Page 54 of Sundowners
“Cross.”
He turned to face me with a welcoming smile. “It’s been a long time.”
I stood before the big man with the beard and thought that he didn’t look all that different from that night fifty years ago, with the exception of a lot more hair.
“It’s really damn good to see you.” His gaze softened and he reached a hand out. I took his peace offering and clasped hands with him, feeling the energy flow between us.
He was strong. Maybe as strong as me, but that remained to be seen.
“I didn’t know you were here,” I said. “I didn’t know…”
“That I made it out? Same here. I thought I was the only one. Then I found Mark and we ran together.”
“I couldn’t remember his name, but I recognized him.”
Cross took a long drag on his cigarette and I laughed. He frowned.
“No more treating the body as a temple?”
Cross blew smoke out his nose and snorted. “Please. That part was all bullshit. Once you were initiated, you didn’t need any of that shit, you know.”
“What do you mean?”
Cross put out his cigarette butt on the bottom of his boot. “The energy transfers? The rules? The Way? It was all bullshit, Creed. Tell me you realized that.”
I stepped back. “I continue to follow The Way. It’s served me well. I made an oath.”
He rolled his eyes. “An oath. Dude, you’re a fuckingvampire. The only oath that matters is that you take care of your fucking business and you stay out of sight.”
It was my turn to scoff. “By pretending to be a vampire in a fucking bar band? How do you figure?”
Cross let out a big belly laugh. “The best way to fool people is to make them believe it’s all a fantasy. Mark and I have been doing this for years, first in Hollywood—yeah, hella easy to fool folks there when they assume everything is fake—then in Austin, then in fucking Vegas…and now here. We ‘break up’ every so often, move, hire new bandmates, and then it’s on. Nice work if you can get it, all the pussy or dick you want, and the best fucking blood whenever you need it.”
I had no comeback. It was a perversion of everything we’d been taught. It was an abhorrence. It was fucking brilliant.
“So the energy of the clubs and bars…”
“It’s…nice,” Cross smirked. “Like a handy under the table. But blood is what sustains us, Creed. It always has been. I’m no different than the other vampires I’ve met. I have needs, I sate them, I take care of my business.”
Creed was stuck on the middle part. “The vampires you’ve met? You mean—”
“The Source wasn’t the only one of their kind, Creed.” His sarcasm faded a bit. “Come on, you didn’t know? The way we were taught? That was one being’s chosen path. The Source amassed followers for centuries…millennia…gained and lost members, culled their herd, and then settled in Boulder Creek, founded the commune, and thought they would build an empire.”
“Wait…how do you know all this?”
He shrugged. “I’ve been around, I keep my ear to the ground.”
“So you know about the attacks, then? These assholes who were here? They’re hurting people. Like Stephen did.”
Cross’s eyes darkened and his scowl was fierce. I’d always found him to be a bit intimidating, though we never had any issues with each other. He’d been with Muse for a while before we went to the commune, but he was never serious about her. He wasn’t ever serious about anything, which is why I’d been surprised he was chosen for the initiation with me.
“That sonofabitch. You know he was the one… They were going to take him out, did you know that?”
I’d wondered. After the incident with Clark, the Leaders couldn’t pretend anymore that he would come around. “They didn’t move swiftly enough.”
“No, they didn’t. We have a lot to discuss, my friend. Shall we have a drink?”
I wanted to know more. I wanted to hear everything he knew, but I’d survived this long on my own, and if I was going to take these fuckers down, I didn’t want anyone getting in my way, especially if he was of the c’est la vie school of thought.
