Welcome to my Halloween Treat.  Since I can’t give everyone candy, I thought I might pass out a little free holiday-themed Void City action, but in the spirit of Halloween, you have to go from “door to door” to get all your goodies.  Don’t let that stop you, though, I’ll make it easy to find and if all else fails, I’ll be updating my blog (here) with the location of each portion of the story…

Why am I doing this?  Well…I don't know.  It may be that I enjoyed the reaction I got to "For Want of Chocolate" which I posted recently here on Pocket After Dark. I'd promised to do a Halloween post over at Paranormal Haven, and I balked at the idea of writing a normal Halloween post.  My characters surely have more interesting Halloweens than I do... so I decided to write a short story and serialize it as I went, putting each section on a different site to create a progressive blog-hop.

Part 1 is available over at Paranormal Haven (here) and there's even still time to enter the giveaway I'm running.  So... assuming you've popped over there and read Part 1, we now rejoin the story (already underway) with a POV swap to Tabitha:

 

A Void City Halloween - Part 2

 By

©J. F. Lewis 

 

TABITHA:

 

If Eric screws up my Wonder Woman costume over a silly comment I made about a stupid movie I didn't want to see in the first place, I'm going to be pissed.

He won't actually claw me, though..  If he's hungry, Eric might bite me.  If I take the first swing, Eric might fight me, but even then, he'd be focused on restraining me and figuring out what going on... trying to decide whether I've been drugged (which happened once), whether he has done something stupid, whether some evil someone is using magic on me… That sort of thing.

Instead of dodging away, I use my special gift: seeming human.  Most vampires can't do it, but it's my Vlad-thing.  I turn it all on, heartbeat, body heat... if there were a mirror around, I'd even show up in it.  I'm still too chicken to see if I can fool the sun, but I like to think that it might work.

The red light from Eric's glowing eyes paints the group in crimson tones.  Even though his claws are out, I smile at him.

"Don't make me use my golden lariat on you," I say as I step in close, my breath hot against his neck.  And that's all it takes.  He's in control again and if his red space uniform is pulled a little tighter in the crotch, well, that’s what I was going for.

"Guys!"  Greta breaks in.  The tone in her voice is that of an embarrassed teen even though I know she was human for twenty-one years and has been a vampire for at least twenty years on top of that.   "No sexy stuff until after we trick or treat."

Eric mumbles something, but I can't make it out.  Seeming human dulls my vampire senses, just like it makes my other vampire powers harder to use.  It's worth it, though for the way Eric takes my hand without thinking about it as he whistles for the car.  Vampires are drawn to body heat.

I watch the humans to see how they react when a 1964 1/2 Mustang convertible pulls out of the parking deck across the street and idles next the curb waiting on us.  There is no driver.  I catch Talbot's smirk as the humans begin to ask Eric questions like "How did you do that?" and "Where's the remote control?"  I doubt if the Veil of Scrythax, the magical ward Lord Phillip has placed over the city, has to work at all to make the mortals explain away the magic, like it has already made them ignore Eric's claws and glowing eyes.

Greta calls shotgun and is already climbing into the passenger's seat before I can protest, leaving Talbot and me to ride in the back.  Marilyn Manson's cover of "This is Halloween" plays on the radio as the engine roars and we pull away.  The humans whoop and cheer when Eric hams it up and doesn't bother to touch the steering wheel as we drive away.  I wonder how they would feel if they knew the car has a name (Fang) and would eat them if Eric let it.

"How does this work?" It strikes me that I've never been trick or treating as a vampire.  When I'm seeming human, I can eat food, but I still can't taste it, which is why the whole voyeuristic eating thing other vampires do just pisses me off.  I hope Eric isn't expecting me to eat all the candy for them....

"How does what work?"  Eric asks.

"Are we actually trolling for candy or...?"

"Why the hell would we want candy?"  Eric looks at me over his shoulder ignoring the road.

"This is Vampire Trick or Treating, Mom," Greta says as if I'm the cutest little moron on the planet.  I hate it when she calls me "mom" too.  Greta is disturbing.

"So... no candy?"

"Nope," Talbot answers.  His hand touches my leg and my false heartbeat speeds up.  I've been with Talbot before, when I was fighting with Eric over his infatuation with my little sister Rachel.  My body remembers what it was like and isn't shy about the desire for another helping.  "While I wouldn't mind a Three Musketeers..."

I stop listening and watch the world go by outside the car.  A Jack-o-lantern, supported by a dark nebulous form, flits through the night on another street and I wonder if it’s a good costume or something supernatural, like me. 

Fang crosses over to Northside where all the trendier bars and clubs are found.  The lights from The Iversonian break the sky; the spotlights on the roof glare out in contrast with the night, but we don't go there.  We head further north toward the flashing blue lights of the Void City Police Department..  Captain Stacey of the VCPD, a tall tawny haired mouser, raises and eyebrow and straightens his uniform as if my reflex when he recognizes the car.

"Now, I know you aren't out Trick or Treating," he says as we drive up.

Eric reaches out of the convertible and shakes Stacey’s hand.  "We are."

"Damn it, Eric,"  Stacey spits.  "We already have enough trouble tonight covering up for the usual vampires who think it's funny to show up and play costume bingo.  We don’t need your kind of trouble on top of all that.”

"Greta wants to go," Eric says firmly.  "We'll pay the Fang Fees in advance."

"Let's call it a deposit," Stacey says, eyeing Greta, "you've got that one with you.  I keep half expecting to have to cover up a slaughter of animals at the zoo because she fancies a lion or an elephant for dinner."

Lord Phillip owns the VCPD.  I’ve been with him, too… he’s a total perv.  Fang fees are the price supernaturals have to pay for body disposal or memory alterations that the Veil of Scrythax doesn't handle well enough.  They're called fang fees, because it's those of us of the bloodsucking persuasion that have to pay them most often.  On Halloween, almost any kill results in a Fang Fee, because technically we're all supposed to "eat in".

"Fair enough."  Eric reaches into the glovebox for his check book and writes a check with more zeroes than he seems happy with... a look one might see on the face of any parent taking the whole family to Disney World or the Bahamas... except this check is bigger.  "Bill me for the rest."

And, just like that, we're accelerating into the flow of party-goers and revelers.  If I thought there were a lot of people hanging out near the Demon Heart, the crowd downtown proves me wrong.  There's a cop on every corner.  A lot of the people out here are younger than I'm used to.  There are tweens mixing in amongst the grown-ups.  Eric shakes his head when he sees them.

"One last time, just so there are no misunderstandings," Eric tells us as we move.  "No one under eighteen. Costumes must be called in advance.  And once you call a costume, you're locked in."

"One costume swap an hour?"  Greta asks.

"We're going to be out here a whole hour?" Eric sounds surprised, although with the size of the check he just wrote… maybe we ought to get his money’s worth.

"All night maybe,"  Greta twirls in a circle.  "It's Halloween, Dad."  Her face goes serious.  "That's okay isn't it?"

"Fine."

"Who picks first?"

Talbot raises his hand.  "Since I won't be 'playing', I'll referee.  Point out a target and say, 'Trick or treat.'  I'll verify the age and the costume.  If you can feed, I'll say 'Treat' and you're clear to hunt.  If I say 'Trick', then you have to do a dare."

"Anyone who takes a victim without Talbot's go ahead, gets staked and has to go straight home," Eric adds, looking pointedly at Greta.

"Most bingos tonight wins?"  Greta asks.

I raise an eyebrow when Eric agrees.  He's not big on games.

"Then, on that note,"  Talbot spreads his arms, "you first."

"Sexy Big Bird," Eric says without hesitation.

"I thought you preferred Wonder Woman."  I give him a mock pout, offering him my neck with a smirk, but he waves me off with a shake of his head. 

"Maybe later."

Then I get it.  Eric doesn't want to win.  He doesn't want to be out here at all.  He'd rather be bowling and watching me or one of his thralls eat pizza for him.  He's here for Greta.  It's almost...  sweet.

Greta picks "Black Cats" and I go with "Harry Potter" because that's still big, but when Greta takes off at a run to find her first target, I take Eric's arm and lean in close.  "I know what you're doing."

"Huh?"  He sounds distracted, looking away from me completely, first to the left and then to the right.

"With the whole 'Sexy Big Bird' thing."

"Uh-huh."  He steers us across the street to where a beautiful old Chinese place sits abandoned on the block. The recession has even hit Northside now.  "Can you hear that?"

Talbot is sticking close to Greta, but when I glance his way, I can see that he’s looking back, watching Eric intently, eyes narrowed. 

What am I missing?

"Son of a bitch!"  Eric shouts and takes off at a run, hitting vampire speed so quickly that he essentially vanishes from view.  As he does, I drop the “seeming human” stuff and manage to catch another glimpse of the flaming Jack-o-lantern, with my enhanced vision and my vampirically boosted senses begin to slowly kick back in.  This time, the thing has blood trailing from its open mouth and a child's tennis shoe wedged between its sharp orange teeth.

----

The next installment is up over at The League of Reluctant Adults.  How many more parts will there be, you ask?  I’m not telling, but don’t worry, I’ll have it all up by Halloween.