"Don't let the sun go down on me. Although I search myself, it's always someone else I see. I'd just allow a fragment of your life to wander free. But losing everything is like the sun going down on me." ~ Elton John, Sick City (Album)
Chapter One
California has always been a vampire state for as long as people have been finding their way to the coastline. The growing hubs of humanity and transient trade routes are a big draw for those who wish to hunt out in the open. Santa Carla had seen countless vampires, rouges, and packs come and go over her long history and the mid-twentieth century was no different.
During the early part of the eighties David was the resident bloodsucking nomad. He was a lone wolf that kept to the south end of town in the commercial and industrial areas as well as the Boardwalk. There were more nooks and crannies to hide in during the day and plenty of faceless transient targets to pick off once the sun went down who would not be missed.
As for Fay, her home was in the heart of the suburbs over on the north end. It was a nice little close-knit community where the houses were small, the families were average, and the kids played together in the streets until the street lamps came on at night. It was safe, quiet, and more importantly vampire free. The only time Fay willingly ventured into the downtown core was for work. At night for the most part, she stayed on her side of the zip code.
That arrangement remained unchanged for a few quiet years until one night the unexpected happened. A vampire came crashing through her front window at three in the morning.
Fate? Coincidence? Bad luck? Or as Fay would say, "Boh, che ne so?"
"Holy Christ on a crutch!!!!" Fay swore as she bolted upright in bed. The jarring sound of a shattered glass filled the house and a hard impact sent a shudder through the floorboards.
"What the hell?"
The eye-mask that covered half her face was ripped off as an alarmed chirp came from the pillow next to her. A pair of emerald green eyes blinked into existence and vanished a moment later.
"Figaro, downstairs, now!" Fay fought with the cotton sheets before she swung her legs over and leapt out of bed. The fuzzy half-sleep feeling that fogged her mind was quickly replaced by a rising sense of alarm and an even larger helping of severe annoyance.
"Those little jerks!"
The words were hissed from between her teeth as she groped in the dark for a fuzzy pink bathrobe. A striped silver tomcat, Figaro, meowed in agreement before he bolted out into the hallway. Fay headed for the door but stopped short when she remembered something. With a curse that was anything but ladylike Fay turned and dove onto the bed to slide her hand under her pillow. She pulled free her trusty go-to for all things out of the ordinary. A well-made solid wooden cooking spoon.
"So help me if it's those stupid senior punks again I'm going to backhand the whole lot of them." Fay growled as she finally hurried out of her bedroom. Fay took the stairs two at a time and landed lightly when she reached the bottom. Figaro had been waiting for her on the last step. With his delicate ears laid back, eyes dilated, and thin tail puffed out to twice its size there was no question that something was amiss.
"What is it?" Fay muttered and adjusted her grip on the worn handle of the wooden spoon.
There were no heavy footsteps or drunken catcalls coming from the front yard. The typical gunned engines and squealing tires were missing. Everything was quiet and the house had begun to feel cold and dank.
But in April?
Fay did not like this. Not for a second.
"This is my house. It answers to me. Honestly Fay get a grip girl."
With a quiet exhale Fay tip-toed past the kitchen with Figaro shadowing her heels. The crash had come from the living room. The uneasy chill that had settled in the air seemed stronger in that direction and with it came a particularly nauseating aroma.
"Ugh!"
One solid whiff told her everything she needed to know. No teenaged boy smelled like the foul combination of sickly sweet death, musty earth, old leather, dried blood...and axel grease?
Armed with only the wooden spoon and a dainty-pawed house cat for backup Fay took a second to steady herself before she cautiously peered around the empty doorframe that led from the small kitchen into the larger living room. It was dark enough that the shadows that played along the walls provided an eerie feeling of foreboding. As if something dangerous was lurking in the shadows just out of her line of sight, waiting to spring out and scare her.
"Oh, you are so busted."
What did not scare her was what she saw standing in the wreckage of the large south facing ornate picture window.
A dark clad figure with a striking platinum blonde mullet was backlit from the warm yellow glow of her porch light. His face remained shadowed from view but there was a reflective gleam in his eyes that instantly caught Fay's attention.
Vampire. Santa Carla's very own midnight rider.
He was staring hard at something inside her house in a way that was remarkably predatory and familiar. It was well out of his reach on the other side of an invisible line that he would not cross. Not unless he was invited in which was never going to happen. All he could do was stand there and....seriously?
It took her a moment before she saw it.
It wasn't the broken glass and ruined furniture that set her teeth on edge. Nor was it the blatant trespassing on her very property. What got Fay's goat about this unwarranted late-night calling were the rose bushes.
There was a vampire, an undead bloodsucking homewrecker, standing smack dab in the middle of her late grandmothers prized rose bushes. And by the looks of it some of them were completely ruined.
Fay's eyes narrowed into the thinnest of slits.
There was no way on this side of the great mortal divide that Fay was going to let that one stand.
"HEY!"
Those dangerous glow-in-the-dark eyes shifted in her direction.
"What do you think you are doing? You are not welcome here. Get the heck away from this house and get the hell off my roses!"
Fay did not think twice about it. Barefoot and bedhead, Fay stormed into the room and stopped short of stepping on the broken glass that was stuck in the thick plush area rug that took up half the floor space.
"What is this? You think this is a good idea? Coming here? Breaking my windows? Seriously? Beat it buster or so help me you will regret it."
Fay brandished the wooden spoon in her right hand as if it were a conductor's baton.
"Do not make me use this because I will. I will! Try it and see what happens."
The blonde figure did not say a word. He just looked at her with a bemused expression on his half-hidden face before his heated eyes drifted over her head to fix on something, or someone, behind her.
It was impossible for Fay not to follow his line of sight and when she turned around she locked eyes with something she did not expect to ever see standing in her home. Furious fiery eyes, a mane of thick black hair, one impressive bare-chested torso at eye-level, demonic features instead of a human face, and a pair of long lethal looking fangs.
"O-kay. Ah, no. Nuh. I...no. I am not playing this game. You leave. Now."
There was an honest to goodness vampire standing smack-dab in the middle of her living room and all Fay could do was stand there dumbfounded and shake her spoon. If the situation was not so grave it would have made for a great comedy sketch.
That was what the blonde stranger thought anyways because the first sound he uttered was a deep-throated bark of laughter. That took Fay's eyes off of the snarling homicidal beefcake for a brief moment.
"You think this is funny do you?" Fay snapped.
"Actually, I do." The stranger mused as he clasped his gloved hands before him.
"Oh yeah? Well I don't. Who is this guy? How is he even in my house? And what exactly is going on? You guys are not supposed to be able to - Ohhhhhhh no you DON'T!"
WHACK!
Fay whipped around with such speed that she clocked the encroaching menace clean across the face with the back of her wooden spoon with enough force to send him staggering backward. Stunned, the dark-haired vampire folded like a house of cards and that was when Fay went at him with a vengeance that bordered on murderous.
"How dare you!"
It took three hefty blows to the head before he hit the floor and once he was down Fay really gave him something to snarl about.
"Don't you dare try to bite me! EVER!"
Fay screeched at a pitch that it made the blonde stranger wince in sympathy for the poor schmuck that had made the wrong decision to pick a fight with someone who was not afraid to fight back and fight dirty.
"I think he's had enough."
"I'll be the one...to say...when...he's...had...enough!"
SMACK! SPLAT! FWICK! FWACK! CRACK!
That last shot was a cheap one that really drove home the impression that she was not someone to be messed with. Especially late at night, in the dark, armed with a wooden spoon of all things.
"Are you finished?"
Fay straightened her bathrobe and blew a strand of hair out of her eyes before she even bothered to glare down her nose at the figure who was the source of all this commotion.
"Yes, yes I am. I'm finished with him and I'm finished with you. So goodbye and get lost."
The vampire standing in the rose bushes chuckled to himself.
"Okay, that's it! You're next! C'mere!"
He had enough sense to duck and roll as the spoon sliced through the air where he had been standing a moment before. Fay would have had a go with the antagonizing git right there out on her lawn had it not been for the timely interjection of a deep groan.
"What the?"
The vampire who was sprawled out on the floor came to his senses only to discover that he was not alone. Planted neatly on his chest was an extremely well-fed black and white tuxedo cat who clearly enjoyed the opportunity to paw at the vampire's long locks.
"Dear lord. Fat Cat get off him!" Fay groaned as the battered vampire blinked in surprise. Out of all the things that could have ended up on his chest a cat was the last thing he would have imagined.
"Beat it meatball!"
Fangs were bared at the pudgy animal and Fat Cat got the message.
"It's ok, it's okay. He won't hurt you." Fay clucked in reassurance as the freaked-out house cat waddled hastily to her before he decided that he would rather hide behind her legs then take another step.
"You got that wrong babe."
The vampire winced as he carefully rose to his feet. The parts of him that were not covered by his leather jacket sported some ugly looking welts and burn marks. There were large darkening bruises along his face and neck where she had nailed him good and proper. There was one particularly nasty looking mark along his hairline that he would feeling for days by the look of it.
"Babe?" Fay's eyes flashed with a hidden fire all their own. Her fingers flexed dangerously.
"Way wrong."
The long-haired vampire sent her one of those trademark evil toothy grins that was supposed to strike terror in the hearts of humans as he took a predatory step forward. Fay's expression went from irritated to stone-cold as she stood her ground. Outside the stranger had returned to his post to watch the little drama play out.
"I wouldn't do that."
"Yeah? Piss off."
Meeeeerrrrrrrrrr....hiss!
Dozens of unblinking shining eyes appeared as if by some sort of magic. From under every piece of furniture, shadow, and crack they filled the living space. Cats, all colours and sizes, crouched on whatever space they could find. Ears and eyes were trained on the encroaching vampire who had enough sense to freeze where he stood. One predator surrounded by many. Vampire against felines. They just waited for him to make another move. That was all it would take to set them off.
"Are you kidding me?"
Fay arched an eyebrow.
"The Wicked Witch of the West has flying monkeys pal. I, on the other hand, have cats."
The snark in her voice was icy enough to sink the Titanic as she crossed her arms matter-of-factly.
"Ah shit."
"Ya think?"
"Mind if I come in?"
"Of course I mind. Do you honestly think that I am going to invite every vampire in the state of California to come waltzing across my doorstep? Because if you do, you have another thing coming. Hey! What are you doing?"
Fay squawked in disbelief as the second vampire stepped over the windowsill and entered her house.
"What does it look like? "I'm going to invite every vampire in California to come waltzing across my doorstep"?" He pointed out as he walked slowly toward Fay. He carefully held her spoon out as a peace offering and made damn sure not to get close to the walls or the furniture. The battalion of glittering eyes could just as easily fixate themselves on him if he made the wrong move.
"But that was in question form! Dammit!" Fay swore under her breath.
"Uh, lady? Could you call off your cats...please?"