Outsider (25 page)

So, where is Joy? Sure, Joy will never be
interested in impersonating psychotherapists, but she could explain
the discrepancy between her previous claim ─one vampire per
territory─ and Sid's sore neck.

"Flesh. And blood. Flesh. And blood."
(Girlschool)

Something is off, and not just the light in
Sid's bedroom. Whatever it is sculpts an angry frown in Joy's raven
eyebrows. She just wants a quiet night in, for once. She's already
fed, so all she wants now is uncomplicated sex with Sid, something
to take her mind off these other vampires' shenanigans around the
world, with someone who never seems to have a problem with her
requests, nor the timing of her presence.

It is still early in the night and the writer
is already asleep. She is not bleeding but she has bled recently.
Not menstrual blood.

Swiftly, the vampire lets the black curtain
fall back to the open window and reaches the edge of the low bed.
Her silent fingers pull down the soft velvety quilt, her vampiric
eyes spot the telltale marks obliterating the arachnean tattoo, and
her tongue licks the four-night-old bite. Licks and tastes and
identifies. She moves her head and in the complete darkness of the
room, her eyes meet Sid's. Joy senses something different about the
brown irises. The pull is stronger and hungrier. She closes her
eyes in an attempt to escape but she can still feel the tug
reaching out to her essence. She kisses Sid's lips, and the more
Sid responds, the more their tongues reach out for each other, the
more the tentacle of power withdraws.

* * * * * * *

Joy is a powerful vampire, she doesn't owe
anything to anyone, she takes as she pleases and cares only for
herself. Then, why does she feel that she owes this mortal writer
an explanation? It is a very strange and uncomfortable feeling, as
odd as abandoning herself in someone's arms.
Honestly, attaching
myself to some human is a bad idea
. Nevertheless, she does not
move, she does not reject the arm relaxed around her. Sid has not
said a word yet; she seems to be waiting. If vampires breathed, Joy
would choose this very moment to sigh extremely deeply.

"What did she say?"

"What? Who?"

Sometimes, Sid is almost irritating. She
expects something from Joy, but when Joy gives it, she doesn't
recognise what it is.

"The other vampire you encountered
recently?"

"Oh! She basically said to tell you she was
in town."

Joy's silence mingles with the darkness of
the bedroom. Until Sid prods:

"Who is she?"

"Her name is Dee-Dee." Joy's voice is so
quiet that she is barely audible to a human ear. "She was an
anarchist musician in the early 90's. I believe she is a very angry
vampire. Enraged. Maybe deranged." Maybe every vampire is
deranged.

"Who made her?"

"Toni. Toni is the most powerful vampire I've
met besides the one who turned me." Joy can not say sire, she has a
visceral hatred for the word. "I have no idea how old Toni is.
She's never been much into sharing her past. She could easily be a
few centuries old. It depends on how powerful the guy who made her
was. It also depends how many ancient vampires gave her their
blood. She can fly."

It is Sid's silence's turn to mingle with the
darkness of the bedroom. Joy feels a sudden tension in the writer's
body and surprise misses her when the writer eventually speaks:

"Why would a vampire like Dee-Dee gives me a
message for you? Why would she bite me if she were younger than
you? Isn't she supposed to respect you or be scared of you? Or is
she totally mental? Has she got a death wish? Because, I could
imagine that vampires, too, can suffer from insanity, be it
schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, psychosis, whatever! Has she got a
score to settle with you? What's her deal? And while you're at it,
could you explain to me why she asked me
WHAT
I was? Because
if you've altered me in any way, I'd like to know, just, you know,
to know where I'm at. But, what could it be, if this vampire needed
to ask?"

Ok, this is not the night I had in mind.
Of course, I could just up and go; I've got time before dawn
.
The vampire does not move. She is actually impressed. Anger is a
rare feeling for Sid Wasgo and she can sense it running under the
skin.
Do I consider her worthy of an answer? More than one while
I'm at it? Oh, can vampires suffer from a headache?
She tries a
light approach.

"Well, as I said earlier, most vampires never
ask to be vampires. I didn't! Toni probably did not. And Dee-Dee
was not given more options. You see, Toni, like most vampires,
simply takes what she wants, she never bothers with asking. She
wanted Dee-Dee, she seduced her and made her. I think Dee-Dee ─as a
human─ could have handled Toni being a vampire. But, Dee-Dee was
not very happy ─to put it mildly─ about being made into a vampire.
She really bolted at that, and the first thing she did was very
simply to run away from Toni. I believe Toni spent the last twelve
years tracking her down around the world. As a human, Dee-Dee would
rarely get angry, so when her temper would flare……. You wouldn't
want to hang about. Otherwise, she was a very sweet woman."

"What about Toni?"

"Toni? What's to say about Toni? There is
nothing human about Toni. She is a vampire through and through.
With all the cruelty. And the loneliness. Yes, being a vampire is a
rather lonely affair. That's probably how she came about to make
the vampire Dee-Dee. She fell for Dee-Dee and decided to make her
at her image ─great success─ to spend the rest of eternity with
her." Irony was sometimes the only way she could talk about Toni.
The older vampire could be so aggravating. So confusing. Joy would
like to let the silence resettle, but Sid has one more query.

"Why would Dee-Dee ask
WHAT
I was? Any
suggestion to answer her question?"

"Er……." How on Earth could she tell her?
"Well……." This would be another fine time to sigh. "Has your
eyesight, for example, improved any lately?"

Now that the vampire inquires, the writer has
to make her lazy mind work. She is not hesitating; she is just
taking her time.

"On and off. …….when you're around."

Joy gives it room to take over the silence,
before formulating the next installment. This one would be a wild
guess if it were not for her knowledge of some of Sid's habits: Sid
likes staring at a challenge in the eye.

"When Dee-Dee drained your blood some, did
you feel weak?"

"Yes." Slow and calculated.

"Until you look into her deep, grey
eyes?"

"Yes." Stretching the one syllable to its
maximum elasticity.

"And then you regained some strength……. "

"What are you getting at?" Sid does not want
to come up with the explanation herself. It could be too
far-fetched.

"The word we're getting at is
psychic
vampire
……."

"No, this doesn't make sense."

"Come on, it does. Think about how long you
can dance, almost tirelessly, almost forever. Think about how you
can see in the dark when we spend the night together. Think about
Dee-Dee's reaction."
Think about everything I haven't mentioned
and everything I don't know
.

"How long have you known?"

"Since the beginning of the winter."

"Not good enough a topic of
conversation?"

"As good as any. I tried to get you on track
a little while ago. You didn't even twitch. You didn't know. You do
not even control your nature."

Is it absurd or is it true? It's the wrong
day for an April's fool. Joy wouldn't make up such story, she would
have no reason. Well, she is a vampire, a blood drinker, she can be
cruel, she does not care. Does she? This is taking a confusing
direction.

"This doesn't make sense. How could I be a……
. psychic vampire? I am mortal, am I not?"
Or immortal until
Death changes her mind
.

"I don't know. I'm no philosopher, alchemist
or scholar. But I do believe you are a psychic vampire. Anger
increases your hunger."

Face rigid, Sid thinks about the blond
vampire with the painful bite. Yes, she is angry alright.

"Does it make me dangerous for a vampire like
Dee-Dee?"

"Yes." It is Joy's turn to articulate the one
syllable slowly.

"Does it give me the power……. to kill?"

"Maybe. At least, you could greatly weaken
her. Or me, probably. And maybe Toni." After another silence, she
adds: "Of course, you haven't got the physical strength of a
vampire, which means in the case scenario of you encountering
Dee-Dee again, that ─if you have Surprise on your side─ you might
strike quite a blow. However, if Toni catches up with Dee-Dee at
that very moment, in all likelihood, she would probably dive to
Dee-Dee's defense, and you would be in big trouble. Remember: Toni
is older than I am."

Sid does not move. Only her regular breathing
betrays her as a living mortal. Out of pure logic, just to round up
all the main characters in this particular plot, in the name of
equal opportunity, she launches the last probe: "What about you,
what would you do in this case scenario?"

Joy's features shape into an invisible smile
tainted with disgust.
I'd jump to your rescue, dummy. I'd be a
disgrace to the whole vampire community!

While Joy is sorting out their tickets one
way or another, Sid looks around, curious of the diversity of the
audience attracted by Girlschool. She doesn’t know much about their
music; she only knows they have been around for almost 25 years and
they are an all-women band. Joy was surprised by this hole in the
writer's great knowledge of women in music. Sid is not. Depression,
the depression that has plagued most of her life and taken a
backseat only when Music was strong enough to make it recede,
depression has killed motivation over and over at every possible
opportunity.

Hands stashed in pockets, mohican green, Sid
looks around, stares at the long hair of some metalheads and
admires a few tattoos. She notices three women wearing black
walking down the steps. The dark pink mohican with a definite punk
look, queries at the desk for guest lists before stalking off. The
long black mohican with something gothic in her aura talks to the
third one ─the purple mohican with clothes in too good a condition
to be punk. They walk deeper into the bowels of the Wicked
Cello.

"Let's go," Joy orders, sporting one of her
twenty identical gothic outfits, and pushes Sid in the same
direction among like-minded punters.

A sparse crowd has already claimed the
seatless space. There is an impression of dimness and grubbiness. A
gentle brouhaha of canned music, friendly chatter and beer
guzzling. At one end of the stage, Sid's improved eyesight spots
Frank, the sapphire-haired freelance reporter and Stacee, the Goth
woman with a dazzling smile. They haven't noticed Sid or Joy. They
would look delicious but the vampire has already fed.

Sid and Joy share their corner with the Goth
and the pseudo-punk the writer has noticed on arrival. Like her,
the purple mohican is scanning the crowd with great assiduity. She
has taken her long sleeves off and revealed tattoos. Sid gets a
flash of a dagger dribbling with blood on a forearm.

A band is getting ready on stage. Sid will
never remember them. Nor will she the second act. Right now, she is
actually thinking about this strike of destiny: a psychic vampire?
She would have more likely thought herself a werewolf, because of
her occasional cravings for raw meat. Rather odd for a vegetarian
person.

* * * * * * *

Dee-Dee the vampire enjoys live music better
when ravenous. She remembers gracing a Girlschool audience with her
presence once, the year before encountering Toni, her last year as
a living being. She scans the crowd for a delicious meal. She is in
no hurry; she has the whole night. The band currently sweating on
stage is a female power trio. They almost sound like a younger
version of Girlschool. Their name is historically striking: Joan Ov
Arc. About time someone grabs this name. The guitar player is as
good as Dee-Dee was, when mortal. A flash of blue in the crowd
attracts her eyes. She tracks the sapphire hair, watches her for a
few minutes, and suddenly sets eyes on the near-by long, black
hair.

* * * * * * *

Toni can sense it in the warm air of the rock
venue: Dee-Dee is here.
And she is not the only one
. The
older vampire smiles, but there is hunger gnawing at her core. She
has time to feed. She scans the crowd and notices a rather tipsy
young woman strapped in every possible oppressive fashion: make-up
a la Posh Spice (
wrong gig, Sweetheart!
), flimsy top,
mini-skirt and stilettos. She follows her to the toilets and into a
stall. And does not bother disposing of the limp and bloodless
leftover of a once vibrant human being sliding, ten minutes later,
out of her hands. She feels in a reckless mood: for the first time
in twelve years, she is in Dee-Dee's direct vicinity! Dee-Dee is
not aware of the presence of the androgynous scarecrow yet.
Must
be shopping for her dinner. I wonder what takes her fancy.

* * * * * * *

Girlschool are on stage, at last. Sid
suddenly wishes she had prepared herself psychologically. Their
collective energy hits her like a tsunami and makes her gasp. She
stares at them one by one: the bass player, the drummer, the
dark-haired guitar player, and the blonde guitar player who looks
so tall. When an emotion is so intense, Sid is never sure what it
is. It could just as well be pain. Intensity can sustain her,
that's all that matters.