Keen's Turn: The Vampire's Appeal

Chapter 3: Lookup for the Plant (first half)

With a matter of days between himself and the death match, anxieties began to plague Jared in force. He went over—and over—what he knew. He had in his arsenal a silver necklace—

—which barely does anything—

—a bag full of talismans—

—mostly untested—

—an evil-warding string—

—which doesn't keep me from getting the shit beat outta me—

—a newly found faith—

—God help me—

—and a few observations.

The vampire came out after dark. It could climb walls and ceilings. It had superhuman strength and remarkable speed. Hot weather didn't seem to bother it, or at any rate to affect its choice of dress. Silver was at least annoying, not that he had the money for that. Punching was ineffectual. Possible additional strengths included shapeshifting, command of weather and animals, and turning to mist. Possible weaknesses included crossing running water, entering homes uninvited, things he didn't have, and a stake to the heart.

The vampire, apparently unsettled, had retreated in the face of the Seal of Solomon, but the more Jared thought about their respective assets, the less of a match he felt. Amid the less useful and more graphic questions that swirled in his mind came a few actionable ones, and so it was that he began to look more than usually forward to Friday, and to seeing Aunt Judy.

As for Suzanne's "vampire cover-up" files, she wasn't letting him anywhere near them. They were all needed, she claimed, for her follow-up article, which he would get to edit soon enough.

But as the days went by, sitting idly by was sitting poorly with him. Should he go to see Judy before Friday? What if there wasn't enough time to talk after dinner? What if she didn't have anything further to tell him that could help? What if she imparted knowledge of some obscure weapon or protection that he needed more than a day to find? What if she got sick and he couldn't see her at all before the fight?

Shut up! It's not like you even hafta go.

But somebody had to take care of this.

Sue's mood deteriorated along with his, with each passing day she was unable to find the informant for her promised article. As far as Jared was concerned, she wasn't by any means the canniest can in the pantry, but she had quickly reached the most paranoid conclusion, and for once, he suspected, she was right. A vampire had buried her lead.

Come Thursday morning she couldn't put off editing any longer, and grudgingly handed her work over to Jared. He popped in the floppy disk and surveyed the document. Judging by the resulting article, those files weren't going to be very useful. At the very least there was nothing, or so he hoped, that risked bringing the vampire back to their door.

Beginning with a recap of last week, it descended into pointed intimations on the fate of the missing eyewitness, followed by speculation on New York City vampire culture and snippets from a string of reported sightings, and concluded with a call for vigilance around ambulances and vampires in general. Of the incidents expounded on, based on Jared's experience, most were pure fantasy, while at least one sounded like nothing more than an altercation with a Goth. There were a few assaults by tall, pale figures, disappearing at the approach of a passerby, and several much older anecdotes, these from around the country and the world, of the bodies of those fallen to disease being sighted up and out of their tombs, followed by further deaths. The steps taken to seal these revenants ranged from cramming bricks in their mouths to cutting out their hearts and burning them. The last account made no direct mention of vampires but related only to an urban legend around a phantom ambulance.