Chapter 10: Madhouse 3-1

"Ooh, what do we have here?" A voice purred, audible above the almost industrial-sounding screamo music of the club.

I turned to see Jeanette staring at me as if she wanted to eat me. Everything about the Voerman sister was pastel: fair of hair, pale of skin. Her wardrobe, if it could truly be called that, consisted of a button-up that was rolled up and tied into a knot atop her stomach, revealing a generous amount of midriff and covering pretty much nothing at all. Her blonde hair was tied up into pigtails, revealing her mismatched eyes, one blue and one green. Her red bra was exposed beneath the thin white shirt, and she wore a blue pleated skirt that was just low enough to reveal the straps of her red thong, but high enough to not be decent by any stretch of the imagination.

She was absolutely captivating, encompassing a hundred percent of my attention. For a moment, I was speechless. But the Beast wasn't. Images of me tearing off her clothes, splaying her about in front of this entire club and making her scream my name played in my head. I wanted to see her helpless and afraid, powerless. Bound and gagged, bruised and cut and bleeding. I need to-

"Another scrumptious young plaything straight out of life and into my club?" Her purr continued, her head tilting. Wait, did she know I was a vampire? "Mmm...you smell new, little boy, like fabric softener dew on freshly mowed Astroturf."

I raised an eyebrow. What the fuck was she talking about? Astroturf?

"I'm not frightening you," She asked. "Am I, duckling?"

I played it cool. "Frightening isn't the word I'd use. Exciting is more like it."

She giggled at that, lowering her chin and looking up at me. I knew from literary research that that was a method of seduction. Made you look smaller, more appealing.

"I can tell you and I are going to get along like fire hoses." She said.

And she lost me. Again.

"Fire hoses?" I asked.

"When we get turned on," She drawled in a tone that would require me to take a cold shower if I were alive. "There's bound to be flames."

The Beast raged in the back of my mind, telling me to do things I wouldn't repeat out loud. I ignored it.

"Poetic." I said. "So, I know your name, but only by reputation. Who are you, exactly?"

"I'm the finger down your spine when all the lights are out." She explained. "I'm the name on all the men's room walls." - that one, I could confirm - "When I pout, the whole world tries to make me smile. And everyone wants to know...who...is..that...girl?"

"Jeanette." I said.

She giggled, grinning from ear to ear like she was having the time of her life. "This bit of chaos crammed into a certifiable giggle is my club. Oh, I'd just love to give you funny feelings all night, sweetheart, but I really must trouble with some business."

I raised an eyebrow at that. Did it have to do with the feud?

"We'll reunite sweet and soon. I promise." She said, and before I could come up with a witty reply, she was off to the elevator by the dance floor.

"Okay then." I muttered. "Doesn't even remember seeing me around before tonight. That's a blow to the ego."

"Duuuuude!" The voice of Knox came from behind me, somehow louder than the music.

I sighed. "Hello, Knox."

"You talked to Jeanette! Oh man!" He said in his usual lack of an inside voice, baring a ridiculous smile. "That's like...oh man! You're in, dude! You're totally in! You gonna hit that?"

I raised an eyebrow. Now that I thought about it, I hadn't felt any desires that were explicitly sexual since I'd been turned. Sure, the Beast had me wanting to do horrible things to women I'd looked at, but the focus wasn't explicitly sexual in nature. It was on domination, on hurting them and making them feel fear. I didn't necessarily feel horny anymore, just the desire to feed. To hurt. To dominate. I wondered if I even could have sex anymore.

"Never mind that." I said. "I actually wanted to ask you a few questions."

"Of course, bro!" Knox said. "Ask away."

"How exactly do you know about vampires?"

Knox's eyes lit up. "Dude! You would not believe it, man! Oh man - so I meet this nasty dude named Bertram Tung, right? And he tells me to suck on his wrist! And of course I was like, 'No, dude! I don't swing that way!' But then he convinced me and I did it! And...oh man you wouldn't believe how it felt! I felt like a god, man!"

I nodded. So he was like Mercurio...and he drank Tung's blood. Interesting. I wondered if he knew where Bertram was. But first, I had to satisfy my curiosity.

"So, a human that takes in vampire blood…" I said. "Do you guys call yourselves anything?"

"Yeah!" He said like an excited puppy. "A ghoul! Oh man! We're like - faster, stronger. We can hear better, taste better, fuck better!"

I nodded, then thought of the redhead I saved. "And when you drank his blood...did you feel weird?"

"Yeah, now that I think about it." Knox said. "I felt a sorta...connection, y'know? To Bertram. I mean, not in that way but kinda like...shit, I dunno man. I keep trying to find him so that he can explain this stuff to me, but I can't!"

I sighed. So he didn't know where Bertram was either. It was beginning to look like I was doomed to get involved with this feud.

"So you don't know where he is." I said.

"No!" He confirmed. "Which sucks, because he had an assignment for me and I think I'm in trouble!"

I raised an eyebrow. "Assignment?"

"Aw man!" Knox said. "Well, Bertram had me keeping an eye on this guy, this Asian dude who's been pokin' around Santa Monica. Bertram thought he might be a vampire or...something like a vampire. I dunno."

"Okay. Tell me about this 'Asian dude'." I said.

"Dude! This guy, this… this thing… got wise to me. Now instead of me watchin' him, he's watchin' me, you know. I see the guy appear around me all the time" - Knox cast paranoid glances around the room - "like off in the distance watchin' me, he'll… warp up next to me… aw man… then 'whoo' disappear."

I frowned, studying his expression. Something didn't feel right.

"Something is off about your story, Knox." I accused him.

Knox paled. "O-ho! What are you saying?"

I growled and peered into his eyes. I didn't have time for this bullshit. He was lucky I was even listening to him.

"Don't bullshit me, ghoul. Come clean." I ordered him.

Immediately, Knox shifted gears. "Okay, okay, okay. Damnit Knox, damn! Oh man, alright, look, I messed up, okay? I'm just doing what I was told, though!"

I nodded. "Go on."

"Bertram knew you were comin', knew you'd come by here." Knox explained, which made me raise an eyebrow. "He planted me and told me what to say about the Asian vamp, but it's true, I swear! And everything else is true too! This Asian guy needs to be taken out. I can't do it, so Bertram needs you to."

Sighing, I looked out to the dance floor. If I'm doing favors for people, I at least want to see them face-to-face before I do it. But if Knox is telling the truth, that means he's in trouble, which I couldn't just ignore. Besides, even if I just called off the feud, that wouldn't guarantee that Tung would hurt me. Maybe if I scratched his back, this "Nasty Dude" will scratch mine.

"He could've just asked me." I said, glaring at Knox.

Knox quickly shook his head. "Nu-uh. He can't stick his neck out like that. He doesn't deal directly. His way, I guess. So can you do it?"

I was starting to not like being treated like a pawn here. What made Bertram think I could do it? Still, again, if I did him this favor, then he'd owe me.

"Fine." I said.

"Hell yeah!" Knox whooped. "Right on! Okay, like I said, he's some kind of Asian vampire… thing. Ya know. The only clue I've got is his driver's license that he dropped once while I was tailing him. I've been so freaked out that I haven't even had the chance to check it out."

He handed me the driver's license. The man I was tailing looked unremarkable, like a salaryman.

"Shouldn't this tell you who he is?" I asked.

"No… the picture on the license isn't him." Said Knox defensively. "I don't know why he had it, but… well, it might help you find out where he is and what he's doing."

"Alright, I'll take care of it."

"Right on! Just come back and let me know the job's done so I can stop freakin' out! Maybe I'll see Bertram by then."

I nodded. I figured out that I should do this before I go looking for Therese.

My investigation took me to the bail bonds place, where apparently the owner had a computer that allowed me to search any name that had a record. It was a bit of a shot in the dark, but it had to be better than asking random people. After typing everything in, I found a record for a bail bond:

Bond written 03/25/02 -

Two Counts Public Disturbance - Drunk and Nudity.

Case #766141.

Bond amount: $5,000.

Type of Bond: Cash - paid in full.

Notes: Local.

VOID: Subject's corpse identified. Being held at Medical Clinic Morgue. Authorities notifying next of kin.

That was strange. So the original owner of the ID had died months ago. What was this guy doing walking around with his ID, then? Either way, I was finally gaining ground on my amateur detective job. I swear, I need to start charging people for this. I could only imagine how much money I'd make running errands for people.

I entered the clinic and began sneaking again, slipping past doctors and the very flimsy security they had. Unfortunately, I had to enter a morgue through a hole in the wall but everything was relatively smooth sailing from there. I saw a chest, followed by a label that said, Subject Belongings. I picked the lock to the chest and opened it, taking out a golden ring and a key card to the box warehouse called "Foxy Boxes". I figured that was where I ought to head next, since it was the only lead I had.

A hop, skip, and a jump later, I was at Foxy Boxes. Using the key card to get in, I walked into the massive, industrial room where wooden boxes were stacked to the ceiling. Everything was dead silent...I couldn't hear a single thing. Suddenly, once I was at the center of the room, I saw a bright reddish-orange light illuminate the entire place as the lights in the warehouse shut off. I heard horrible chanting in another language, screams of horror. I saw that some sort of portal had opened, and a figure cloaked in shadow walked through.

The portal closed and the lights turned back on, revealing a deathly pale Asian man in a suit. He had on sunglasses, and instead of wearing a blazer he wore a leather jacket. His hair was slicked back, making him look like an extra from Men in Black or something. In his leather gloved hand was a katana, though the wrapping around the shaft was ruined.

"I see you had found me." The man said. "Your kind is much more intelligent than I'd originally have given credit for."

The way he said your kind with such disdain...it was strange. He was a vampire too, right? Why was he speaking to me as if I were an animal?

"Look," I said, raising my hands. "I just want you to stop bothering Knox, alright? I don't want any trouble."

"Oh, but it seems trouble has found you." He said, raising his sword.

I frowned. I really didn't want to fight. Maybe I'd have been more confident if he was human, but this was a vampire. I didn't even know what he could do! If I was fighting against someone every bit as strong and fast as me, I wouldn't survive.

"Okay, buddy." I said, gathering my will to control my blood. "I guess it's trouble then."

The last thing I saw was the Asian vampire pointing directly at me, before I descended into Hell.