The Last of the Twenty: Broken Pawns

Chapter 31

As Kelly sat waiting in the cruiser she couldn't help but feel strange, it was like a tingling sensation. It started as a small spot between her eyes, growing like a slow moving fog as it spread onto her scalp. Maybe it was the thought of the food Keith was going to bring back, but she felt a tiny bit nauseated as well. Kelly say back in her chair, casually glancing in the mirror. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary, cars passing on the street, people gossiping at the gas pumps as well as a few joggers on the road. There was a boy standing across the street seeming to take in the sunshine, but she didn't smell anything unusual about him. Still, she couldn't help feeling uncomfortable, feelings that became more intense by the moment.

Keith finally came running out of the station, cup of soda in one hand and hotdogs in the other. She couldn't help but feel relieved when he hopped in the car and the strange tingling feelings faded away. Kelly couldn't say the same about the nausea, as the smell of Keith's hotdogs made her stomach lurch. "How can you stand those things?" she asked, pinching her nose.

Keith grinned at her, his mouth full of hotdog. He jammed another bite in, puffing out both cheeks and making Kelly think of a chipmunk stuffing its mouth full of seeds. Her stomach lurched again, but she managed a laugh. "Just get us out of here, I don't know why, but I'm starting to get the creeps sitting here."

Keith looked at her seriously, chewing as quickly as he could manage and gulping a mouthful of soda. "What's giving you the creeps? You smell something? Another Vampire?"

Kelly shook her head, "No, I don't think so. Something smelled, off, but only for a second. Plus I didn't get a good enough whiff to tell if it was a vampire or anything. I'm just feeling funny's all. Probably that nasty hotdog you're eating." She joked.

Keith turned the car on, grinning, making sure to look Kelly in the eye before tearing a chunk of hotdog off and backing out of the space. He was glad to have her along, it was turning out to be a boring day and her company helped. "I'll try to eat 'em fast," he said with a mouth full of food, "Let's get out of here and see if we can't find us some vamps."

Kelly sat back and relaxed, face turned towards the open window again. Trying more to avoid the stench of hotdogs than sniff out vampires. They pulled onto the road, merging into traffic easily as cars nervously gave way to Keith's cruiser. Kelly smiled to herself, it was strange being on this side of things, usually it was her backing off in an attempt to get the cops in front of her car rather than following.

"So what were you like before?" Keith asked, breaking both the silence and her thoughts.

"What do you mean?"

Keith shrugged, sipping soda through the straw loudly. "I don't know, what did you do for fun? You one of those jock girls in the school, one of the mean ones maybe?"

Kelly laughed. "Jock girl all the way, never had time to be a mean girl. Ran track mostly, between training for that and my schoolwork there was never time for much else."

"Hmmm," Keith mumbled, swallowing the last bit of hotdog. "What about movies? I 'm picturing you as one of those romantic comedy types, you know, squeezing your pillow and screaming 'kiss him' at the T.V., that about right?"

Kelly swatted his arm. "No!" she said, feigning insult, "Action movies! I told you I'm a jock girl! What about you? I bet you're into Saturday morning cartoons and big bowls of cereal!"

Keith smirked at her, "I just happen to be an expert at cartoons and cereal! But they don't really show them Saturday mornings anymore, have to stream them all online nowadays!"

Kelly laughed, "Oh you poor baby, I'm sure that must be awful for you."

"It is awful!" Keith laughed, "Whatever happened to tradition? I'm telling you the worlds going straight down the crapper!''

Kelly rolled her eyes, "boys."

Keith slurped down the rest of his drink, occasionally glancing at Kelly from the corner of his eye. Just a piece of her cheek was visible with the hood pulled up. He wished she didn't have to wear it, the temptation to reach over and pull the hood back ate at him. "Boyfriend?" he asked.

She looked at him wide-eyed. "What?" she asked, pretending not to have heard the question.

"Did you have a boyfriend before? I can't picture someone like you as single is all." He answered awkwardly, regretting the question.

Kelly turned back to the window, embarrassed, hoping that her lack of heartbeat also meant her face couldn't turn red. "No, no boyfriend. Like I said, I was too busy with track and stuff..." she said quietly trailing off.

"Oh yea, I guess I can see that..." Keith said, thankful she had turned away. He was having a hard time holding a smile back.

They rode in silence more often than not, occasionally bantering back and forth or swapping embarrassing stories from years past, but for the most part focused on their mission. Every now and then Keith had to pull someone over for speeding or running a red light, but otherwise the shift went by uneventfully. Kelly had no luck sniffing out other vampires, a fact that she could tell slightly disappointed Keith.

By the time the shift had ended Kelly's stomach had become a continuous motor of hungry rumbling. Keith dropped her off down the street from the station to hunt, both agreeing to meet at his car in an hour. She tried to make things fast, but larger animals were scarce and by the time she had finished Keith was already waiting for her in his car. He was focused intently on his phone, flipping through page after page of photos while he waited. Kelly approached the car slowly, glancing over his shoulder to find him looking through her online profiles. She watched him for a minute, not wanting to interrupt the attention he was indirectly giving her. She let him flip through her albums until he found a series of pictures from her final track meet before gently tapping on the window. Keith jumped and quickly switched off his phone, his face red with embarrassment.

"Sorry, I was just..." he mumbled as he rolled the windows down.

Kelly smiled as she leaned into the car, "It's OK, I've always wanted to have a creepy stalker going through my pictures." She quipped.

"I'm not stalking, I'm just uh..."

Kelly didn't let him finish, instead she reached into the car and pulled his face to her own, kissing him mid-sentence. Keith froze in surprise momentarily, then relaxed and returned her kiss, reaching out the window and burying his hand into her hair. Her lips and face may have been cold, but the life she put into the kiss more than made up for her lack of warmth. They embraced in their kiss for almost a full minute before Kelly finally pulled away, looking Keith in the eye with a seductive smile. "Shut up." She whispered, giving him a final quick peck on the lips.

The two held hands as they rode together back to Raymond's, neither needing to say anything. They were both nervous about what kind of disaster a relationship between them could bring but also stubbornly determined not to broach the subject. Keith pulled up in front of Raymond's garage and parked. Although the sun wasn't yet fully down it was dark enough on that side of the house or them both to notice the kitchen light flip on. Raymond must have seen them pull up.

"Should we tell him?" Keith asked quietly, turning to Kelly.

She shook her head nervously, "Not yet, let's see what happens in the next few days. Things are still a little, strange for me."

Keith nodded, "Good idea." He said, opening the car door. He leaned over to kiss her but she held her hand up, her eyes suddenly wide. "What is it?"

"Raymond's in the house..." she said, looking scared.

"Yea, he does live here."

She shook her head, "No Keith, you don't understand. He's not alone."

Keith looked at the kitchen window curiously. "Who else would be in there this time of night?" he asked.

Kelly's eyes were still wide with shock andfear, she stared at the window as if it was a snake rearing back to strike."He's in there with another vampire." She whispered, disappearing from the carbefore Keith had a chance to react.