Resurrection is for the Unbelievers
By
Part Three
All Previous Disclaimers Apply.
Razz Me: shaych3@yahoo.com
~Chapter Five~
Elizabeth didn’t just shower, she wallowed in the streaming flow of hot water. By the time she was done, there wasn’t a drop of shampoo left in the bottle and the little bar of soap was the merest fragment of a sliver. However, she was clean, and that had to count for something.
Standing in front of the vanity mirror, the vampire didn’t even notice her own reflection until she realized that she shouldn’t be casting one.
“Holy fuck,” she whispered, reaching for the mirror. Her fingers skimmed the surface and she watched it happen. She touched her face, stuck out her tongue, and smiled until it hurt. Her fangs popped out and they were – dare she say it – kind of cute. All of it was reflected back at her under the unforgiving glare of the fluorescent vanity lamps.
“This is some truly weird shit. Maybe I’m just dreaming. Maybe I’m dead, and dreaming. Yeah, that’s it. Dead and dreaming. Because, dead vampires can dream of electric sheep.” Shaking her head, Elizabeth peeled the tiny towel from her body and quickly slipped into the borrowed clothing. The shirt was a size too big, but the shorts seemed to fit okay. “Well, I won’t win any runway competitions, but at least I’m done with bag lady chic.” She pirouetted, still amused at seeing herself in the mirror.
Iscariot didn’t have anything reflective in his palace. Even if he had, she knew that she would not have bothered to venture a glance. If the demon that had sired her had not shown up on video, there was no way that a mere mirror would display their unholy visage.
The length of her hair did give her a chuckle. “I guess it does grow after death,” she muttered as she attempted to finger comb through the tangled snarl.
%%%
“Hiya, hon. What can I get you tonight?” The waitress eyed Kate speculatively. The detective had walked into the restaurant and immediately settled on a counter seat.
“Cheeseburger, well done, no pickle, ketchup, hold the mayo, light mustard. Fries, large cola and a slice of apple pie. Can I get it to go?” Kate pulled out her coupon booklet and tore off another voucher.
“Sure, hon. Just give us a few minutes to cook it up and you can be on your way.” She smiled. Chew-chew. Pop. Chew. “Hot date?” she asked as she stuck the order into the revolving spindle and gave it a turn.
“Only with a tub of water and a good book,” Kate said laconically.
The waitress laughed. “Well, I hope you soak ‘til you prune honey, you look like you need it.”
%%%
Fifteen minutes later, Kate met a delivery boy at the foot of the stairs to her room. Dressed in the typical bike messenger’s uniform of hooded sweatshirt and nylon pants, he stood with one hand in his pocket and the other clutching a paper bag to his chest.
“You Lockley?” The slight sibilance to the young man’s voice told Kate that he was not altogether human.
“You must be Dersk. Yeah, I’m Kate. You have a package for me?” Kate set the bag containing her dinner on a step.
“One six pack, B grade. Still warm, even.” Stepping into the light, he held out the bag. Tiny bluish green scales covered his hands. Smiling, he said, “If you need more, my card’s in the bag.”
“Thanks.” Kate handed him a twenty and took the bag.
His smile grew. “Generosity becomes you. If you need anything else, give me a call.” He pushed his hood back and his skin changed becoming perfectly human. “I can be useful.” He added, smiling at the detective’s surprised expression.
“I’ll remember that,” Kate said as she watched the half-demon take off before gathering her own meal. As she started up the stairs, she wondered again what she was doing.
Are you nuts, or just a sucker for a lost puppy? She looked at you with those pretty green eyes and you melted like a stick of butter in a microwave. She’s probably long gone by now, after having taken anything of value and drinking the other guests dry.
~Chapter Six~
When she walked into the room and found Elizabeth kicked back on the bed, watching a rerun of Cheers and drinking a glass of ice water, she very nearly apologized for being in the wrong room and walked back out again. Clean and dressed, the vampire was so different, so normal, that Kate almost mistook her for human.
“So I guess that means I clean up okay,” Elizabeth said, her eyes sparkling with laughter.
Letting the door swing shut, Kate set the bags on the table and said, “Yeah, not too bad for the undead.”
Elizabeth stuck her tongue out at Kate. Her stomach rumbled noisily when the detective laid out her meal. God, she was so hungry. Gone was the companion of sexual desire. Subsumed by the craving to feed, all that was left was the sucking, gnawing need to fill her belly. Licking her lips, she forced her gaze away from the beautiful detective’s throat and onto the television.
Not oblivious to the vampire’s struggle, Kate filed the reaction away for later contemplation. Reaching into the bag she had gotten from Dersk, she pulled out a covered plastic cup. It was clear, and the blood within it sloshed thickly.
“Here,” she said, holding out the cup to Elizabeth. “You need to eat as much as I do.”
The vampire turned to accept the food and reeled back, hissing when she saw the offering.
“No! I can’t. No more. No one must suffer so that I may live.” Shaking so fiercely that her teeth chattered, Elizabeth spat, “Throw it away. I’d rather die.”
When she’d ordered, Kate had thought to snub the vampire by getting her pig’s blood. Now, it seemed that her attempt to insult would end up being a favor.
Sighing, Kate said, “Can the dramatics. It’s pig’s blood.”
Elizabeth’s mouth clicked shut. Shooting the detective an evil glare, she said, “What if I was Jewish?”
Kate just gave her a look and continued to hold out the container.
“Oh all right. Thanks,” the vampire said sullenly. Taking the cup, she opened it and started to drink. Almost immediately, she gagged. “God, this is foul.”
“Well, it’s all you’re getting. I’m certainly not
volunteering for the menu.”
Elizabeth contemplated the cup. It was blood. She recognized the smell, taste, even the touch of it. It was familiar – both to the vampire side and the former medical student. Yet, it was also alien. Where once the taste had been sweet, this was foul, so unwelcome it was like trying to force a recalcitrant child to eat their vegetables.
But she was hungry, and no matter how disgusting, it was nourishing. Holding her breath, she drank the entire contents of the cup in three swallows. Then she set it down on the bedside table with a slam and slugged back the remainder of her ice water.
Having only taken two bites of her cheeseburger, Kate was impressed. “Want more? I’ve got six pints here…”
Elizabeth felt her gorge rise. “Oh, no, thanks. I’m full.” She patted her stomach, which gurgled, and smiled tightly.
“Oh, okay. So… you mentioned something about a long story?”
%%%
The television was off. Kate was absently chewing on a French fry. Staring at Elizabeth as if she were insane, the detective ate three more fries before speaking.
“Wait a minute, so you and your buddies stole a vampire’s corpse? Vampire’s don’t have corpses, they turn to dust when you stake ‘em.”
“Perhaps that is true for some vampires – but this one was different. Maybe it had something to do with his age, or his lineage. My…” Elizabeth hesitated, and her eyes grew distant and angry. “My sire was ancient. He had worn many names, many faces and every one of them was evil.”
Nodding while biting her lip, Kate said, “Well, you are here and unless I’m blind, you are a vampire so I guess I’ll believe you.” She shook her head and chuckled mirthlessly. “Do you have any idea of how utterly stupid you guys were?”
“At the time, all I could think about was saving the man I loved.”
“Right. The good professor who was sleeping with his student. Charming man. I’m sure he was a lovely prince. Where is he now, by the way? How hard did he fight to save you?” Kate leaned forward and punctuated her statement by cocking her head and raising her eyebrows sharply.
Elizabeth closed her eyes and turned her head. “He’s dead.” Her response seemed hollow, bereft of emotion.
“Oh, I’m sorry.” Drawing back, Kate lowered her eyes and softly said, “I lost someone I love too.”
“He deserved to die. He betrayed us all.” Bitterness laced every word.
“I know something about that, too.” Kate’s sadness vanished as quickly as it had come. “Go on – tell me the rest of it.”
Slowly, Elizabeth wove the story of her fall from grace.
She left nothing out, from the theft of the vampire’s body to the death of her best friend Tanya, to Kenny’s betrayal and eventual death; she told Kate the entire sordid tale of how she and her friends had resurrected the demonic entity that called itself Judas Iscariot.
“I had already been infected, you see. We realized that vampirism is like a virus and Lowell thought that if we could just isolate that, and adapt it – well, needless to say the medical applications alone are unimaginable.”
“Now see, there’s where you went wrong. Vampirism isn’t a virus; it’s a form of possession by a creature from Hell. Medical science can’t use that to cure cancer.”
“Twenty-twenty hindsight is perfect,” Elizabeth whispered sadly. “Luke tried to save me, but it was too late. The virus – the demon, if you will – had taken over. Iscariot and I defeated the priest and escaped to Romania where he took another name, another face and I –“ She started to shake. Covering her face with her hands, she fought to keep the wrenching sobs from erupting, but it was a futile battle. Weeping openly, Elizabeth said, “I drank… I fed off those who had slain… I rationalized my existence by believing that I had nothing to do with the death of innocents, but it was a lie. I killed to live… and I enjoyed it.” She looked up then and the haunted, hollow look in her eyes made Kate shiver. “I came to love the taste – even second hand. The rush was incredible – like sex. It wouldn’t have been much longer…and I… I would have become like Iscariot.” Closing her eyes, she shuddered visibly. “I would have taken prey from among the mortals… fed on humans… God, I’m going to be sick.” She leapt from the bed and raced into the bathroom.
Taken completely aback, Kate was astonished to hear the sounds of a vampire being noisily and thoroughly ill. Sighing, she took a sip of her cola and said, “Only I would take a trip to Normal and end up in Weirdsville.”
Maybe she has been ensouled. I wonder if Willow still has the same cell… Pulling out her phone, she thumbed through the numbers and highlighted a name. She was about to dial when a weak voice called, “Do you think you could trouble yourself to get me some water? And maybe a towel?”
I am a heartless bitch. She’s in there getting sick and I’m making a phone call and why the Hell do I care? Yet she set the phone down, stood and went to the bathroom. Grabbing a towel from the rack, she tossed it into the room and then filled a plastic cup with water from the tap.
“Here,” she said. Then she looked at Elizabeth. The garish light of the bathroom forced her to really examine the young woman kneeling in front of the toilet.
The vampire’s hair, which was the ruddy shade of nearly dried blood, was pulled back away from her face. Her skin, already pale, was now so white that Kate could count the tiny veins that threaded the tissue under the epidermis. Her lips had taken on a slightly blue-tinged pallor and her eyes were nearly bleached white.
“You look like shit.”
Pursing her lips, Elizabeth managed to retort, “Thanks. I’m sure you’d look like a supermodel after tossing your cookies.”
Kate smirked. “Well, the good news is – there’s more blood.”
Elizabeth pressed her lips together grimly. “I don’t think that’s going to work, Kate. I seem to have a little problem keeping it down.”
“I told you – I’m not on the menu.”
“And I told you that I don’t eat humans.”
“Oh great, a vegetarian vampire. What do you eat? Bugs?”
“Apparently, nothing. I have no idea. I’m as new to this as you are. In fact, before last night, I don’t remember anything. Like I was telling you – I should be dead!”
Kate leaned against the doorjamb and folded her arms over her chest. “I think you’d better tell me the rest of that story.”