Page 11 of Vampires & Bikers

“Yeah, she called me, said she needed to talk to Tomás outside.” I lowered my voice as if I was scared someone could hear me.

“Why?”.

I shrugged.

Danny was chewing this over.

“She told us when she got to the club,she saw the vampire and got out of there. You sure you didn’t see him?” He was leaning in close to me and I could see he was raring for a fight. The vampire had gotten him completely riled up.

“He’s onto us, we can’t let him get away! He must be around here somewhere. The guys have gone out to track him,” he said, taking a big swig of beer and belching loudly. “I’ve got to join ‘em.”

I didn’t want to think about Luc’s mouth and how lovely his kiss had been. What did Danny mean that he was onto them? I didn’t want to ask him and arouse his suspicions. I thought Luc would be far away by now and probably safe.

Danny’s phone rings and he has a quick conversation with one of the gang members.

“I have to go, seems the bloodsucker has left town!”

He jumped up, “You lock the doors now, ye hear?”

He rushed off, jumped on the bike and roared down the street. I could hear the bike engines from all over town as they headed off to some meeting point.

I thought about how often this sort of thing had happened when my dad was still at home, part of his own gang. He’d been working for Tomás on the distribution line. He’d take the drugs and drive them to various sellers. After he got back from work, he’d go down to the club, have drinks with the guys at the bar. Sometimes, at night, they’d go out into the swamp and woods, on patrols, as they called it. They never really found anything but this had changed over the years. Even though the drug trade became bigger, somehow, people were poorer. The money was not coming our way, clearly. My father sometimes mentioned that the fat cats were getting fatter but it wasn’t clear who these fat cats were. They weren’t us, that’s for sure.

I found out later that many years after he started driving the trucks, he began taking little bags of the drugs and selling them on the side. It was his way of trying to make more money. Nobody noticed and nobody would have until he started taking too much and was caught. Tomás handed him over to the local sheriff and my father was tried and convicted on various drug counts by the end of that month. Tomás told me he hadn’t killed him because my father had always been loyal to him. Also, he wanted me to pay him back the debt my dad owed. He made up some idiotic number. Ten thousand dollars.I didn’t believe for a second that my dad had taken that much. There was no way I could pay back that kind of money.

I was stuck here. Forever.

I could feel myself weighed down by these words, a rebellious part of me wanting to say there had to be a way out, but how? I couldn’t leave my mother behind. I would never forgive myself if they hurt her and Tomás would.

I felt despair and misery fall over me.

“Hey girl,” I heard someone say.

I looked up and Grace stood in front of me. “Why are you sittin’ in the cold?”

I smiled and got up, giving her a hug.

I noticed that she was all dressed up.

“You going somewhere?”

She lowered her voice. “I’m leaving town. Tonight, right now.”

“What? Because of me? And what happened tonight?”

I felt guilt flooding me.

“No, no, I’d been planning to go for some time.” All of us had some plan of getting out of Buzzard Creek. Grace was prettier than most of us, she had also been here the shortest. She’d come to town with her boyfriend but he was killed in a fight outside the club one night. She was offered aspot on the stage and with no other way to make money, she said yes. She had a cute body on her, large blue eyes and long blonde hair.

“I’ve been saving money for a while. I got my sister’s husband to come fetch me tonight. I just need to pay him.”

I took out half of the money Luc had given me.

“Take it, it’s yours, you deserve it. I’m so sorry for dragging you into this.”

Grace smiled, “It’s all right. You had to do it! It was a vampire, Jesus! He could’ve killed you! Fuck this town! I’ve had it. First the shifters and now vampires!”

I bit my lip. I couldn’t tell Grace that it wasn’t like that; that Luc had not been cruel to me, that he hadn’t forced or threatened me. I couldn’t admit that I had put her at risk to make a few bucks. It was better for me this way, but it made me feel like shit.

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