Tainted Blood (13 page)

“I didn’t have one yet. I figured I'd come find you, and then just wing it.”

“Winging it'll get her and me killed. We need a plan, Kid.” Bobby said as he turned the truck back on the road. “Where did you say this is?”

Brian told him, along with everything else he could think of that had happened over the last few months. Bobby simply sat there quietly listening as Brian talked. It felt kind of good to be able to share everything with someone for once. It was a different feeling, like he actually had a friend to talk to.

“So let me see if I got this all right, Kid. You have a werewolf that’s hunting you this time, a super spy aunt that’s not really your aunt, and she might be in on all this and selling you down the river...and you invade Heather's dreams every night?” Bobby said, shaking his head and watching Brian intently.

“Yeah...well, sort of.” Brian responded sheepishly. The way Bobby repeated that, well, it just didn't sound quite right to Brian.

“You're some piece of work there, Brian. Does Heather even know what you're doing?”

“Yeah...At least I think she does.” Brian looked at Bobby, who shook his head as he drove. “Well...I've told her in her dreams, that is.”

“You mean you haven’t told her in real life? Geez, listen to what I'm talking about.” The trucker just sighed and looked straight ahead. “Anyways, the way I see it, the first thing you need to do is find out how to really kill this bastard. I mean really kill him. We don't need him rising from his grave on the next full moon or something.”

“Ahm, I think that’s werewolves.” Brian interrupted him

“Dagnabit, don't interrupt me when I'm thinking!” Bobby turned and shouted at Brian. “You know what I mean! We need to do this
right
. I don't want to wake up one night on the road and find this guy's beady eyes staring down at me as I sleep.”

Brian simply nodded, he was actually afraid to answer the old guy, as he was sure he would break out laughing instead.

“Anyways, I made a new friend last time I was passing through Reno. She's a nice young gal that works down at the public library there. Told her I was interested in vampires and she helped me find some stuff on 'em.”

Brian looked around the cab at all the religious symbols and wondered if this was her advice.

“Anyway, why don't you pop out the way you do, and look her up a spell. She was supposed to do some more research for me for the next time I came through town.”

“Are you sure that's a good idea Bobby?” Brian asked taking another look around at all the knick-knacks in the cab of the truck.

“Do have any better ideas? “ Bobby snorted.

He had to admit, he didn't. That was why he came after the old guy in the first place. The last time he faced Jason, things hadn't gone so well. He was out of ideas. His only real choices were either find Bobby and see if he could come up with an idea, or ask his aunt. He decided Bobby was the least miserable choice.

Well...if it doesn’t work, he could always just suggest the entire Reno police department like he did back in Woodland, and let the bullets fly again.

“Okay, so where will I find her?”

“What the hell, Boy, don't you pay attention? The library, go to the library!”

“Alright, but who do I ask for?”

“First good question you asked. Ask for Meryl, and tell her Bobby sent you. Got that?”

Brian nodded, then settled back into the seat and closed his eyes. It was always hard to try and enter his dream state in a moving vehicle. The swaying motion should have swayed him into slumber, but instead it made him jerk awake each time they hit a bump or made a quick turn. This time was no exception. Bobby was almost as much of a distraction, as at least once or twice he started to hum or sing as he forgot Brian was there. He even heard him mumble in astonishment that Brian
was
still there. In the end he did finally find himself in the gray world that people dreamed within. Its swirling mist filled most of the landscape and made it impossible to see very far away.

It was a good thing that he didn't need to see where he wanted to go; all he really needed to do was think of where he wanted to be. Fast and easy, for the most part.

It wasn't always this easy, of course. In fact, just a little less than a year ago, he used to travel in a less deep state. Then he could see the real world around him, but travel was much slower, and very dizzying as the world passed by him at super speed. He had to admit, the other state was good for spying out areas, or even watching people, but it certainly wasn’t the thing for traveling.

Brian envisioned his room back in the motel, and as he watched the environment around him changed and molded into his room until it was a perfect picture of it, except for the gray coloring.

All he needed to do now was lay down in his bed and go to sleep in this dream. In theory, he should wake up in his room on his bed, at least that was how it worked the rest of the time and he could see no reason it wouldn’t this time. “No need to jinx yourself now.” Brian said to no one in particular.

Seconds later he was in his bed awake and really there. He couldn't help but think about how cool it was to be him at times. The day was still early, and he would guess it couldn't be too much different from where Bobby was.

“Damn, I never asked where he was.” He had no idea how long it was going to take. Well, if he had to guess, it seemed like he was only an hour or two earlier than where he was with Bobby.

“Well, at least the library should be open.”

A couple of hours later, Brian found himself looking at the doorway to what passed as the main library. He hadn’t been in one in some time, at least not since he'd stopped going to school. He actually never really had a good reason to go to the library before. But Bobby had a point, he had no real idea how to off this other vampire, and if he himself was any indication, it wasn't going to be an easy thing to do.

The place was pretty full for being only a little after lunch. He was surprised at how many people were there. Perhaps they were in college and were there studying for some kind of upcoming exam.

It didn't take Brian long to find the help desk, but he waited at least twenty minutes in line before he finally got a chance to speak with somebody. He was directed over to the children's section and told that he should find Meryl putting books away there. He hoped it wasn't her normal area of work, because he just couldn't see someone in that department being a big expert on vampires.

Surprisingly, that part of the library was almost empty. The only person within it, in fact, was a young woman with dark black hair that hung down to her shoulders in what Brian thought was called a bob. He wasn't sure, as he'd never really talked about hairstyles, but he had heard others in the hallways talk about them.

She turned as he entered the room that he could now see that most of the shelves were empty. Meryl seemed to be putting books onto them as he came in.

“I'm sorry, but this area is closed while we renovate it.” She smiled at him. The first thing Brian noticed was that the dark blue eyes she had were heavily outlined in black, and then her bright red lips. He decided that the girl was either partly Goth or into punk. He wasn't sure which, but she was drop dead gorgeous for a librarian.

“Oh no, actually I'm looking for you.” Brian somehow managed, as he quickly gazed down the length of her body and back up to her face. She wore a dark brown sleeveless shirt with a plunging neck line, under that was clearly a see through red shirt. Her breasts were ample enough to catch his attention and cause his eyes to linger there maybe a bit too long.

“Excuse me?” She asked. “Do I know you?”

“Ah...no.” Brian looked back up into her eyes. Good God, they were deep.

What the hell was happening to him? Was she some sort of vampire as well? He was in love with
Heather
, how could he even think about another girl? “No. Bobby sent me; he said you might have some information for him.”

“Alright...and you are?” She put her finger to her chin and then pointed it at him as she finished the question.

“Me? Oh I'm Brian, I'm Bob--”

“Not
the
Brian, as in the vampire Brian?”

“Yeah...he told you about that?” Brian felt a little worried. He never even considered the fact that Bobby might tell people about him, Hell he hadn't thought about Heather talking to people either. That could actually be a problem he was going to have to think over later.

“Hell yeah he did. How else do you think he would have gotten me to help him?”

“I'm a little lost here, could you help me out? You helped Bobby why, and how did this include me?”

“Well. He needed help on how to kick some vampire ass, and he told me about you because he was really pissed about what you did to him. So I agreed to look some things up so I could actually meet you some time.”

Somehow, this didn't sound like it was going to go the way Brian hoped it would.

“Okay, so do you have some information for him or not?” Brian looked at the young woman who was excitedly checking him out. It wasn't the most comfortable feeling.

“Yeah, I've found a bunch of stuff that might help,” she said as she began to circle around Brian.

“Well, could you show it to me?”

A pink bubble of gum grew out of her mouth, then loudly popped as she continued to circle and look him over. It was really starting to make him feel uncomfortable, somehow he felt like she was the predator and not him.

“I could.” She partially pulled out her gum and wrapped it around her finger. “But...I don't think I will. Sorry.” She said, and then started to head towards the open doorway that Brian had entered the room from.

“Wait a minute!” Brian rushed to get in front of her, and the speed he traveled at might have been just a little too much, as her hair blew up when he came to a stop causing her to give a startled yelp. “Listen, we need that info. I didn't take all this time out of my day coming out here just to waste it. If you have something, then give it here.”

For her part, Meryl recovered quickly from her surprise. “Listen, I'd love to share the info with you, and maybe if you invited me out for some coffee,” she smiled at him,” I might change my mind, but why should I believe that Bobby sent you? After all, aren’t you the one he wanted to use this info on?”

She did have a point, he realized. It was a bit absurd that the vampire who she was looking to help off, or at least find some sort of defense against, would be the one Bobby sent to get the info.

“Things have changed, Meryl.”

Meryl held her arms to her chest and started to blow another bubble. “Go on, I'm listening.”

“For one, Bobby and I are teaming up to rescue a friend of ours that another vampire has.”

“Is she your girlfriend?” Meryl asked as she started to fiddle with her black beaded necklace.

“What's that got to do with anything?”

“I'm just wondering if you're free. By the way, I like your hair.”

She likes my hair?
He thought, frowning.
Alright, she doesn't have anything. How can she? She doesn't seem serious about this at all.
“Listen, could you please stop circling me? I feel like a piece of meat.”

She stopped, but she didn't seem happy about it.

“Look, if I were the bad guy, wouldn't I have just come and taken the info if you had any?”

That seemed to catch her attention, as she stood up straight and seemed to take issue with what he said. “You could
try
. Like I said, I've found something.”

This had to stop now. He needed to come up with a way to convince this girl, otherwise he was going to have to just suggest her and be done with the nonsense. Heather's life could depend on it, and he wanted to be ready when Bobby got into town.

“What do I have to do to convince you?”

At least she wasn't circling him any longer.

She stood there twirling her gum around her little finger again as she stared at him. “I could ask Bobby, I suppose.” She said, “are you sure you're a vampire?”

“How are you going to ask him? He's not in town yet.”

“I have his number.” She said, and then produced a small black cell phone. Brian couldn't believe this was happening. The whole conversation could have been avoided, and they could have been working on more important things than a stupid cat and mouse game if she'd just called Bobby to
start
with. The woman was beginning to infuriate him.

“Well, please do call him. We need to settle this before tomorrow.”

“Why?” She glanced up from the phone. “Do you burn in the sunlight?”

Brian pointed at the nearby windows, which currently had light streaming in from the afternoon sun. Meryl looked and then turned back with a giggle. “Guess not!” She smiled and dialed Bobby's number...at least he hoped that was what she was doing.

“Hi, Bobby? Yeah, he's here....Um, are you sure? He could have compelled you to tell me that you know.” Brian really couldn't hear what Bobby was saying, at least until that point in the conversation. Once she had said that, a flood of obscenities poured into the room, with a telltale voice that could only belong to Bobby. :