The smell was the same though. No mistaking it. This was the thing that took my sister. Oh, and ate people when it was hungry. It looked at the bed for a second and I got ready to pounce. I had the element of surprise on my side and it was busy looking at Blevins and his wife on the bed. I have to be honest here, I was not happy about the idea of tackling something that was as big as three of me. But I was even less happy with the idea of my sister being kept against her will.

I took my chance and leaped for the thing, claws sliding out on my fingers, teeth bared, and my monster-face showing in all its glory.

And that big, lumbering ape of a monster turned and snapped me out of the air, grabbed me in its hands and smiled at me with the meanest expression I have ever seen.

— 10 —

“I was wondering when I’d see you,” it said to me. When it threw me against the wall I heard the plaster crack and the board behind it, too. Or maybe that was my ribs. It was hard to tell past the way everything went sort of gray and I forgot how to breathe. I’ve been hit plenty of times. You don’t do the sort of work I do if you don’t get used to being slapped around now and again. But damn, I have never been hit that hard before. I pushed off the wall and reached for that green face, fully intending to give as good as I got. The ogre had a different idea and hit me in the face with a fist almost as big as my head.

After that, I stopped fighting. Unfortunately, the damned thing didn’t seem to feel the fight was over just yet.

— 11 —

I woke up maybe twenty minutes later, at least according to the clock. It was hard to say past the blood that was coating the alarm’s face.

That woke me right the hell up. I sat up fast and then waited for the room to stop spinning. The ogre was gone, but the Blevins’ were both still there and very, very dead. I guess it got hungry. What can I say; maybe mutilation is the sort of work that builds up an appetite. I couldn’t tell where one body began and the other ended. I made it to my feet and looked away before I could puke, because while I wasn’t feeling my best, I didn’t feel leaving my last meal on the floor of a crime scene would exonerate me. I raised my hand to wipe at my face and felt a wet slick across my lips. One look and I could see that I’d been smeared with blood. I’m betting it belonged to both of them. I’d just been framed. Or at least I would have been if I’d stayed around. If I didn’t heal quickly enough there’s every reason to believe that the police would find me on the premises covered in the blood of the victims. Doesn’t take a genius to figure out how that would work out, does it? I’d just been set up by six hundred pounds of ugly, fast and smarter than it looked. Not my best moment.

I didn’t dare touch anything. I looked in the mirror and saw that there was blood on my face, but not on my hands, except where I’d put it when I wiped at my mouth. That meant the ogre hadn’t thought to use my fingerprints, at least. Take what you can get and call yourself lucky. I went out to the porch, crouching the entire time, and I looked carefully at the lawn and surroundings. Nothing. No cops, no green King Kong waiting to kick the crap out of me again. I dropped down to the lawn and landed in a squat. My head was throbbing and my ribs still felt like someone had twisted me into a new shape, but at least I landed on my feet. What can I say? I guess I’m more graceful when I’m deliberately dropping twenty feet as opposed to falling sixty or so. I was still barefoot, so maybe the cops wouldn’t notice the spot where I landed. On the other hand, I could see where the ogre had hit the ground and it looked like two small craters where those feet hit the grass.

I reminded myself that there was no time to panic. I had to remind myself a lot, because I really, really wanted to panic right then, and I grabbed my shoes and socks. No time to put them on. Stronger, faster. Works great until you’ve had the shit knocked out of you. I still made it back over the fence and into the bushes just before the cop car came around the corner. This time the lights were flashing and the siren was screaming loud enough to wake the dead. Well, maybe not the Blevins family, but you get the idea. Does that sound callous? Maybe it is, but the man had already stated he didn’t much like my kind, so I have a little trouble feeling too guilty.

I waited until the first dozen or so cop cars had pulled in. No doubt about it, I was set up by that ugly ape-thing. It tried to frame me. I didn’t have the time to worry about what sort of evidence I might have left behind. I didn’t study the bodies too carefully but I knew that certain mutilations had probably occurred and that made it easier for me. No matter if I left a fingerprint or a hair or what have you, the Hsi-Hsue-Kuei had definitely left behind more. It had been hoping to frame me by me being there. That didn’t work.

The socks and boots went on and I checked my face as best I could, cleaning away the blood smears. Yes, I licked. Yes, as much as it disgusts me, the blood tasted sweet. I have to be honest here. I liked the taste. I could see where the appeal was. I just wasn’t going to let myself feed that way. I couldn’t. My parents would never forgive me. Anna would never forgive me.

Anna. I had to find my sister. I was running out of possible leads. The damned ogre kept killing them. I needed help on this. The only problem was there wasn’t any help to be had. Well, okay, that wasn’t completely true. I knew at least a couple of people in Chicago I could maybe turn to. It’s a smaller world these days than it used to be. The Internet saw to that. But knowing I could turn to them didn’t mean they didn’t have loyalties elsewhere, if you see my point. I knew them, yes, and I could maybe even trust them, but if they also knew the local gangs and that some of the gangs wanted me dead? Where were their loyalties going to fall?

It came back to Anna in the long run. Even if they knew me and knew the locals, Anna was a different situation. Anna was a good person and she was in a bad situation. And a lot of the same people that knew me knew her and liked her. It was all I had to go on, so I went with that while I made my choices.

Twenty minutes later I was well away from the latest crime scene and I made my phone call.

I guess you could say I got lucky. First, Lisa answered the phone and second, she didn’t hang up right away. Ten minutes after that, I was on my way to her apartment. I stopped once, when I coughed up a clot of blood and decided it was time to fix the problem. Remember when I said I’m not a bloodsucker? It’s true. I also try to avoid killing animals whenever I can. But you have to draw the line somewhere, don’t you? I’m okay with killing if it has to be done. In this case I looked around and leaned against a tree that looked like maybe it had been around when Lincoln was elected president. I don’t drink blood. I consume life force. That means I can take from any living thing. Some life forces are small, some are bigger. I hoped the tree would live through me feeding, but there was no guarantee.

I touched the tree and let instinct take over. I felt the energies drain from the tree, pull from the ground around it and from the manicured lawn it where it rested. Sometimes I have to wonder if there’s a limit. I drank deep, but I swear I think I could have kept drinking and taking and maybe never had enough. I made myself stop when the hunger faded down and my chest stopped hurting. I’ll heal either way. I can be starving or I can be well-fed and I’ll heal from almost anything, so far at least. But if my batteries are full I heal faster and better.

When I let go of the tree I was feeling a lot better. The tree was looking about the same as before, but there was a spot where I’d touched it that was discolored. If it went like it usually does, that would be all. But a few times, I’ve walked away and come back a day or so later and the tree has been dead or that mark has spread across the whole thing and I know it’s already dying. Some things you can’t fix. And a guy’s gotta eat.

— 12 —

A little information about Lisa Kresswell. She’s a street tough, She went to school in San Francisco with me and Anna at PS #132. She moved around a lot and she got stuck with us. Before that her family lived in Alabama and before that they were in Boston. And the list goes on. But back in the day she told me she was from outside of Chicago originally and I guess she had the need to go home. That meant I got lucky.

Being street smart doesn’t mean being part of that community, and that’s a good thing sometimes. I mean, yeah, I have my job and all that stuff, but that’s not the same thing. Anna is street tough, but she stays out of that crap because she knows better. I’m just too stupid to follow my own common sense.

Lisa wasn’t hard to find, and like I said, she was good enough not to throw a rock at me as soon as she heard my name. We have history. Nothing serious, but it could have been if things had turned out differently. Biggest problems were the same stuff that always matters in high school. She was white and I wasn’t, and she was moving away with her family and I was staying behind. We both promised we’d stay in touch. We both lied. Okay, me more than her, yeah, but it was both of us that did the lying.

Last time I saw her she was dyeing her brown hair a different shade of purple almost every day, her hips were narrow, her chest was small and she was dressing in clothes that hugged her body. This time around her hair was its natural color, her chest was decidedly bigger and I couldn’t see her hips past the baby she was growing in her belly. I know I must have stared like a monkey, and the entire time she gave me her usual no-nonsense look with a half-smile on her pretty face.

“What the fuck is that?” I stared hard at her belly, which was really a lot larger than the last time I’d seen it. I mean I stared hard, because, honestly, I never thought I’d see Lisa pregnant in a million years.

“It’s called a baby. Don’t believe that shit about storks. This is where they come from.” Lisa pointed to the appropriate spot on her body. I think I must have blushed because she laughed at me and punched me in the shoulder.

I looked past her at the rest of the place, trying to spot the baby’s daddy. Last thing I needed was a pissed-off future dad who decided to take his frustrations out on me.

She shook her head. “It’s just me. Long story and none of your business.”