THE YAPPING OF EXCITED dogs awakened me.
“Felix.”
I lifted my groggy head in the direction my name had come from. Recognizing the scent, then the voice, and finally the orange aura, I struggled upright to my paws. A cone of white material encircled my head.
A familiar man stepped close. His hand reached into my cage. I whimpered in anticipation of regaining my freedom and clumsily turned my head with this cone around it. His fingers stroked my muzzle and I licked them in appreciation.
The man fumbled with the front of the cage and opened the door. He spread a blanket on the floor and beckoned me with a soothing whisper.
I limped out of the cage and lay in the center of the blanket. Shutting my eyes, I summoned the transformation.
Pain enveloped me. I clenched my teeth to keep from yelping. Saliva bubbled through my lips. My legs trembled and my tail twitched from the agony.
The dogs in the cages around us whined and barked nervously.
Fur retracted into flesh. My skin felt on fire. This cone around my head dug into my neck. My bones twisted and realigned from the shape of a wolf into that of a vampire. The toes on my forelimbs stretched into fingers. My hearing grew dim. The smells in my nose became simple. Abstract thought returned, and my awareness swelled with the names of things inside the dark kennel, especially this plastic doggie cone I found wrapped around my head.
I ripped the thing off.
The man laughed. “You’re lucky I didn’t bring a camera.”
I wiped the drool and sweat from my face. “Screw you.” I pulled the blanket over my nakedness.
“How the hell did you end up here?” Bob Carcano lifted the blanket away from my left leg. “What happened?”
“Shotgun. Vampire hunters. Then a dog catcher nailed me in the ass with a tranquilizer dart.”
He felt my swollen wound. “They could’ve done a better job treating you. Mind if I help?”
I flinched. “Be my guest.”
Bob dragged the razor edge of his fingernail over the lump and cut my skin. He squeezed tainted blood through the incision. I clenched my fists to withstand the anguish. Sweat trickled from my brow, pooled in my eye sockets, and stung my eyes. Blood spurted from the slit. The pellet popped out and rattled across the linoleum.
“Silver,” Bob said. “Must have been agony.”
“It hurt like hell, if that’s what you’re getting at.”
Bob spit on his fingers and massaged my wound.
The pain ebbed as his vampire enzymes deadened the nerves and began healing the injured tissues. I lay on the floor and breathed deeply, relieved that I had survived and was back in the form of a vampire.
Bob offered his hand. “Let’s go.” He helped me up.
Walking stiffly, I dragged the blanket along and followed Bob to the exit. “How’d you know I was here?”
“A wolf gets trapped in Denver-news like that has a way of making it to my ears.” He reset the alarm by the door and pocketed the key. “You aren’t the first vampire I’ve rescued from the Denver Municipal Animal Shelter.”
We went outside and proceeded toward his Buick Regal. The chill caused me to wrap the blanket tight against my naked body. The muffled barking inside the shelter carried into the darkness. Cold gravel in the parking lot poked the tender soles of my bare feet. I leaned on Bob’s shoulder to offset my still-weakened left leg.
“What time is it?”
Bob pulled back the cuff of his jacket to read his watch. “A little past three.”
“Thursday morning?”
“Yeah.” Bob aimed his remote at the Buick. Its lights flashed and the honk chirped twice. He opened the rear door for me. The interior dome light blinked on. “Don’t take this wrong, Felix, but you stink like a sewer.”
“That’s a relief. I thought you were going to say I smelled like I had spent the night in a kennel.”
“There’s a grocery bag with some clothes,” he said.
I found old trousers and a frayed sweatshirt. I shrugged off the blanket and put the clothes on.
Bob’s gaze lingered on me. “You’re in good shape, Felix, even if there is shrinkage of the important parts. Blame that on the cold. It’s been a while since I’ve had a nice-looking naked man in my car.”
“I thought you were celibate.”
“I’d make an exception for you.” He squeezed behind the steering wheel. “Vampire to vampire. What you don’t know, I’ll teach.”
“Think I’ll pass.” I pulled the door closed. The dome light went off. “Thanks, though.”
Bob handed a large plastic 7-Eleven cup over his shoulder. “It’s half cappuccino-yogurt shake and half goat’s blood. Should perk you right up.”
We left the parking lot. I sipped the shake, its rich coolness refreshing me. Coffee and goat’s blood go so well together.
“Make sure you stay on that blanket,” he cautioned. “I don’t want your funk stinking up the upholstery.”
“Where we going?”
“Isn’t it obvious? Take a whiff of yourself. The closest shower or bath. I ought to dip you for fleas.”
“Take me to Wong’s place first.” I related what had happened at the condo.
“Vânätori?” Bob’s aura throbbed in concern. “Could you recognize them?”
“By their auras but not by their faces. It’s kind of hard to loiter when someone’s drawing a bead on you with a shotgun.”
“And you ran down the stairs?” he asked. “Why not up to the roof and then crawl down the outside wall? They’d never be able to follow you.”
I paused, too embarrassed to answer right away. “I’ve been having problems clinging.”
Bob slapped the steering wheel. “Goddamn it, Felix, I told you that not drinking human blood would weaken your vampire powers.”
“And Ziggy? He was never more than five minutes away from a human neck and the vampire hunters still got him.”
“Ziggy’s arrogance did him in.” Bob’s voice sharpened. “As for you. Clinging against gravity is the first power to go. Then your sixth sense falters. After that-”
“Take the next right at Broadway,” I interrupted.
“Aren’t you listening?”
“Stow it, Bob. I’ll deal with this on my own terms.”
“On your own terms all right. Until your head is cut off and your fangs carried away as a trophy by those fanatics.”
“No one knows the risks better than I.”
The silence in the car became thick with antagonism. I liked Bob, respected him, but he knew better than to broach the subject of my not consuming human blood. We said nothing until I gave him directions to the condo. We turned off Broadway and continued on side streets. A police van, a cruiser, and two government sedans were parked in front of Wong’s building. A police officer stood guard at the lobby door.
“I’m not surprised to see the cops here,” Bob said. “Didn’t think that someone blasting a shotgun in the halls would go unnoticed. Sure you want to stop?”
“I need to get my things from the Dumpster.”
We turned the corner toward the alley. A police cruiser was parked between the Dumpster and the rear door of the building. The car’s hazard lights flashed.
“Shit,” I said. “Keep going past the alley and park down the block.”
Bob slowed and halted alongside the curb. “What’s so damn important that you can’t replace?”
“For one thing, cops find my ID and they’ll know I was here.” I cracked the door open and got out. “Plus, I hid Dr. Wong’s diary in the bottom of the Dumpster.”
“This diary has sensitive information?”
“According to Wong it explains everything.”
We rounded the corner and headed up the alley. A perimeter of yellow tape surrounded the dumpster. I walked lightly, the rough asphalt and litter pricking the bottoms of my feet. In these thrift-store castoffs, I felt like the lowliest of bums.
A cop sat in the cruiser. The dim blue glow of a cell phone splashed alongside his face. He whispered romantic palaver. “Yeah, babe, she doesn’t mean anything to me. Not like you…”
“Let me do the talking,” Bob said. “I’ll bet he doesn’t understand Romanian, and that will buy us time.”
The cop glanced up and snapped his cell phone closed. He jerked open his door, climbing out.
“You’re going to have to leave,” he commanded gruffly.
The gloom hid our eyes, allowing us to get closer.
The cop came around the rear of his cruiser. “You two deaf? I said leave. Now.”
Bob started talking Romanian and gesticulated over his shoulder. We kept approaching the cop.
He put his right hand over the grip of his pistol. “I don’t understand a word you’re saying. But stop right there.” He looked at my bare feet, my rumpled clothes, and then back at Bob. With his left hand, the cop clasped the radio microphone clipped to his shoulder.
I sprang forward and gripped the cop’s head. His left arm twisted out to parry me, but…too late. My gaze locked onto his eyes. He froze.
Bob pulled the cop away from me and sank his fangs into the cop’s neck. The cop gurgled and went limp. Bob knelt beside him, sucking on his neck.
Bob stood, wiping his mouth. “Pure beef cake, this one. Definitely filet mignon.”
The cop lay sprawled on the asphalt, twitching.
“Can’t leave him like that,” I said. “Someone finds him, they’ll go ape-shit.”
“You’re right. Better put him back in the car.”
We carried the cop to the cruiser.
The back door of the building opened. A uniformed female cop and a man in a suit with a badge hanging from his neck stepped out. “What the hell?” he muttered.
Bob and I dropped the cop and he plopped to the asphalt.
The female cop sprang into the alley, her pistol leveled at us. “Don’t move.”