People Are Strange (The Lost Boys Anniversary Edition)

Chapter Five

Now that Dwayne was in town David was relieved to discover that he no longer had to constantly look over his shoulder. However even he could not ignore the fact that they were still the only vampires in Santa Carla. The werewolf incident had been a wake-up call and one that he was not about to ignore.

When it came down to brass tacks it was quite simple. They had gotten lucky.

The last time David had cut claws with a wolf, things had not gone all that well for him. He had barely made it through the confrontation with his limbs intact and werewolf bites were never quick to heal. Especially the severe ones. It had taken months of lurking in the bowels of the Brooklynn sewer system before he had regained enough of his strength to get the heck out of New York all together. That had been the decade when the Flower Power movement had taken the city by a psychedelic storm and he had not returned since.

Now a wolf had ventured on its own accord into what was well-known throughout supernatural communities to be a vampire state . Werewolves, especially the loners, never set foot on California soil unless they had a death wish.

This did not sit well with David. This did not sit well with him at all.

A thick cloud of smoke was carried off by high costal winds as David lit yet another cigarette. At the rate he was going at he would blaze through his second pack in less than an hour. The evening had started out wrong and it had gone downhill since. His bike was acting up and he had been too distracted by his nagging thoughts to pull off a successful kill. On top of that he had nearly been seen by a Boardwalk security guard because he had been damn well sloppy on the hunt.

Irritated was the wrong word for what was chewing his ass right then.

Dwayne's arrival had forced him to come to terms with the fact that his life as an undead bachelor was coming to a hurried end. If he hadn't pulled that Hail Mary move and pitched Dwayne through Fay's window all those weeks ago chances were that he would have lost his foothold in Santa Carla all together. Not that he would ever openly admit it to either of them. He would remove his eyeteeth before he voiced that unwilling truth.

No, if David was going to be able to hang on to Santa Carla he had to come to grips with the fact that he would not be doing it alone.

David took a long, hard drag on his cigarette. He needed to get this shit sorted out fast.

"Any prospects?" He muttered quietly into the night as he exhaled another cloud of smoke.

He was perched on the fog-shrouded rooftop of the old Walton lighthouse that hugged the furthermost point of the bay. The bright beam of light that was emitted from the massive electric bulb below pierced the thick sea mist at regular intervals.

Dwayne came to a solid landing out of the darkness overhead and crouched down beside David. His hair was a wind-blown mess and the leather jacket he wore was heavy with damp caused by the sea air.

"Can't say for sure. There might be a few but pickings aren't the greatest right now. That's the problem with down-and-out places like this. You get your trash, and then you get more trash. Especially now. Trying to find a decent candidate is like trying to find a needle in a freaking haystack."

"Tell me about it."

David took a quick drag as he reached into a coat pocket and tossed Dwayne his pack of Camels. Dwayne snagged the carton out of the air without so much as a second glance. They may have their differences, but when it came to survival, they both knew better than to bitch at each other like a pair of sorority chicks.

"Well, there were two that really pissed me off." Dwayne said after he had tapped out a cigarette.

"And that's a good thing, right?" David looked over at Dwayne with a smirk on his lips.

"One had a lot of nerve. Would have killed him if Prima Gatta hadn't gotten in the way." Dwayne muttered under his breath as he adjusted his position so that he sat cross-legged on the edge.

David's smirk grew as he watched Dwayne, reading between the lines.

"I think someone's personal territory has been crossed." He said meeting the other vampire's unblinking stare with a knowing look.

"Fuck off." Dwayne growled in a tone that clearly told David where to shove it. He tossed the pack of smokes back at the blonde vampire before he pulled a battered looking zippo lighter out of his right boot.

"Right." David mused as he took another drag. "So, who were they? Just humour my curiosity."

Dwayne shot him a skeptical look as he thumbed a small tongue of fire into existence.

"Hollywood boys. Just arrived in town." Dwayne took a quick inhale to get a solid smoke going before he snapped the lighter shut with a flick of his wrist.

"Clean?"

"Yeah. Just a pair of punks. Street smart by the look of them."

Dwayne brought up an image of Paul and Marko in his mind. The two were quiet for a few minutes as David slipped into the memory and saw the two for himself. More often than not it paid to be able to read minds and Dwayne was in a generous enough mood to allow David the rare chance to do so.

"Age wise? What do you figure? Couldn't be more than twenty, twenty-one."

David rubbed his chin with the back of his hand, thinking.

"The smaller one is probably still in his late teens. The loud mouth, I'd say twenty-two max. Don't think he'll live much longer the way he's going." Dwayne said. There was a slight hint of bitterness in his voice when he spoke those the last words.

"You like them?"

"Hell no." The other vampire stated at once.

"Good. I want to meet them." David said as he rose to his feet in one fluid motion. He was completely unconcerned about the high winds that tried to dislodge him from his perch.

"What? For hells sake why?" Dwayne growled as he rose to his feet as well.

"Well, for one thing, if they've managed to piss you off then they are worth a look at. They have something to them that struck some sort of emotional chord with you, good or bad. They could be trash, as you say, or they could be just what we're looking for. Secondly, it'll have to wait, seeing that dawn is about twenty minutes away."

David looked off toward the horizon.

"You're a bastard David, do you know that?" Dwayne said quietly and shook his head. He took one last inhale before he tossed the still-smouldering cigarette into the mist.

"You're not the first to say that." David chuckled as he gave Dwayne a solid slap on the back before vanishing with a flap of his thick trench coat.

Dwayne scowled. Nothing had been engraved in stone. But he would not put it past David. Those two idiots at the Boardwalk were now destined to shake hands with the devil with the bright blue eyes. Sucks to be them.

Dwayne inhaled sharply before he let loose a deep-throated roar that carried on the wind. The ocean responded with a sharp hiss of warning as a rough wave collided into the rocky cliff face below.

Stay away.

Yeah, fat chance.