Naked Came the Vampire (Hypernaturals 1)

The Tamales of Confession

The next evening, after a day of coding, cooking, and sending an encoded message to both Jessica and her lover that my house is clean of nasty bugs, I somewhat nervously waited for Danny and Lori to come home. When they arrived at their separate but usual times they both smelled the tamales and both began asking when dinner is.

Tonight I come clean.

Danny and Lori were changed out of medical smocks and adult dress-up clothes and got ready for dinner. The food was spread on the table and ready. As I waved them into seats, I told them I would be right back. A quick turn around the house verified that we are not being watched. One nice thing about fifteen acres, and Vampire senses: anything remotely like a human or a vehicle on my otherwise empty land would stand out like a sore thumb for me now. Hiding behind a tree or a shrub or even a ridge of rocks is not effective when I can scent a human and see in the dark. I still do not see IR as IR, but that does not matter for this. A human would be internally illuminated.

It is amazing how many little glowing animals hang around my house.

I Vampire speed zoomed back to the house. Just to be sure, I closed all the curtains in the living room and kitchen. They could tell by the way I was acting that something was up.

I sat down. Looked at the table to collect my thoughts. Looked up to see both of them waiting.

"What's up, Dude?" Danny said.

Lori looked to my right, at the empty plate sitting there with an unopened bottle of Negra Modelo.

"Someone joining us?" Lori asked.

"Yes. And no. I have to confess something to the two of you. It is complicated, and I hope that you do not feel you cannot trust me when I tell you what is going on. I really, truly, deeply hated to do it." I looked over at the plate I set to hold Jessica's place here. "Jessica and I are not apart. Well, we are, but we did not break up. There is no nice way to sugar coat this. I lied about that,"

Danny looked surprised, then concerned "Spill man. What is happening? Lori, would you pass the sour cream?"

Food started being passed around. Homemade tortillas. Freshly grated cheese. Steaming beef, pork, chicken, and one of my favorites, cream cheese with green chilies. Not traditional but very Austin.

"Jessica and I have the same problem we had when we were on the run. We decided to face up to it rather than live on the road. Lori, I am not sure what Danny has told you about all this, so in quick summary: Jessica is being stalked by a county deputy sheriff named Arnold Romney. Everything that I have done recently: The being on the run, the story about the breakup, the checking the outdoors and closing the curtains... everything is because of him."

Lori looked startled. "There was an officer by that name here, looking for you while you were gone. Said it was something about you possibly witnessing an accident and that he just wanted to talk to you. He never left a card, and said not to worry about it, he'd catch up to you and talk then. Oh my god, Adrian!!... why did he want to talk to you?"

"He was verifying if I am still alive." I explained.

"Why would he do that?" Lori asked, confused.

"Because Lori: he beat me utterly senseless and thought that might have killed me. He is not wrong to think that: It was a near thing. Thank goodness I work out... I was able to absorb more punishment than he thought I should have been able to. Jessica saved me from him. Literally: right as he was beating me, she clonked him with his own nightstick. It was a thing of beauty. Then she took care of me. Fixed me up."

Danny reddened with anger. "You got beat up by a cop, were so afraid that you ran away... and you couldn't tell me?"

"Danny: What could you do? You aren't a police officer. You don't know anyone in law enforcement other than the ones that give you speeding tickets. When I talked to you on the phone from the road, Jessica and I assumed Arnold was listening in. I did not want him to be a danger to you. If he was listening, I wanted it clear you are not part of this. Besides, I needed to take time to heal up. I was safe."