Blueblood: A Dark Southern Aristocracy - 28. The Surprising Child

The search for other vampires in Manhattan began and Stan used his programs to search for other disappearances and deaths that had yet to be explained. He seemed to be enjoying working with the computer, but he also was very dedicated to the search and looking for clues. I got the feeling he had been more of a geek in high school. While not really enthusiastic about sports maybe, he was fit. A little on the thin side, but I watched as Mark would remind him of simple things like it was time for lunch. They weren’t physically intimate, so Mark said, but I saw a definite “bromance.” There was something between those two.

They were all given the disflavor to make them less a target should we find a vampire, which we would. Shelly and Chuck went out combing the various areas that there were people reported missing when it was daylight. In Manhattan, that not easy. In a city where there were millions of people. There were those that vanished daily from runaways, domestic issues and just runaways from law enforcement due to questionable behavior, but sometimes, they didn’t fit into any of these categories. It was a daunting task, but these people hired were doing nothing else.

The possible cases were pretty much the same. Then one that broke my heart was the report of a strange little “creature” seen at night. There were deaths recently, mostly homeless drunks in this part of the city. The vampires saw an opportunity and went in wherever. The part of the city this was we were looking that night, Colin said was rundown, and the people there were often little better than common criminals from prostitutes and drug dealers. What I didn’t like…well. Colin and I were investigating this area with Chuck. Yes, it was a night and I was a little wary of going there. Chuck, Colin and I didn’t wear our nice clothes. Jeans and t-shirts. Colin and I even took off our wedding rings, wore no watches or wallets and put our IDs were in our pockets in case we were stopped by any police, but I didn’t see any that night. Chuck did have to carry his badge. He was an agent with the FBI, but not looking like one now in faded, tattered jeans and t-shirt. There was a lot of traffic on the street. Not as in cars, but people. They were going here and there to do…whatever they needed. I heard this creature came out late after ten. We also got in an area to look where deaths had occurred.

At about 2:30 that morning and I was getting tired. Chuck, Colin and I were thinking that whatever had happened that night already did happen.

We were all startled when we heard a man yell from an alley. This was not a pain cry, but one of terror. We hurried toward where the sound had come from. What I saw…well…there was a little creature. I could see this creature…was a child! Probably not more than five! Still wearing pajamas that had happy clown faces on it with the feet at the legs that he had been put in to go to bed, but they were filthy and torn in places. He was Latino, I think, with dark hair and his skin should have been dark, but he was pale. He was so dirty. He was approaching a man quickly who had been drinking from a bottle from a bag. A wino? Homeless. He lay in the alley but was backing from this creature with eyes wide with horror. Whatever drunken feeling he’d gotten from what he had been drinking was not enough to make him unaware now!

I was not prepared for a child! “My, God!” I gaped.

Chuck pulled out his sun gun and was ready to use it.

Colin grabbed it and forced it down. “You’ll send him scurrying away. We need to grab him.”

“But he could attack that man,” Chuck said hurriedly.

Colin nodded and ran toward the little vampire which he tackled before he got to the drinking man. I had no idea there would be vampires that young. Blame Hollywood again. The tales I knew of, the victims turned were not that little. Even one movie made it a crime to turn someone that age, the other where a girl about six or seven was turned accidentally by the one new vampire who thought he’d killed her out of mercy. Was this the vampire’s case here? The little vampire reacted with a hiss and a scream like the cry of outrage at being stopped. Even as young as he was, he was fighting Colin who was having trouble containing him. I was frozen.

“Help me!” Colin urged suddenly.

I was instantly back and hurried over to him to help, grabbing thrashing legs. I was getting a weird smell now. He was dirty, but I smelled a strange odor that was musty and the smell of death like I had with victims in the Middle East with our men and women in uniform who had died.

“He’s not a child, Devon,” Colin said urgently for me to understand.

This little vampire was hissing and tried to bite us at first, but pulled away from whatever he smelled in our blood. He still had baby teeth, but he also had fangs. They were really too big for his little mouth.

Chuck had been watching, no more ready to come help than I had been. “What do I do?” He finally asked.

“There isn’t a choice,” Colin said struggling as he held the little vampire to keep him from running away. “It’s a monster! This is not a little boy!” Colin looked around and found something he could use in a sharp piece of glass. “Damn it!”

Then I watched in horror as Colin used the sharp glass and ran it deep and down the little vampire’s carotid arteries on both sides of his neck. The little vampire gurgled as black fluid oozed out. It was not blood as it should be.

Colin held the little vampire who fought a few minutes more and slowly stopped. Colin got up as the little vampire’s body dropped to the ground.

“What is that thing?” The drinking man asked terrified.

“A nightmare.” Colin shot back. “Which is now over.”

The drinking man staggered up and hurried away down the alley.

Colin looked at Chuck and me and saw we were both still in shock. He grabbed me up, pulling me to him. “I didn’t tell you, there are some…not many…who are turned when children. I’m sorry.” He hugged me. He looked at Chuck. “I should have known when the reports said a little creature, but that what it was a monster. He wasn’t a child, Chuck. He was a vampire.”

Chuck was gathering himself but nodded after a minute. “What do we do now? We can’t leave him here.”

Colin thought. “It will be a few hours before he is ash. We need to get him to the VUN before he completely turns to ash.” He looked around to see almost no one here. “We need to get him off the street for now.” He reached in his pocket and pulled his keys. “Get the car.” He tossed them to Chuck who nodded and went to do that. Colin then turned the little vampire’s head and took out his phone. He pulled his camera feature up and snapped a few photos. Then he pulled me into a tight hug again as he rocked me. “I should have told you. I’m so sorry.”

Looking at the little vampire, I could see what he was before he was turned. He was dirty, but he had been a cute little boy. “I guess those stories and movies are very wrong.”

Colin nodded. “Very wrong.” He pulled me away from the vampire’s body. “A hunter vampire just hunts blood. There are real animal predators out there in the wild that look for the very young game. They are easy targets because they’re weak. Most vampires, after they are turned might have a little humanity in them left to not hurt a child. Some are so far gone, they don’t care. They just want blood.”

“But did he have some humanity in him?” I asked. “He was just a baby.”

Colin shook his head. “His mind hadn’t developed enough to know what’s happened and he couldn’t have a purpose. The venom would have overridden anything that was human.”

I shook my head. “If he had some humanity…what would happen? He’d remain five or six forever? What future could he have?”

“Any future ended a month ago,” Colin said. “That’s how long I think he’s been hunting. His pajamas were not that dirty. They were bloodstained, but not like he’d been doing it that much.” He looked back at the little vampire. “We need to search the database for missing children. That’s why I took the photos.” Then he went over and took the vampire’s hand. Using the photo feature again, he snapped pictures of the little hands. “Stan might be able to get the prints off this. The body will have gone by dawn.”

Chuck brought the car over and got a blanket from the trunk. Wrapping the vampire in it, we put him in the trunk.

I was still shaking, but we got in the car and rode back to VUN.

Chuck cringed a little when we dumped the little vampire on the black glass table. It was already starting to disintegrate. Stan was shocked now, too.

“Do the 3D scan, please?” Colin instructed quietly. “We can match it up to records and perhaps find where he came from.”

Stan nodded and activated the scanner. A light traveled over the body a few times. “He’s so young,” Stan said as he worked, not able to take his eyes off the little vampire. Chuck was just staring in quiet shock. I don’t think any training had necessarily prepared him for this.

Colin nodded. “Yes, he was.” He sighed. “Okay.” He pinched his nose. “What you learned through books, shows on TV and movies is mostly wrong.” He looked up. “A vampire is after one thing. Blood. As I told Devon, most vampires will not hunt a child, but there are those like what we had in here before.” He pointed to where the wild vampires had been kept they were allowed to see real vampires, like the one that turned Amanda…they will feed on whatever it can find. They don’t have restraint and they don’t have to be invited in to come in your house. Children don’t normally survive being fed on. They don’t have enough blood in their bodies, but a vampire will take what it can.”

“How many children have you known that became vampires?” I asked as I heard him and slowly coming to grips with what he was telling us.

“In my entire life…three, this is the third.” Colin said. “I heard of one as young as two, but she was killed pretty early after being turned. A two-year-old can’t hunt well. The venom doesn't give the ability to grow and learn.” He looked at Chuck and Stan. “This isn’t Hollywood. The sweet stories about tortured vampires that still have souls, that are romantic…sexy…are all lies.” He said. “They are horrible, monstrous things. This boy could not have been rehabilitated. He was a child when he was bitten.” He smiled sadly at me. “You asked the right question. If he had some humanity, he would be a child forever? He looks like a child, but he wasn’t a child. What I killed was a vampire, plain and simple. He was going to kill that man. He probably killed the others in that area. Now, he won’t anymore. Understand?” He looked at Chuck, who simply nodded. Then to Stan, who, though still looking at the vampire, nodded. “Devon?”

“Of course, Colin.” I waved at the vampire. “A child is supposed to make you want to take care of them. That’s instinct. Ones like him were children and this looked enough like a child to make us want to take care of him. In the Middle East, mothers often used their children as a means to block our firing on them. They would hold the child in a dangerous way, knowing we would not be so ready to hurt the child, much less kill them.” I explained. “It’s just natural.”

Colin nodded. “Well, nature’s being rewritten. That...” he pointed to the vampire. “…is a monster. It’s not a child, but a killer.”

Stan saw the scan as completed. He took the pictures that Colin brought, downloaded them and began a search for who this little vampire had been.

Colin looked at his watch. “It will be dawn in an hour. We could dump it in the security net at the top of the building and let the sun take care of it.”

“If caught by a passing helicopter or some sees him?” Chuck asked.

Colin pointed to the vampire that was crumbling even further. “We’ll wait. It won’t look human much longer. We’ll dump what’s left and let nature take over. It will be faster in sunlight.”

Even as bad as this was, Stan was smiling as he watched the clear screen above the table give the image of the vampire clearly. The pictures he’d downloaded had come up and he watched the monitor run programs on the screen as it races through the information being given as it searched the other databases for this child.

“This may take a while.” Stan frowned as he watched.

I looked surprised to hear that. “I thought this computer was fast.”

Stan tried not to look offended. “It is! It’s the other systems that are the problem. This computer can reach them and have those computers search their own files, but their systems are a bit slow.” He said in a tone like talking about a special needs person or a child. If that was to those poor computers or our lack of understanding was a toss-up. “It could overload the other systems.” He shrugged. “Our system has to talk slow so the other systems can make sense of it. Otherwise, it’s hard to understand and overload them.”

Colin nodded understanding. “Like playing at 33 to understand when it’s supposed to be 78.”

I got Colin’s reference and smiled as Stan looked like Colin had spoken Chinese! “What?” Stan asked.

I chuckled. “An old technology reference, Stan.”

Colin looked at Stan shocked. “I’m not talking about a Victrola! Records, Stan? Vinyl records? Albums?”

Stan smiled as he nodded. “Oh, yeah, I think granddad had some of those!”

Colin shook his head. “Infant.” He groused.

I pushed Colin toward the door. “We’ll be back.” I smiled at Stan. “Are you okay, Chuck?”

My question seemed to bring him back from his own thoughts. “What?” Then he understood. “Oh, yeah, I’m fine. This was just not what I expected.” He smiled. “I have some meditation techniques that will help.” He lifted his arm and sniffed. “After a shower.” He looked at us. “Are we done for tonight?”

Colin nodded. “It’s almost dawn. Yes, we’re done.”

Chuck nodded and left.

Colin brought me into his arm as we walked to get some coffee for him. “Are you okay?”

“With the vampire?” I asked. “It’s like I said when asked about the rights of these creatures. We put down animals that are sick. I know that and understand. This was just…unexpected.”

“You know we had to do this?”

I nodded. “I do. I don’t like it…but I understand.”

“But it wasn’t a child,” Colin stressed.

I nodded harder. “But it looked like a child. I understand the way and what. This is a whole new world.” I said kissing him. “I’ll get it. It’s just unexpected.”

Colin lifted his own arm and sniffed. “I think we should skip the coffee and go shower and then go to bed.”

I shook my head. “I don’t think I can sleep yet. I’m too pumped up.”

Colin looked with a leer. “I didn’t say we would sleep.” His eyebrows danced as he kissed me. “I love you.”

I nodded. “I get that. I love you, too.”

Colin pulled me along faster. “I know you do. I’ll look forward to you proving it.”