Ten, p.20
Ten, page 20
Then, without fanfare or drama, the old man simply went still.
Georgia dropped the butt and eased around to Steve’s side. He buried his face against her neck. Georgia stiffened as the vampire’s fangs came deathly close to her carotid artery but relented as she
felt the poor creature shudder and sniffle, rather than hunt for her blood.
“He said he wanted to die with a whiskey in one hand and a cigarette in the other,” Steve muttered. “I’m pretty sure a beautiful blonde wouldn’t hurt either.”
“Not many people get their dying wish,” Georgia said softly. “He was a lucky man.”
“He was a selfish asshole, just like his father,” Steve spat. “Right before the blood took effect he was reminiscing about winning the salesman of the year award in 1983. Who the hell runs away from his family at the end? He never even thought about them. When my life flashes in front of my eyes, am I gonna be so. . . so empty?”
“Steve—”
“I saw what a royal bastard he was turning out to be, but I did nothing! I was never there for him, but—but—”
“You were there in the end. Isn’t that what matters?”
Steve shook his head. “You were right about me, Georgia. I’ve always been a coward. I sat back and watched him grow up, but anytime he so much as got a hint I was around, I’d just spit in his drink and tell him I was nobody. I’d justify it by telling myself that it was all that second law bullshit, but that wasn’t true. I was just too damn curious to stay away and too damn scared to tell the truth!”
She held onto him and let him cry against her shoulder. Her eyes drifted over to the lifeless form on the hotel bed. “I wish Ren were here,” she sighed.
“Don’t wait till it’s too late, Georgia,” the vampire choked out.
Both gasped as they heard the lock click on the door. Georgia stumbled to her feet first and threw a towel over the corpse’s face.
Steve licked his fangs in preparation for whatever explanations would need to be made and then promptly forgotten.
“I thought I smelled death and vomit,” Minerva said as she surveyed the scene.
“Min—”
“Halt die klappe, Berliner,” Minerva snapped. She motioned sharply towards the door. “You two, out, now! Schnell!”
“Minerva,” Steve started.
“This is zee messy business of humans, mein bruder. This is my business,” she hissed. “You take zee little snack cake out of here and let me take care of this. You’ll just mess it up anyway.”
Georgia snatched her purse and took Steve’s hand. “Come on, let me buy you a drink. We need to find Mr. Lambley too.”
Georgia stopped abruptly as she passed the blonde vampire.
Before she could say so much as a word, Minnie shot her a glance that could freeze lava. “If you dare try to thank me, I’ll rip open your tasty little throat,” the vampire hissed.
Georgia led Steve back into the hall and quickly found herself peeling off his stained shirt. Even in his sorry state, he couldn’t resist raising a brow. “Really? Now you come around?” he quipped.
She then used his filthy shirt to wipe her shoe. His face fell as she wadded it up and disposed of it in the first waste bin she could find on their way back to the ever-open casino bars. It was only when they settled once more at a table with icy beverages that he dared speak.
“I think you can guess by now who Junior really was,” the vampire muttered. “What the hell are we drinking?”
“I don’t know. It was the cheapest beer we could get so I could order a soda without a dirty look. Don’t you have a mixer to make it better anyway?”
“I left my flask in the room,” he sighed as he stared forlornly into the pale amber liquid. “I have such a mess to clean up.”
“It’s not a mess, it’s a person,” Georgia said.
“Not that. Not the room,” Steve snapped back. “I mean the mess with my granddaughter. She’s probably worried sick. Scratch that, she’s probably raising hell trying to find out what happened, but. . . I just don’t know what to do right now.”
“I’m still wrapping my head around you having grandkids,”
Georgia muttered before slurping up some much-needed caffeine.
“It’s not something vampires like to talk about. It gets complicated. Until the Matsuoka found out that someone was drawing my war benefits, I didn’t even know I had a kid for years. I made a deal with one of them, and cleaned up his messes in exchange for him getting a fake marriage certificate, and fixing all the
paperwork for my French fling. I just altered a few memories, and I thought I had the happily ever after, you know.”
“And now you have a granddaughter, whoa.”
“I actually have a great-granddaughter, and she’s almost the same age as you,” Steve said with a sad little laugh. “Now you know my best kept secret.”
“I never thought of how awkward it would be for vampires with human family still alive. I’m sorry for everything. I can’t even imagine what it must be like to see your own son—”
“You hate me, and you still helped me,” Steve sighed.
“I don’t hate you, Steve. Hey, if things had turned out differently, who knows, but I met Ren and—”
“Yeah, I get it.”
They sat in awkward silence again. Finally, Georgia’s phone buzzed. “Mr. Lambley is safely parked at an Uptown Chapel slot machine in the smoke-free casino, so that is one less worry. I get the feeling that Minerva will be able to—”
“Clean up the mess,” Steve said bitterly. “I can’t believe he’s gone. It just seems so short. Seventy-two years is nothing really, when you think of how long I’ve got left. Is it always gonna feel like this, Sweetheart? Is it always gonna hurt so bad?”
“Probably,” she sighed. She lifted her glass. “Come on. Let’s have a toast.”
“To Steven DeMarco Junior,” Steve said softly.
“To Steven DeMarco Junior,” Georgia repeated. “Now why don’t you tell me all about him?”
“To my dear daughter, Maria,” Paige read as the lump rose in her throat. Next to her, Maria Lucia DeMarco stared through watery eyes at the shaky, sloppy note. “I couldn’t keep rotting away in a bed in a home when I knew that you were bankrupting yourself to pay for me.
I always wanted to die with a whiskey in one hand and a smoke in
the other. It was just my time, my Maria. Goodbye and don’t cry for an old man who never deserved it. – Dad.”
12
“I NEVER REALIZED there were so many different types of casseroles,” Paige sighed as she surveyed her mother’s dining room table.
“Think about it this way, Paige, there is a whole pack of werewolves that’ll be fed for at least a day or two,” Kyle said with a weak smile. “Tina made the funeral potatoes for you. I mean, that must be one of those weird Southern things.”
“Oh yeah, everyone has some sort of go-to for these things.
When my grandma died, wow,” Paige said softly. “Thanks for coming, by the way.”
The big redhead gave her a one-armed hug. “Sam sends his regards too. From what I can gather, that crowd doesn’t do funerals.”
“Yeah, their idea of mourning is writing a name in a book and then drinking a lot,” she growled. “Morgan offered to come, but I could tell he’d be miserable. They promised me as many rounds as I could take tonight.”
The pair hovered by the food, nodding and smiling at the relative strangers who wandered around the house. The vast majority consisted of friends and co-workers of Maria with a few random distant cousins and friends thrown in for good measure.
“So, they found your grandpa—?” Kyle muttered.
“The, um, official story is that he bribed an orderly so he could sneak out for one last night on the town. He was found in a motel,
probably died in his sleep after trying to smoke,” Paige whispered back.
“Do I want to know the truth?” Kyle asked.
“Apparently there was booze, cocaine, and multiple women involved. The woman he was found with is probably going to be in therapy for the rest of her life.”
“So, he went out with a bang,” Kyle muttered. “Lucky guy.”
“Aww bless your heart,” Paige heard from one of the people hanging around her mom. Paige immediately poured a fresh glass of iced tea and went to her mother’s side.
“Mom, they need you to sign something,” Paige said as she gave her best apologetic look to the crowd.
“Excuse me,” Maria said. As soon as they were out of earshot, the elder DeMarco gave her daughter a big hug. “Thank you. I was one minute from telling all these people exactly what was on my mind.”
“I don’t know half these people,” Paige muttered.
“Where’s Morgan?” Maria asked.
“He couldn’t get away from work,” she said. “He’s buying tonight if you’re up for some liquor and low social expectations.”
“You’re sweet, kiddo. I don’t know what I want though. I really don’t want to deal with all this damn food though.”
“I’ll make sure it’s gone. Is there anything else—?”
Maria kissed her daughter on the forehead. “I just need to keep on the game face for a little while longer. Did you know that your grandpa had life insurance? After all the lawyers that came by yesterday, I almost thought you did have something for me to sign. I don’t know what to think. All my life I thought my dad was a lay about who never did much, and now he’s gone and suddenly I find out he at least planned to take care of us. It’s not huge but it will pay off the medical bills, the second mortgage I had to take, and even pay for the funeral—”
“I wish you’d told me—”
“Why? One day if you become a mom, you’ll know that little bit of pride and dignity you have to maintain over your kids. Look, we got through it.”
Paige sniffed the air as she gave her mom a hug. A sickeningly sweet stench overpowered even a cabbage and kielbasa bake. She shot a warning glance over to Kyle who had already moved closer to the front door to follow the stink.
“Just give me a second, mom.”
She dodged and weaved through the concerned strangers, muttering an occasional thank you as they told her how truly sorry they were for her loss. Her hands shook as she fought to keep her claws hidden, but she managed to somehow open the front door without causing a scene.
“What are you doing here?” Paige growled to a young-looking man in a fedora and sunglasses. The metallic scent of sunscreen mixed with his undead stench.
“I came to pay my respects,” Steve DeMarco the elder said as he tipped his hat.
“Really?” Paige growled.
“I’m not going to fight you, Pip,” the vampire muttered.
“You killed him, didn’t you?”
Steve looked off to the row of cars. “Bigger turnout than I expected—”
Paige all but leaped in front of him. This time her claws did pop out. “You killed him, didn’t you?” she growled.
“I gave him what he wanted. I gave him one last hurrah.”
“My mom has been worried sick—”
“Well, she’ll be a lot less worried without collectors calling her,”
Steve muttered.
“You can’t just buy us off. You—”
“Paige, who is this?”
Paige snapped her claws back under her nails and whirled around to face her concerned mother. Maria narrowed her eyes at the stranger. Paige’s jaw dropped as Steve pulled off his sunglasses and hat. “Hello, Maria,” he said softly.
“I know you,” she choked out. “I’ve seen you. . . seen you in pictures. You look just like—”
“My name is Steven James DeMarco, but you probably know me better as your grandfather,” he said as he flashed a smile wide
enough to show off his fangs. “Oh, and I’m also a vampire.”
“What in the name of all that is holy have you brought into my parlor?” Mr. Lambley protested as his assistant lumbered between the furniture with a Santa-worthy sack slung over her back.
“I got the mold from my dad and a shocking number of pigs’ feet from Mrs. Kwon,” she said after she caught her breath. “Hopefully, it will be worth it.”
“It?” The vampire asked.
“This is what happens when I get bored,” Georgia muttered as she slung her sack onto the kitchen table with a satisfying thud. The entire house was permeated by the meaty perfume of sixteen quarts of simmering trotters. Georgia, however, seemed more focused on unwrapping a jagged plaster, burlap mold, and a set of wired arm bones. She made the off-white phalanges wave to the confused undead. “Say, hello to Bones,” she ordered.
“Greetings?” the vampire replied with a raised brow. “Is that—?”
“Non-toxic plastic,” Georgia finished. She whipped out some flimsy pink tubing as well. “My dad gave me a bunch of what he calls his “horror gimmicks” to play with, since he’s actually decided to talk to me this year. I don’t want to know why he had a spare human arm mold in his workshop, but I’ll take it.”
He wandered over to the stove and sniffed the meat mush. “This is simply divine,” he whispered to the porky aroma.
“Wait till I mix it with this,” she said as she unloaded box upon box of unflavored gelatin. “Let’s just say, I had too much fun on the internet today.”
The vampire watched, entranced, as his assistant began looping the little tubing in a set pattern along the bones, occasionally pausing to refer to the image on her phone. She then delicately set the bones and rig into the mold and smiled at the gruesome handiwork.
“Miss Sutherland—?” the vampire asked.
“Go watch a few soaps, and I’ll have a surprise for you,” she said as she pulled out a roll of duct tape. She went full-on mad scientist in the kitchen, straining and mixing gelatinous pig flesh with more rubbery gelatin into a hardware store bucket. By the end of the experiment, her poor blender groaned in protest, but she created a uniform pink slime to pour in Mr. Army. She filled the tubing with water and prayed to the elder god MacGyver that her rig would work.
By the time the vampire wandered back in, Georgia was busy scraping up the last wayward bits of pig jigglers while their table remained covered in newspapers and the mysterious mold. Mr.
Lambley and the cat stopped to help in the cleanup effort by licking up the spatter that somehow landed on the fridge – albeit at different heights.
“Oh, that is right tasty!” the vampire said with glee. “Did you save me any?”
Georgia rolled her eyes and dove into the fridge. As she whipped out a dish of perfect pig cubes, the vampire squealed. She handed him a spoon and shooed him out of the room.
“Gotta keep busy,” she chided herself as she checked for any new messages. “Busy, busy, busy.”
Once she cleaned, scrubbed, and even polished the counters, she decided to make new smoothies for both parties in the house.
Next, it was on to balancing the checkbook. Finally, she wandered back to the den, plopped on the sofa, and started surfing funny cat videos, while Schrodinger flopped in her lap.
Finally, her text alert popped on her screen. She let out a sigh of relief as she read three little words. “Mada ikite iru.”
“Well, this is awkward,” Paige muttered as she sat in the now nearly empty living room with only DeMarcos perched on the sofa. Her mother sat between the vampire and the werewolf, her wine glass eschewed in favor of a full bottle of Italian red.
“It’s definitely awkward,” Steve concurred. He waved at the blackened TV just to show off to the human that he lacked a reflection.
“Dex was right? That cocksucking bastard was actually right about something?” Maria muttered. “I mean, vampires are. . .
vampires are real?”
“Surprise!” Steve offered weakly.
“Did my father know? Paige, you knew, right?”
Paige grimaced as she faced her mother’s withering stare. Steve, meanwhile, gnawed on his lower lip in that fangtastic way only a vampire could, until Maria slammed her bottle down and turned her ferocious gaze onto her grandfather. “Did…my…father…know?” she asked again, her voice dangerously low and cold.
“You have to believe me that there is never a good time to tell your son that you didn’t die in World War II,” Steve said.
“And my husband?” Maria asked.
“Well, he was a pain in the ass who would believe anything.
Whoever was baiting him to come after vampires just used me because I was related to you—” Steve started.
“I didn’t want to add to it, but vampires have these laws—”
“Are you a vampire, Paige?” Maria asked hotly. “Is that what you’ve been keeping from me?”
Paige sighed and reached around to the back of her pants. After a great deal of wiggling and grunting, she finally managed to pull her tail out into the open. Maria blinked a few times and stared at the two feet of furry appendage.
“That wasn’t there when you were born,” she finally spat out.
Paige popped out all ten of her finger claws and let her irises expand across her eyes. To her credit, Maria maintained just enough composure to take a good long drink. Paige slumped into the cushion and retracted her claws. “Mom, I’m a werewolf,” she confessed.
“Is that from your father’s side of the family?” Maria asked earnestly.
“No, I bit someone. Remember my little accident earlier this year?”
“The car accident?”
Steve cringed. “Yeah, about that—” he started.
“Great-grandpa Steve has the ability to erase people’s memories, Mom—” Paige added.
“Not just erase but suggest alternate ones,” Steve clarified. “It’s kind of my gift to the vampire world.”
“My daughter is a werewolf,” Maria said. “Is that why you eat so much and need the industrial deodorant sometimes? No offense—”
“Mom! You think I smell?” Paige gasped.
Ms. DeMarco pinched her fingers and smiled apologetically. “I thought it was all the extra working out,” she offered. “Just a little bit.
