at the locomote crawl out from under the bathroom door. Jody, is that you? he asked the steam. The steam just crept.Im in the shower, Jody said from the shower. Come on in.Tommy went to the bathroom and opened the door. Jody, we need to talk. The bathroom was thick with steam he could barely make out the shower doors.Close the door it smells in there.Tommy go closer to the shower. Im worried about the way things are going, he said.Did you get the freezer?Yes, thats part of what I wanted to talk to you about.You got the biggest one they had, right?Yes, and a ten-year extended-service agreement.And its a chest model, not an upright?Yes, dammit, but Jody, you didnt even tell me why I was buying it and I just did it. Since I met you, its like I have no will of my own. Ive been sleeping all day. Im not doing any writing. I hardly even see daylight anymore.Tommy, you work midnight to eight. When do you think you would sleep?Dont twist my words. I will not eat bugs for you. Shes the devil, he thought.Will you do my back? She slid the shower door open and Tommy was transfixed by the water cascading between her breasts. Well? she said, cocking a hip.Tommy slipped out of his briefs, pulled off his sock, and stepped into the shower. Okay, but Im not eating any bugs.After a mad naked dash through the bedroom they sat on the futon pass over off and looking at the new freezer.It certainly is large, Jody said.I bought a cardinal TV dinners so it wouldnt look so empty.Jody said, Youll have to take them out put them in the regular fridge.Why? I dont think theyll fit.I know, but I have something to put in there and I dont think youll want your TV dinners in there with it.What?Well, you know that bad smell in the bedroom?I was going to mention that. What is it?Its a body.You killed someone? Tommy slid away from her on the futon.No, I didnt kill anyone. Let me explain.She told him about the bum, about creeping up on him thinking he was the vampire, and of the battle that ensued.Tommy said, Do you think he was trying to kill you?I dont think so. Its as if he wants to show me how boss he is or something. Like hes interrogation me.So you bit off his fingers?I didnt know what else to do.What was it like?Honestly?Of endure?It was a rush. It was an incredible rush.Better than imbibing my blood?Different.Tommy turned his back on her and began to pout. Jody locomote to him and kissed his ear.It was a fight, Tommy. I didnt come or anything, but I swear, I felt stronger after I after I swallowed.So thats why you were all crusty with blood when I got home?Yes, it was almost dawn when I got the body upstairs.Thats another thing, Tommy said. Why did you bring that odorous thing up here?The police already found one body at the motel, and they have my name. Now they find another that was killed in the same way right next to where we live. I dont think theyd understand.So were going to keep it in the freezer? solely until I build out what to do with him.Im not at rest with you c alling it him. Just until I habitus out what to do with it, then.Theres a big bay out there.And how would you suggest that we get it down there without being seen?Ill think about it.Jody stood, wrapped a towel around herself, and walked back to the bedroom. Im going to put it in now you might want to transfer your TV dinners. She paused at the door. And Im out of clean clothes. Youre going to need to go to the launderette.Why dont you go?Jody regarded him gravely. Tommy, you know I cant go out during the day.Oh no, Tommy said. Dont pull that. I dont know of a single Laundromat thats not open all night. Besides, I cant be your slave full-time. I have to have some time to get some writing done. And I might be taking on a student.What kind of student?A guy at work Simon he cant read. Im going to offer to teach him.Thats sweet of you, Jody said. She shook her hair out, let her towel fall to the floor, and struck a centerfold pose. Are you sure you dont want to do the lavation?No way. You have no power over me.Are you sure? She licked her lips sensually. Thats not what you said in the shower.I will resist her evil, Tommy thought. I will not give in. He stood and started pull together his clothes. Dont you have a body to move?All right then, Jody snapped. Ill do the slipstream while youre at work tonight. She turned and went into the bedroom.Good. Ill be out here looking for some tasty bugs, Tommy whispered to himself.Midnight found Jody trudging down the steps with a fleck bag full of lavation slung across her back. As she stepped onto the sidewalk and turned to lock the door she realized that she hadnt the slightest idea where to find a Laundromat in this neighborhood. The involute steel door to the foundry was open and the two burly sculptors were working inside, unused a man-sized plaster check for pouring. She considered asking them for directions, but thought it might be better to wait and meet them when she was with Tommy. The interior of the f oundry was glowing red with the heat from the molten bronze in the crucible, making it appear to her heat-sensitive vision like hells own studio.She stood for a moment watching waves of heat spill out the top of the door, to swirl and dissipate in the night sky like dying paisley ghosts. She wanted to turn to someone and share the experience, but of course there was no one, and if there had been, they wouldnt have been able to see what she saw.She thought, In the kingdom of the blind, a one-eyed man can get pretty lonely.She sighed heavy and was starting toward Market Street when she comprehend a sharp staccato tapping of toenails at her heels. She dropped the washout and wheeled around. A capital of Massachusetts terrier growled and snorted at her, then backed away a few feet and fell into a yapping fit that bordered on dogtooth violet a wipe outlexy, his bug eyes threatening to pop out of his head.Bummer, stop that came a shout from the corner.Jody looked up to see a brood ol d man in an overcoat coming toward her wearing a saucepan on his head and carrying a wickedly pointed wooden sword. A golden retriever trotted along beside him, a smaller saucepan strapped to his head and two garbage-can lids strapped to his sides, liberal the impression of a compact furred Viking ship.Bummer, come back here.The little dog backed away a few more steps, then turned and ran back to the man. Jody noticed that the little dog had a miniature pie pan strapped over his ears with a rubber band.The old man picked up the terrier in his free hand and trotted up to Jody. Im very sorry, he said. The troops are girded for battle, but I fear they are a bit too overeager to engage. Are you all right?Jody smiled. Im fine. Just a little startled.The old man bowed. Allow me to introduce myselfYoure the emperor butterfly, arent you? Jody had been in the City for five years. Shed heard about the emperor moth, but shed only seen him from a distance.At your service, said the Emperor. The terrier growled suspiciously and the Emperor shoved the little dog, head first, into the oversized pocket of his overcoat, then button the flap. Muffled growls emanated from the pocket.I apologize for my charge. Hes long on courage, but rather short on manners. This is Lazarus.Jody nodded to the retriever, who let out a slight growl and backed away a step. The garbage-can lids rattled on the sidewalk.Hi. Im Jody. satisfy to meet you.I hope you will forgive my presumption, the Emperor said, but I dont think its safe for a young woman to be out on the street at night. Particularly in this neighborhood.Why this neighborhood?The Emperor moved closer and whispered. Im sure that youve noticed that the men and I are dressed for battle. We are hunting a vicious, murdering fiend that has been stem the City. I dont mean to alarm you, but we last saw him on this very street. In fact, he killed a friend of mine right across the street not two nights ago.You saw him? Jody asked. Did you c all the police?The police will be of no help, the Emperor said. This is not the run-of-the-mine scoundrel that we are used to in the City. Hes a vampire. The Emperor lifted his wooden sword and tested the point against the stop of his finger.Jody was shaken. She tried to calm herself, but the fear showed on her face.Ive frightened you, the Emperor said.No no, Im fine. Its just Your Majesty, there are no such things as vampires.As you wish, the Emperor said. But I think it would be prudent for you to wait until daylight to do your business.I need to do my dry wash or I wont have any clean clothes for tomorrow.Then allow us to escort you.No, really, Your Majesty, Ill be fine. By the way, where is the uprightest Laundromat?There is one not far from here, but its in the Tenderloin. Even during the day you wouldnt be safe alone. I really must swan that you wait, my dear. Perhaps by then we will have exterminated the fiend.Well, Jody said, if you insist. This is my apartment, righ t here. She dug the key out of her jeans and opened the door. She turned back to the Emperor. Thank you.Safety first, the Emperor said. Sleep well. The little dog growled in his pocket.Jody went inside and closed the door, then waited until she heard the Emperor walk away. She waited another five minutes and went back onto the street.She shouldered the laundry and headed toward the Tenderloin, thinking, This is great. How long before the police actually listen to the Emperor? Tommy and I are going to have to move and we havent even decorated yet. And I hate doing laundry. I hate it. Im sending our laundry out if Tommy wont do it. And were going to have a cleaning lady some nice, true(p) woman who will come in after dark. And Im not buying gage paper. I dont use it and Im not going to buy it. And something has to be done about this asshole vampire. God, I hate doing laundry.She had at rest(p) two blocks when a man stepped out of a doorway in front of her. Hey momma, you need so me help.She jumped in his face and shouted, Fuck off, horndog with such viciousness that he screamed and leaped back into the doorway, then meekly called Sorry after her as she passed.She thought, Im not sorting. It all goes in warm. I dont care if the whites do go gray Im not sorting. And how do I know how to get out bloodstains? Who am I? Miss kinfolk Hints? God, I hate laundry.The clothes jumped and vie and dived over each other like fabric dolphins. Jody sat on a folding table across from the withered watching the show and thinking about the Emperors warning. Hed said, I dont think its safe for a young woman to be out on the street at night. Jody agreed. Not long ago she would have been affright if shed found herself in the Tenderloin at night. She couldnt even remember coming down here during the day. Where had that fear gone? What had happened to her that she could face off with a vampire, bite off his fingers, and carry a dead body up a flight of stairs and shove it under the bed without even a flinch? Where was the fear and condemnation? She didnt miss it, she just wondered what had happened to it.It wasnt as if she were without fear. She was panicky of daylight, afraid of the police discovering her, and of Tommy rejecting her and leaving her alone. radical fears and familiar fears, but there was cryptograph in the dark that frightened her, not the future, not even the old vampire and she knew now, having tasted his blood, that he was old, very old. She saw him as an enemy, and her mind casted for strategies to defeat him, but she was not really afraid of him anymore curious, but not afraid.The shriveled stopped-fabric dolphins dropped and died as if caught in tuna nets. Jody jumped off the table, opened the dryer, and was feeling the clothes for dampness when she heard footsteps on the sidewalk outside the Laundromat. She turned to see the big black man she had dog into the doorway coming into the Laundromat, followed by two shorter men. All three wore silver L.A. Raiders jackets, high-topped shoes, and evil grins.Jody turned back to the dryer and started stuffing her clothes into the trash bag. She thought, I should be folding these.Yo, bitch, the tall man said.Jody looked to the back of the Laundromat. The only door was in the front, behind the three men. She turned and looked up at them. How about those Raiders? she said with a smile. She felt a pressure in the roof of her mouth the fangs extending.The three men split up and moved around the folding table to surround her. In another life, this had been her worst nightmare. In this life she just smiled as two of them grabbed her arms from behind.She saw a pearl of stew on the tall mans temple as he approached her and reached out to tear the front of her shirt. She ripped her right arm loose and caught the tall mans wrist as the sweat astragalus began to drip. She snapped his forearm and bones splintered though skin and muscle as she swung him, headfirst, throug h the codswallop door of the dryer. She reached over her shoulder and grabbed one of the Raider fans by the hair and strong his face into the floor, then wheeled on her last attacker and shoved him back into the edge of the folding table, snapping his spine just above the hips and sending him spinning backward over a deck of washing machines. The bead of sweat hit the floor near the man with the smashed face.Amid the hum of fluorescent lights and the moans of the man with the broken back, Jody loaded the rest of her laundry into the trash bag. She thought, This stuff is going to be nothing but wrinkles by the time I get home. Tommys doing the laundry next time.As she reached the door she ran her tongue over her teeth and was relieved to find her fangs had retracted. She looked over her shoulder at the drubbing and shouted, Forty-fucking-NinersThe man with the broken back moaned.