The Heist (14 page)

“
Looks like
you do have balls after all Xav — bruised ones! You take care
now!”

Alicia
laughed loudly as she ran out the cupboard while the Commander was
momentarily distracted. She ran down the long hallway and around
the first corner where she flashed away, landing on top of the roof
of the mansion so she could listen in on the events that were about
to unfold.

A sharp pain
that registered from his balls to brain immobilised Xavier, and he
almost dropped his cell as Alicia made her escape.

“
You only get
to do that if you stay to kiss them better,
Sweetcheeks.”

No one was
there to hear that his voice was raised several octaves higher, but
he swiftly regained control of himself and ran out of the room in
hot pursuit. Cursing under his breath, he vowed that when he caught
up with her it was going to be no more mister nice fucking guy. If
the female wanted to play dirty, then she’d find out just how dirty
he could be. Sprinting down the corridors, his eyes scanned left,
then right.  She had disappeared!

There was nowhere for her
to hide, and yet she was nowhere to be seen. Thinking that she must
have headed in the opposite direction into the main body of the
mansion, he slowed his pace and retraced his steps.  Stopping
several guards, to enquire as to whether they had seen anyone pass
by in the last ten minutes, they all denied it.

So either they were
working with her or she had just vanished into thin air.

“
I’ve caught her on film. You can see for yourself what Friera
looks like,” Xavier said shoving the cell into Shuggie’s hands. He
moved to pour himself a very large scotch, contemplating using the
ice in his glass to help with the swelling to his nuts.  “So I
don’t know what game you were trying to play last night hooking me
up with the oldest swinger in town, yeah? Now you have
proof
and
the picture of our public enemy number one.”

As Xavier sunk the drink,
and poured another, Shuggie pressed play on the cell and began
watching the footage.

After a few
minutes Shuggie looked over at Xavier, his face solemn, and voice
quiet.

“
Commander, ah think...well we think - me an the Doc, that is
- that yer having a bit o’ a nervous breakdown. The woman you were
with last night
is
Friera, and...” Shuggie passed the cell back to
Xavier, “…There’s naebody but you oan that video. Ye huv been
talkin’ tae yersel!”

“
What the
fuck are you talking about? I took that film myself - it’s her!”
Xavier looked down at the screen and was dumbstruck. The film had
recorded his voice talking to what, for all intents and purposes,
was an empty storage closet.  He was interrogating a mop and
bucket!

“
It
was
her - she was right there!” The more Xavier protested, the
more damning the footage became. “Swear to fuck, Shuggie —
she
is
real,
I’ve
not
imagined
her.” Xavier was met with sympathetic eyes, as Shuggie carefully
removed the scotch from his reach, and shoved him down to sit into
a chair.

“
Ye huv been
under a load o’stress, Commander. There’s nae shame in huving
a breakdoon, it kin happen tae the best o’ us.”

“
Don’t give me that shit, Shuggie — I’m telling you I am not
mad. Friera was there, dressed as a chambermaid and she kicked me
in the balls after flipping me the bird — I am
not
mad!”

Xavier was by now ranting
like a stark raving lunatic, and Shuggie vowed to himself that he
would stand by his best friend and ensure he got the best medical
care to get him back to the man he once was.

“
Duck a Fuck!
What the hell is his fucking problem?”

Alicia paced
the wooden floor of her lounge. She had ditched the rags she had
been wearing back at the mansion and was so enraged about her
earlier encounter that she was unaware she was pacing in just her
underwear and boots, talking out aloud to herself as she walked
back and forth.

“
He has me on fucking video! How in the name of the gods can I
get back in there during the daylight hours? He’ll have all the
damn guards posted on what I look like! What hand did I lift up? If
it was my left one then I’m fucked as my bracelet will be on
show!
Duuuuuck a
Fuck
!”

Alicia
stormed to her room, threw on clean clothes and headed
out.

The only way
to calm her mood was to feed.

****

Xavier didn’t have time
for this shit.

His best friend thought
he was going insane, meanwhile his sanity assassin Friera was free
and running rings around him.  It was
un-fucking-acceptable.

“
Shug, I’m only going to say this one more goddamn time, yeah.
And if you keep telling me in that damn simpering voice that I’m
ill, I
will
tear your fucking throat out — are we clear?”

Shuggie sat
in silence, his dead heart heavy in his chest. How the mighty have
fallen.

“
Ok,
Commander, if ye ur so convinced she is real, then describe her tae
me. If she’s not the old...” he decided it was politic not to add
decrepit, coffin dodging and ancient out of his sentence, “...woman
from last night, then tell me what you think she looks
like.”

“
It’s not what I
think
she looks like, it’s
exactly
how she looks,” Xavier
grumbled petulantly as he snatched the bottle of Scotch back off of
Shuggie and drank straight from the bottle.  “Friera is about
four foot eleven inches and fifty kilograms, long curly brown hair
and a light olive complexion. Large brown eyes, and slim but curvy
build.” The more Xavier started to describe her, the softer his
voice became as he pictured her in his mind’s eye. “I’d say she was
early to mid-twenties, and has a soft Italian accent.”

Shuggie
stilled.

The woman
that Xavier was describing bore no relation to the old woman Friera
that he thought had been the object of Xavier’s obsession. She
sounded almost exactly like...but no, it couldn’t possibly be…could
it? For the description was a dead ringer for the little vampire he
bumped into outside the restaurant last night. And her name wasn’t
Friera. She called herself Alicia.

“
Look, ah
think ye shud get some kip, Commander. It’s been a long day fur
both of us. I’ll get back tae work on your bank accounts, and
trying to get intae the laptop ye gave meh.  By the time ye
awake, we shud huv more answers.”

Xavier eyed
Shuggie suspiciously, at his change in tone and subject.  But
Shuggie was right, all he wanted to do was get some shut eye as his
head felt as though it was about to implode.  Once this
mission was over, hell would freeze over before he ever set foot in
Mexico again, he promised himself that.

Sitting at
his desk, Shuggie was typing furiously on the laptop that Xavier
had given him two days before telling him it was Friera’s.
 Whilst he worked on it, his own computer was still working on
configurations tracing the money trail of Xavier’s various bank
accounts.  Time meant nothing as he concentrated on his work.
He needed to find out if the woman that Xavier had described as
Friera was, in fact, the little vampire Alicia that he had met.
 If so, that would open up a whole storm of questions that he
feared may be unable to be answered.

“
Shite.”

Shuggie stared at the
laptop as lists of drives and files finally appeared on the screen.
 There had been an attempt to clean the laptop of certain
drives, but he had managed to retrieve them.  

“
Fucking
shite.”

The owner of
the laptop was to an Alicia Carberletti. His little vampire was
called Alicia. So therefore, Friera was Alicia. Alicia was a
vampire.

“
Jesus
Fucking Shite.”

Staring at the screen
would get him precisely nowhere, but Shuggie was unable to tear his
eyes away.  He zoned in on the name, and started putting the
pieces of the puzzle together bit by bit.

“
That’s why
she couldnae be seen on the CCTV or cell phone,” he muttered under
his breath. “She’s a fucking vampire - we cannae be caught on any
electrical recording devices.” This had always been a plus in
Shuggie’s book — the ability to keep almost complete anonymity —
but now? Now he found it irritating.  He should have thought
of that first instead of writing the Commander off as a looney
tune!

But something
was amiss.  
If
‘Friera’ was actually the vampire ‘Alicia’ then how the fuck
did Xavier keep meeting her in the daylight?  His first
encounter was when she ran him off the road, just as the dawn was
rising.  The second time was late afternoon at the docks — and
Xavier had said she was sunbathing on top of a container when he
found her.

Leaning back
in his chair, he scrubbed his face with his hands.

She gave me a
weird look when ah said ah hud tae leave cos the sun was
risin
. This didn’t make any sense
whatsoever.  In the park when he was talking to her, she
looked bemused when he made his excuses to leave
as though she had nae fear o’the
sun
! Shuggie shook his head
slowly.

“
This cannae
be right. It jist cannae be right at aw!”

Determined to get to the
bottom of the puzzle, he shut the laptop down, let his computer
keep running and flashed from the base to the park where he met the
little vampire, hoping that she would still be hanging about the
area.

The park was
deserted, and there had been no signs that Alicia had returned to
the place.  Shuggie was an ancient vampire. He would have been
able to sense a youngling in the air if she had been there.
Deciding to retrace his steps back towards the old town, to the
restaurant where their paths first crossed, he hoped his instincts
were right.

“
Gotcha.”

A sly smirk
formed on his mouth as he heard a soft female Italian voice talking
soothingly to someone.  He would bet his left ball that it was
Alicia, mesmerising her dinner for the night.  Casually
walking down the alley to the side of the restaurant, he stood with
his arms crossed.

“
A wee bit
peckish the night, youngling?”

Just as Alicia was about
to strike the vein of the mortal males’ neck she heard the deep
familiar voice from days before. Hugh was behind her. Telling her
dinner to run off and never remember their encounter, she slowly
turned around to look up at her new friend.

“
Hugh! Well
isn’t this a lovely surprise seeing you again. How are you
faring this lovely evening?”

“
Fair tae
middlin’ lass.” His smirk turned into an easy smile as he walked
towards her. “But ye didnae huv to stop yer dinner jist fer me,
Alicia. Ye need tae keep yer strength up.” Shuggie thought to
himself — especially if you are out in the damn sunlight — but kept
his expression masked.

“
You mustn't concern yourself with me Sir, I shall feed later
on. It’s rude to converse with your mouth full as my Madre always
reminded me. Manners are everything.”
Alicia gave the giant towering over her a genuine smile as
she popped a lolly into her mouth.

“
Wud ye permit
me to escort ye through the town tonight. Maybe we cud find some
grub the gither?” Holding out his arm towards Alicia, he gave a
short bow.

Alicia gave out a soft
laugh as she curtsied in front of Hugh, raising to her full height
which was dwarfed by the gentleman, she hooked her arm through his
offering one.

“
That would
be delightful Sir, lead the way.”

“
Ah kin assure ye the pleasure is aw mine,” he said leading
his young protégé through the town at a leisurely pace pointing out
random areas of interest.  He tried to form a mind bond with
her to see if he could unlock her secrets and determine if she was,
in fact, one of the fabled.
Sanguis-solis
…Latin for Blood Sun.
He had heard of them through the years, but had always thought them
the vampire form of urban myth.  He frowned slightly, as he
couldn’t tap into her thoughts.

That a
vampire as old and skilled as he was unable to mind-bond with such
an inexperienced youngling was as surprising to him as it was
alarming. All the signs were pointing to this little vampire being
something very special indeed.  Was she a new breed? Or was
she something other than vampire?

“
So, lass,
tell meh how often dae ye need tae feed when yer in climates such
as this?” Shuggie kept his tone light, but he was wanting
answers.

No, he was needing
answers.

“
Well Sir, I normally feed every third day but in this heat
and after a strenuous day of soaking up the sun, I tend to re-fuel
daily.  How often do you feed?”
Alicia smiled as Hugh was taking slow steps so that she could
keep up with him, enjoying their conversation and the fact she
finally had someone to talk to about who she truly was.