His eyes held her and even if she told herself that she was succumbing to a vampire’s spell, Sara could not fight it. What was more, she was no longer sure she did not want to. Anything was better than being left to rot in jail waiting for help that never came.
The tall man released her chin and nodded as Sara’s head remained fixed in the same position. An observer would have remarked that she had exactly the same look of a mind gone out to lunch, the same vacant stare as the policeman still standing and staring at the wall as if he saw all life’s answers written there.
“That’s better. Everyone at ease, just the way I like it,” he said as he turned toward the policeman.
“You know, Sara,” he said over his shoulder to the woman who did not move, “I haven’t broken my fast yet. I was told not to and now I see the why of it. I mean, how perfectly astounding it will be for this nest of bureaucratic drones when they discover their fellow officer here in your cell. You gone, him here.”
He chuckled, then said, “You have to admit there is a certain sense of symmetry in that which is, for lack of a better word, genius. But that’s the Journeyman for you...a true craftsman at work.”
The tall man gently turned the policeman named Chet Branson away from the wall, then stroked his full cheek.
“Time to go see Rosie, Officer,” he said as he leaned down to the neck that bulged over the man’s shirt collar.
“Let’s bleed you like a pig...yes?”
The dark waters of the blood drinker’s glamour sucked Sara down hard. In her mind, she struggled against it, until at last her consciousness bobbed to the surface while her body continued to refuse her commands.
She could do nothing but watch from the corner of her eye as the monster held the policeman in a demon’s grip that did not break for a long moment. When at last, he lifted his head from the man’s neck, she watched as his head lolled to the side, his eyes not just turned up but sunken and drawn back in their sockets.
“Goodness...but I was hungrier than I realized,” the vampire said as he lowered the policeman to the ground.
If she could have felt nausea through the numbness, Sara would have vomited what little dinner she had eaten. She could no longer see the policeman’s face as he was lowered flat upon the floor. His belly was so round that it mercifully blocked Sara’s view. What she did see, though, was his left foot in its scuffed black shoe. From time to time, it fluttered, quivering like a dying butterfly and then a dark pool spread out from under the dead man.
With a look of distaste, the vampire sidestepped the growing circle, then said, “It’s a shame, really, that in your last moments, you people can’t manage any real dignity. The truth is almost all of you void yourselves when the lights go out for the very last time.”
He took another step as the urine continued to run.
“Disgusting, actually....”
Then, the cheer returned to his voice as he came to her and smiled a red smile. “Time to go, little dove. Time for you to fly away from your gilded cage.”
The vampire’s power was enough that no one remarked the two people walking from the holding cells.
They were hand in hand, as if they were the best of friends, or lovers even.
No one so much as lifted an eyebrow as they passed the unattended front desk and through the scuffed glass doors of the police department out to the world beyond.
Outside, though, was someone who did remark them.
A man was lurching up the steps leading to the barracks entryway. A man dressed in county sheriff beige, although his official attire had taken on a decidedly disheveled appearance.
He was concentrating on placing his feet from one step to the next when he finally lifted his head long enough to notice the two people standing above him.
It gave him a bad feeling. People were always looking down on him and it made Jackson Woodard feel even smaller than he was.
Like many men in his particular career choice, his hand wandered down to the sidearm at his hip. And what might have happened next could have been a bloody, messy thing.
Instead, he finally saw through the silhouetted outlines and one of them he knew like his own pocket.
“Sara? Issss that youuuuu?” he asked with a voice that hung over lips sagging further by the minute.
The couple holding hands descended the steps to the deputy sheriff below. The tall man with Sara looked Deputy Woodard up and down, then said, “Are you sure you’re in a condition to take this woman? You look a fright.”
Jackson nodded while grinning a lopsided grin. His one good eye was filled with the vision of his girl, his Sara. After all this time, it did him such good to see her again.
“Uhnnnn, huh....yeth,” he burbled.
The vampire hesitated, appearing to be lost in thought.
“My instructions are clear. But I admit that it is with a heavy heart that I hand her over to the likes of you.”
He looked more closely at the deputy sheriff, then shrugged, releasing Sara’s hand.
“There is madness rattling around in that head of yours, man. In fact, I would say that my employer, as it were, has had a terrible effect on you.”
Jackson nodded at the tall man and then kept on nodding, unable to stop himself.
“Uhm goin’ to th’ doctor suh suh sooon,” he said as if that would explain everything.
He reached for Sara and managed to take her by the wrist with a hand that was rapidly curling into a clawed grasp. He was able to clamp his thumb down hard enough that the weakness creeping down from his shoulder did not make him lose his grip as he pulled her after him to his waiting squad car.
The vampire watched as the deputy sheriff roughly pushed the docile woman into the patrol car’s backseat then limped over to take his place behind the wheel.
“Well, that was...unsavory,” the creature muttered into the empty night air then whirled to disappear into the surrounding darkness as if it had never been there at all.
~~~
It was as if he had tripped over an angel. A lovely, beautiful angel who had come back to him after all this time.
If he had been a churchgoing man, Jackson Woodard might have got down on his knees to thank the powers that be for such a gift. But, he was not and he knew that soon enough he would be on his knees before another power altogether, and whether he wanted to or not, his thanks would be many.
He took care as he drove them back home. He took his time and he took no risks. There was precious cargo here, after all.
And he rambled on and on, and in his own mind, his voice was strong and clear. As were his thoughts, everything he had to say and everything he planned for them, all of it was as clear as rainwater.
He spoke to her about so many things. So much had become evident for him now that she was back.
“I’ll get you back home, Sara. But not in that flytrap trailer of ours. That’s no home for a real lady.
“Nope...I’m taking you back to the old homestead where I grew up. You remember it, right? I think I showed it to you once.
“That’s where we’ll go and then everything will be alright. You’ll see. I have so many memories of that place I want to share with you, Sara. And only with you because you have always been my special girl, darling.”
He nodded to her as she slid listlessly from side to side each time the car made a turn.
“Oh honey, I should have belted you in...I surely should have.”
On the heels of that phrase, he saw his leather belt rising and falling. Rising and falling upon skin that leaped up red and furious with each lash that hit home.
Jackson giggled quietly.
“Of course, the house ain’t there no more. I went back there when you took off and all those memories came to take your place, Sara. The same ones I’m gonna share with you. I’m talking the kind of sharing like a real husband and wife do. Just like that.
“I put kerosene to the place and tried my best to burn it all down. Only when the whole thing finally fell in a heap to the ground, I found out my memories were still there.”
He nodded to her again, then realized that he was still doing it from earlier. There was drool running in a silver track down his chin, too, but he no longer noticed enough to bother swiping at it with his shirt sleeve.
“Can you imagine that, honey? I can’t even burn them out.”
Jackson saw his thick leather belt rising up and up and up, and even if it was not very polite, not at all like a proper gentleman, he could feel himself growing hard while he spoke to Sara.
“Luckily, though, the barn out back is still there. There’s always that. And, even better, lately I’ve been doing some stuff in there that is coming awful close to pushing out some of those other memories.
“I mean, when I think back on it, they come rushing in and fill everything right up with such wonderful thoughts these days.”
The belt arced up high and he could see the metal buckle shining with starlight just before it came crashing down.
Jackson frowned at that when he thought of his darling, special girl. He tightened his grip on the steering wheel and did his best to concentrate on the road.
Only that did not stop him from speaking.
“You’ll see. We’re going to have some fun right away quick and it will be the kind of thing we will cherish all the rest of our days, honey. Like a real husband and wife.”
He wanted to stay cheerful, for his sake as much as for her’s, but he knew better than anyone that someone was going to have pay the piper. A lesson was going to be necessary, that was for sure. She had run off, after all, and that was not right. Not at all.