Howling Legion

Chapter 2

When Cole had arrived in Chicago to meet Paige for the first time, the city felt like a different place. The sights and smells were comforting. Driving down West Cermak, he looked at the same city and saw another beast completely. Instead of something that was just there to be sampled, consumed, and abused, Chicago stared back. It dared him to spend too much time in its dark places and enticed him to venture into the most delectable spots that he had yet to peruse.

At the moment, however, the only thing Cole wanted was a White Castle hamburger. White Castle wasn’t exactly confined to Chicago, but he couldn’t get them in Seattle. Some grocery stores carried frozen versions of the burgers, but those were simply blasphemous and cruel to anyone who’d ever tasted the real thing. Real White Castles were warm, squishy, about the size of a coaster, and were steamed all the way through with pickles and onions. His ex-girlfriend Nora swore a recipe she’d found online allowed her to make them, but those weren’t the same. After making the mistake of sparing her feelings with an approving thumbs-up, he was forced to eat the false idols every couple of months.

Cole hung a right onto South Cicero Avenue and grinned as he caught sight of a White Castle which he loved despite the damage it consistently did to his intestinal tract. When he drove around the newly remodeled fast food joint, he kept his window rolled down to fill Paige’s car with the glorious scent that hung like a cloud over the gleaming white building. The line at the pickup window was long and moved a bit too slowly, but brought him to a kid wearing a blue visor who handed him paper sacks stuffed with pure joy. Hamburgers contained in little cardboard castles were stacked on top of flat rectangular boxes stuffed with fries and onion rings. Still sifting through the food to make sure his order was correct, Cole managed to turn back onto Cicero and start his journey toward Twenty-fifth Street.

Between the hot touch of summer reaching in through his window and the heavenly aroma seeping through the car’s interior, he almost missed the group of vampires loitering in the narrow alley between a bank and a small industrial supply company. The three didn’t look like monsters. They barely even looked like trouble, but they did cause a reaction to the scars left behind by his weapon, which felt like spiders crawling under his palms. After having so much of the potent varnish introduced to his system, he could feel that reaction through both arms by now.

Only vampires made him itch like that. Actually, they insisted on being called Nymar. Applying the V word to them was like calling a large percentage of the human population “brown people.” It wasn’t inaccurate so much as just plain ignorant.

He slowed down but didn’t stop. While turning onto Twenty-fifth, he took out his cell phone and called Paige. She answered on the third ring.

“Did you forget my order?” she asked.

“It’s not that,” Cole said anxiously. “I just saw three Nymar hanging out on Twenty-fourth Street.”

“What were they doing?”

“I don’t know.”

“Were they feeding on anyone?”

“No,” Cole quickly replied.

Upon hearing her sigh, he had no problem picturing the annoyed shift of Paige’s facial features. “Then why are you so worked up?” she asked. “I’m hungry.”

“Aren’t you the one who told me there shouldn’t be any Nymar this close to us?”

“Yeah, I told you that. I just didn’t think you’d remember. Why don’t you go and see what they’re doing?”

“That’s more like it. How long before you get here?”

“I’m staying put.” After a few seconds of dead air, she added, “Think of it as practice. You didn’t think I’d be around all the time to wipe your nose, did you?”

“No,” Cole said defensively. “I’m just not done training. I can’t even do the fancy stuff with the spear yet!”

“You’ve got your weapon with you, right?”

He reached back to pat the length of petrified wood resting behind the passenger seat. “Wouldn’t leave home without it.”

“And the .44 is still in the glove compartment. Tuck one under your belt, keep the other where the Nymar can see it, and you should be fine. Before you get too cocky, remember that you don’t have nearly enough room in your pants for that spear.”

“One last jab before sending me out to die, huh?” Cole grunted. “Classy.”

“Come back without my cheese fries and you’ll be dead for real.” With that, Paige hung up.

Cole tossed his phone onto the seat, where it immediately slid beneath the warm sack of burgers like a rodent burrowing for refuge beneath a stump. He made a right onto South Fiftieth Avenue, another onto West Twenty-third Street, and yet another to head south on Cicero. It was late, but not late enough for the streets to quiet down. There were a few people walking along the sidewalks and cars sharing the road with him, but he wasn’t distracted by any of that. Instead, he allowed the itching to guide him toward his destination.

When he spotted the trio of figures huddled exactly where they’d been on his first pass, he was vaguely disappointed. If they’d taken off, he could have just driven around for a while before heading home to enjoy his food. He parked at the curb near the corner of Cicero and West Twenty-fifth Street, hoping the Nymar would just bolt when they figured out who he was. That would be a nice little boost to his ego.

The engine of Paige’s battered Chevy Cavalier rattled to a stop like a wheezing old man who’d been smoking for most of his life, which wasn’t far from the truth. He took a deep breath, propped his spear on the floor against the passenger door, and reached into the glove compartment to find the .44 revolver right where it should be. Tucking the pistol under his belt, Cole stepped out of the car and pulled his shirt down to make sure the gun was covered.

“I shouldn’t be doing this,” he muttered. “I should make Paige come down here with me. I should just go back and tell her there’s nothing to worry about.”

But there was something to worry about. That’s why he was getting his ass kicked every day in a basement while learning how to fight with a petrified stick. If things were all well and good, there wouldn’t be monsters loitering on Cicero Avenue.

The three figures standing at the mouth of the alley all turned to face Cole. One of them looked to be in his early thirties, with light brown hair styled into a mullet. The second was a younger guy with a full beard and short black hair. Both of them were dressed in clothes that could have been pulled out of any department store in town. Not too fancy and not too tattered. The third was a girl who appeared to be somewhere in her late teens. She was cute in a naughty kind of way and played that to the hilt by pulling her dark hair into pigtails and wearing her blouse open to display a lacy bra.

The guy with the mullet stepped forward and asked, “What’s goin’ on? Help ya find anything?”

Cole nodded and stood with his feet planted shoulder width apart and his thumbs hooked over his belt. The more he hoped to keep his cool, the more he knew he was blowing it. Before he started to shake, he said, “I was about to ask you the same thing.”

The other three chuckled and looked back and forth at each other. In those few seconds, Cole was able to pick out the black markings beneath their skin. Nymar were named after a growth on their heart that fed off of human blood. That growth spread through its host’s body using black tendrils that showed up like veins. At first glance the black markings looked like tattoos. A second or third glance was usually enough to reveal that those supposed tattoos were slowly writhing just beneath the skin’s surface. There were ways to tell how old or powerful a Nymar was by studying those markings, but Cole couldn’t think about them now. It was all he could do to hold his ground as the three moved in closer to him.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Mullet asked.

“I was going to ask if you needed any help,” Cole replied.

The girl nudged the bearded man aside so she could reach out to tug the front of Cole’s T-shirt as if straightening an invisible tie. “Help with what, cutie?”

Her arms were slender and the black marks stretching under her wrists were thin. She was Nymar, but hadn’t been one for long. The tendrils were dark enough to show that she’d fed recently.

Before he could think of anything better, Cole said, “Maybe you’re lost.”

Mullet narrowed his eyes and scowled in a way that allowed Cole to see his teeth. He hadn’t extended any fangs yet, so the guy must have just been a mouth breather. “Are you a cop? We’re just standin’ here.”

“Yeah,” the bearded guy chimed in. “We’re not doing anything wrong.”

Cole leaned to one side so he could get a look farther down the alley. The space between the two buildings wasn’t wide enough for a car to drive through, but there was plenty of room for things to happen back there.

Putting herself squarely in Cole’s line of sight, the girl with the pigtails asked, “What are you looking for? You must’ve stopped for something. Maybe you’d like me to nibble on you and you’re just too shy to ask.”

Cole tried to think of what Paige might say. After that, he thought of about a dozen reasons why he shouldn’t say what Paige would say.

Slowly, the girl in pigtails smiled. When she did, she stared at him in a way that nobody her age should have been able to pull off. There was confidence without cockiness. Some arrogant little teen would have written him off already, but she watched him like a predator that was as aware of herself as she was of her prey. “Look at him,” she said softly. “He is shy.”

Mullet stepped up so he could bump his shoulder against Cole’s. Some people walked along the sidewalk toward the alley, glanced at Cole being surrounded by the other three and quickly crossed the street to give them some space. He could sense their fear, but the Nymar could practically drink it down.

“You want her to suck you or not?” Mullet asked. When he didn’t get an answer right away, he reached out to grab Cole’s shirt. “Then move the fuck along.”

Cole slapped Mullet’s hand away out of pure reflex and shoved the Nymar back with a move that had been one of the first Paige taught him. While Mullet was recovering his balance, Cole turned to the girl and asked, “You belong to Stephanie, right?”

“Why do you want to know?”

“I’m a friend of hers.”

The girl shook her head just enough to wiggle her pigtails. “Mister, you don’t know what you’re talking about and you sure don’t know Stephanie. If you want to party, just say so. There’s no need for all of this testosterone to be flowing.”

“I know Steph well enough,” Cole said. “Is she still keeping Ace on a short leash? I mean, she’s got to be the one who insists all of her girls wear those pigtails. If it was up to Ace, you’d probably be branded or something.”

All three of them took a step back, eyeing him as if committing every detail to memory.

“If I look in that alley, will I find out you three have been feeding in the open?” Cole asked. “You know that’s against the rules.”

At first Mullet looked surprised. His slack-jawed expression quickly gave way to a snarl. When he curled his lips back, the big set of upper and lower fangs slid out from his gums. Cole knew there was a third set of fangs in there, but the Nymar wasn’t laying all his cards on the table just yet. “So you’re the new Skinner we’ve been hearing about?”

The Nymar with the beard crouched down a bit while keeping his eyes fixed upon Cole. That one did extend his other set of upper fangs. The thinner, curved teeth dropped into place, where they were framed by the thicker set used for feeding.

“Take it easy, Sid,” the girl said. “Even a Skinner might want a bit of lovin’.”

“Oh yeah,” Cole chuckled. “You’re one of Steph’s all right.”

Her smile didn’t fade in the least. She reached out to let her fingers wander along Cole’s chest. “All kinds of normal people pay us good money to feed on them, you know. I’ve got more regulars than I can handle, and we only just set up shop here a week ago.”

“You shouldn’t have set up shop here at all. You’ve been warned to stay away from Cicero.”

“Warned by who?” Mullet asked. “Gerald was the only real Skinner around here, and that old man’s dead. I hear his skinny little partner got killed too. That only leaves some short broad, which sure ain’t you.”

That dredged up some bad memories, which Cole couldn’t keep from showing on his face. The instant he felt the warm flush run through his cheeks, the Nymar took note.

“You knew Gerald?” Mullet asked.

This time Cole didn’t have to dig down to put an edge into his voice, and he didn’t have to try to make his anger seem convincing. “I knew Gerald well enough, and if you’ve been feeding in the open, I’ll do Gerald proud by kicking your asses all the way back to the Levee.”

“We conduct our business where we please, Skinner,” Sid growled. “That is, if you even are a Skinner.”

The girl’s fingers encircled Cole’s wrist. Before he could pull away from her, she twisted his hand up to get a look at the scars on his palm. “He is a Skinner. Looks a little fresh, but—”

“Show me the alley,” Cole snapped as he pulled against the girl’s thumb just as Paige had taught him. Even if the Nymar was stronger than him, she still had a weak point in her grip, just like anyone else who walked around using all the human bits and pieces.

Clenching her hand into a little fist, she stepped back and allowed the other two to stalk forward. “You want to look down that alley?” she asked. “Be our guest.”

Cole glanced up and down the sidewalk. There were a few people here and there, but none of them were anxious to have any part in what was going on near the alley. Suddenly, he thought of something that didn’t involve walking into a cramped spot with three Nymar bloodsuckers behind him. Surprisingly enough, his idea didn’t involve running away either.

“It’s all right,” he shouted toward the alley. “You can come out now.”

A dog barked somewhere. Farther up on Cermak, someone blasted their stereo loud enough for the bass to rattle Cole’s back teeth. Other than that…nothing.

“Nobody’s going to hurt you,” Cole added. “No charges will be filed if you just come out right now.”

Before the bass line up the street could shift into another song, another figure emerged from the alley. Unlike the ones that had caught Cole’s attention in the first place, this figure wasn’t sporting any black marks on its neck or wrists. It also wasn’t wearing any pants.

“I don’t want any trouble,” the guy said. “I was just waiting for her to…” He was somewhere in his forties, with a full head of hair and a gut that would have hung over a belt if one had been around his waist. Grabbing at the rolls on his hips, he suddenly realized what was already painfully obvious to everyone else. “I…don’t have my pants. Can I just—”

“Get out of here,” Cole snapped. “And whatever you were doing before, don’t do it again.”

The guy looked around quickly and then scampered off in the direction with the fewest people to gawk at him.

“Another happy customer,” the girl said with a grin.

“Take your business where it belongs,” Cole warned. “Right now.”

“Or what?” Mullet challenged.

The Nymar with the eighties hairstyle might have been posturing, but his buddy meant business. Sid crouched down and bared all three sets of fangs in the supernatural equivalent of taking a gun from its holster and thumbing back the hammer.

One of those Nymar was going to pounce at any second. After that, the others would follow. Since turning his back on them wasn’t a smart idea, Cole knew he only had one alternative. He filled his lungs with warm night air, catching a whiff of the hamburgers waiting for him on his front seat, then grabbed the closest Nymar by the front of his shirt. Mullet seemed surprised to be targeted, but twisted to get away while also attempting to swipe at him with his right fist.

One of the first lessons Paige had taught Cole about fighting was to use movement and momentum to his advantage. She’d tested him relentlessly, landing punch after punch until he had learned to anticipate and adjust to every swing. Now that it really mattered, he did exactly what he was supposed to do.

When Mullet pivoted to swing his right fist, Cole tightened his grip on the Nymar’s shirt and turned in that same direction. That way, it took a minimum of effort for Cole to spin his opponent around and slam him against the car. Mullet hit the Cavalier hard enough to dent the door, which wasn’t nearly enough damage to stand out from all the other ugly spots on the vehicle. While Mullet tried to figure out what had just happened, Cole hit him in the face. Other than being very satisfying, the punch only resulted in Cole ripping open his own fist against the Nymar’s upper fangs. Fortunately for him, they weren’t the slender, snakelike fangs. The venom from those would have knocked him out faster than a kick to the head. Thanks to Paige’s sparring sessions, he was all too familiar with being kicked in the head.

Sid let out a snarling hiss as he jumped toward Cole’s back. Having expected that from the start, Cole hopped aside to catch only a glancing blow as the bearded Nymar slammed against the dented Cavalier.

Cole staggered back a few steps, slow to make another move simply because he was surprised to be doing so well in the fight. He wanted to get to his spear, but there were two Nymar pressed up against the door. As much as he would have loved to run around to the driver’s side, he didn’t want to give the others a chance to catch their breath. Putting every bit of muscle behind his left arm, he twisted his body around and drove that elbow into Mullet’s face.

The Nymar’s head snapped back and his knees started to give. Sid had wound up closer to the hood of the car after inadvertently body-slamming his partner, so he wasn’t close enough to get to Cole just yet. Before that situation changed, Cole fumbled for the pistol wedged under his belt. It was a sloppy draw and, if the .44 was anything but a clunky revolver, could very well have turned him into a eunuch. The gods were smiling on him and his goods because he managed to take out the .44 and drive the barrel straight into Mullet’s chest.

“You guys may not be afraid of guns, but we all know how much damage a shot at this range can do to the little buddy stuck to your heart,” Cole said.

“You’d better be real sure about that!” Mullet replied.

Cole thumbed back the pistol’s hammer. “What do you think my odds are? Fifty-fifty?”

Inching his way around the front of the car, Sid hissed, “Do it and we tear you apart!”

“Shut up, asshole!” Mullet barked.

Although Sid was still baring his fangs, his beard covered all but the pointed tips.

Nodding slowly, Cole looked around to find several small groups of people scattered farther down the street. He looked over to the Nymar in pigtails and said, “You stayed put through all of this, so you must not want things to get worse. Wanna tell your boys to back off, or would you rather wait for the cops to get here?”

The girl had her arms crossed and her lips parted just enough to show the top two sets of fangs extending from her gums. The thicker canine teeth slid against the thinner venomous ones in a way that somehow managed to look sexy. The calm expression on her face and the commanding tone in her voice made it clear she was well past the age she projected.

“You two,” she said. “Heel.”

Mullet and Sid weren’t happy about it, but they obeyed.

Uncrossing her arms to hold them out as if she was expecting a hug, she asked, “Is that good enough for you?”

“All of you know better than to be in this part of town unless you’re looking for us,” Cole pointed out. As an afterthought, he asked, “Were you looking for us?”

“We sure as hell found you, didn’t we?” the girl mused. “But we’ll find somewhere else to play. How’s that?”

“As long as it’s away from here, suits me just fine.”

“Good. Are you Cole?”

Upon hearing his name, Cole felt a twitch in the corner of one eye. Fortunately, he was twitching in too many other places at the moment for that one to stand out. “Just get the hell off of my street.”

He had been waiting a good portion of his life to say something like that. Rather than soak up the moment while imagining tough background music, he tried to keep his glare from cracking and prayed the other three would just go away.

They did.

Once the trio of Nymar disappeared down the alley, Cole kept his head down and walked around to the driver’s side of Paige’s car. The seat was still warm from when he’d last sat in it, but it felt like a week and a half had gone by since he was driving along fantasizing about eating his little hamburgers. Although technically trivial when compared to possibly getting his throat shredded, those burgers brought a smile back to his face.

The taste of victory in a little cardboard box.