Vampire Lord 6 Chapter 3

Half an hour later, the street was filled with the entire population of Red House, and the people milled around and chatted with each other in the friendly small town kind of way that made me think there was no such thing as a secret here. Everybody knew everybody’s business, and that was the way they liked it. I knew the girls’ secret plan to turn vamp would spread quickly, and I even caught a murmur here and there as I hung around waiting for everyone to shuffle down to the general store.

After I spotted an older man wander his way to the front of the crowd, it seemed the entire town was here. Even James had hobbled over on his crutches and taken a seat on the second step of the store’s front porch, so I knew it was time to drop my idea on the people and see how it would go.

I strode over to the steps and lightly jogged up to the top to face the town of Red House.

“Thanks for coming out,” I shouted above the people as they gently chattered with each other, and they quickly quieted down and turned to look up at me. “I wanted to go over a few things with everyone now that the general defenses are in place. We’re going to need some more detailed plans, so I need anybody with military experience to hang around later so we can figure out our best strategies for when the time comes.”

Several heads nodded in the crowd. I caught sight of mostly older men and a few women, but there were a few in their mid to late thirties among them. They shifted through the group and started to gather near where Neko stood at the southern corner of the shop, and I spotted Celia and raised my eyebrows.

She smirked quickly and then straightened her face in a way that left no question to the matter: she had served and was damn proud of the fact. I was grateful for that. Celia was a no-nonsense kind of woman, and she knew how to get shit done. She also seemed to have a steady hand in guiding the town in whichever direction was best for the group, so she would be a powerful asset.

“Thank you,” I went on loudly enough for my voice to carry to the back of the group. “Valerie tells me there are a lot of farmers and ranchers among you, and that nearly everybody has at least some knowledge about gardening and growing. Which is great, because we can’t survive on stored supplies for long. We’re going to need to be self-sufficient in every way, and that means providing enough food for everyone.”

“We’ve got plenty stored to get us through winter,” a silver-haired man in the middle of the crowd shouted.

“And there’s still lots of canned goods in the church pantry,” a middle aged woman added, and there was a young girl, maybe seven or eight, who clung to her legs and peeked up at me with shy and curious eyes.

I hadn’t realized it until that moment, but there were a good number of children in the crowd.

I gazed at the people’s faces more closely and quickly spotted at least two dozen young faces. There were teens around Bud and Becca’s ages, and a group of five appeared to be around ten or eleven years old. I even saw one young woman holding a baby who couldn’t have had her first birthday yet. We’d need somewhere safe for these humans to hide away during the battle, and I made a mental note to discuss that with Celia later on.

“That’s good,” I continued. “But stored supplies won’t last us forever. If we’re going to survive next winter, and all the winters after, we’re going to need enough crops and livestock to feed everyone. I’ll need everybody with an established farm or garden, whatever the size, to meet up with Brianna so we can get a list going about what we’re working with now.”

“Uh, Sam?” Brianna asked as she twisted a strand of blonde hair around her fingers and chewed on her bottom lip. “What, um, what exactly am I doing?”

“Just make a list,” I explained. “Get names, addresses, what they’re growing, and how much it is they usually produce.”

“Okay, I can do that.” The beautiful blonde smiled up at me and tossed her hair confidently over her shoulder.

“I’ll also need someone who can provide information about the open land that’s closest to town,” I went on. “Fields way out at the edges of town are fine and all, but we’ll want to start our new crops close in where we can defend them easier.”

“I know every square inch of Red House.” A young, narrow man in his late twenties raised his hand. He had a kind face, and sandy brown hair hung over the wire-rimmed glasses perched on the bridge of his nose. “I’m the town surveyor.”

“Perfect,” I declared and nodded my thanks at him. “Oh, and one more thing. I’m going to need to have a sip of blood from all the adults.”

There was a collective sucking in of air at my words. They weren’t expecting that.

“I know, I know,” I shouted out above the sudden chatter of voices.

“I thought you had enough-- uh--” came a hesitant voice from the back of the crowd.

“Yeah, what do you need us for?” a pretty red-headed girl at the front of the crowd asked with her lip curled in disgust. She looked like she’d barely graduated and was the kind of stuck up cheerleader I’d hated in school. The kind who thought she was the queen of everything but then never did anything with her life. The kind of girl who peaked in high school.

“The more people Sam drinks from, the stronger he gets,” Neko declared in a loud authoritative voice, and she stepped up beside me and stood with her hands firm on her hips. “A little blood from a lot of people is way better than a lot of blood from one person.”

“Besides, the more people he drinks from, the less he would have to drink from each of us,” Valerie added, and she stepped up on the other side of me.

There was something strangely endearing about the way this woman came to my defense. Her messy bun had come loose, and several dark blonde strands hung down around her gorgeous freckled face.

Much like Celia, the vet had influence with the people of Red House, and I could see several heads begin to nod in the crowd.

“It’s true, the wider variety of blood I have, the stronger I am,” I said above the last lingering bits of conversation among the gathered townsfolk. I felt protective of these people, even though I only knew a few of their names, and I wanted to keep them safe, like I’d kept my women safe, so I let the protectiveness seep into my voice. “I need to be at my strongest to defend you, and your children.”

The middle aged woman I’d spotted earlier with the young girl at her side pushed her way past her neighbors. Then she stepped up in front of me, squared her shoulders, and looked me right in the eyes.

For a moment, I felt like she could stare right into my soul. Her eyes were a steely gray, and there were streaks of silver in her light brown hair. She had a hard look about her, but her face was kind.

“And we gotta keep our kids safe,” she finally said to me, and then she turned to face the gathered people before us. “Sam, here, is going to keep us safe as best he can, and I reckon he can do a damn good job at that, but he can do it a lot better if we all do our share. And right now our share is to give him our blood.”

“That’s right,” Celia declared. “Sam saved my kids. He didn’t have to, and he didn’t have to stay, but here he is, putting his life on the line for a bunch of strangers. Now, let’s show him a little gratitude.”

That was all the convincing these people needed, apparently, because they started to assemble into a haphazard line in front of me. Several tugged off jackets and pulled up sleeves to expose wrists in preparation of offering me their blood, and smiled at the attitude shift of the townsfolk.

“I’ll go first,” the woman with the silvery brown hair who spoke out first said, and she raised her arm up toward me. “Name’s Rita.”

“Thank you, Rita,” I said and took her arm lightly. I smiled softly at her and felt immense gratitude for this brave woman. Demanding to drink blood from every adult in town was a far cry from asking for a small handful of volunteers. I knew I could have made do with asking for volunteers again, but having a wider bloodpool to draw strength from was a lot better for all of us.

I rubbed at the artery in the middle-aged woman’s wrist gently and then sank my pointed canines into her skin. I only swallowed about a spoonful before licking the wounds closed and moving on to Celia, who had stepped up behind Rita.

“That was a good speech, Sam.” Celia smirked and offered her wrist up to me. “I’m really glad you’re here.”

“I’m glad I’m here, too,” I replied and drank another spoonful of blood from her wrist before moving on to the next person in line.

One by one, I drank a small amount of blood from every adult in town, but I tried to quietly turn away the elderly man who’d shuffled up to the gathering last. He looked more frail than everyone else in town, and I assumed he was the oldest person here, but he refused to let me pass him by.

“Nah, sir,” he drawled at me with a thick mountain accent. “‘Is mah duty here, just like all dem folk. An’ I’ll not be shirkin’ mah responsibilities.”

“Thank you,” I said, but I made sure to take less from him than anyone else.

The bitchy-looking teenaged red head who’d grumbled at me earlier offered her wrist as well, though she didn’t exactly look pleased about the whole thing.

“You better keep us all alive,” she huffed after I licked her wrist clean.

Apparently, not everyone was immediately swayed by my influence when I drank from them.

The townsfolk’s blood mingled in my body, and with each sip I took, I felt myself grow stronger and more focused. The blood of one man stood out for its ability to improve my hearing the way that Lily’s blood did for my eyesight. He was a burley, barrel-chested man with thick salt and pepper hair and a long beard that reached half way down his chest, and he wore dirt-smeared overalls and worn leather boots.

“Woah,” I hummed after I drank his blood, and I could suddenly hear the heartbeats of every person still lingering in the middle of town. I could hear the rustle of beetles in the grass and the sound of somebody folding linens in the thrift store across the way. I turned back to the thick man before me, and he stood several inches above me. “What’s your name?”

“Name’s Gary,” he said gruffly.

“Thank you, Gary,” I told him, and I shook his hand firmly before releasing his wrist. “Your blood is really damn helpful.”

“How so?” he asked, and his eyes lit up with curiosity.

“I can hear everything now,” I clarified. “It’s incredible and will be very useful.”

“Happy to help,” Gary said. A big smile lit up his face, and I spotted at least three missing teeth behind his thick mustache.

Then he strode off in the direction of Brianna, who’d been gathering information from all the farmers and ranchers in town. She’d already filled up a bunch of pages in a spiral notebook she’d grabbed off the general store’s shelf, and she smiled when she caught my eye.

There were about two dozen people left to sip from, and after I’d had a taste of them all, I felt like I could tear down the entire world by myself. My muscles felt like they were made of carbon fiber, and I thought I could jump to the roof of the church if I needed to. I could also hear further and clearer than I ever had before. It was amazing, and I knew it had been the right choice to drink from everyone. The strength from all these people would give me the agility, power, and precision I’d need to keep them all alive.

“Thank you,” I said loud enough for everyone to hear.

“What do you want us to do, Sam?” Neko grabbed my attention, and now Brianna stood beside her with her spiral notebook tucked close to her chest.

“Brianna, did you get all the information about the gardens and crops?” I asked and held out a hand for her notebook.

“Yeah, I have pages and pages of notes here from a few dozen people,” Brianna answered as she flipped quickly through the notebook’s pages and then handed it over to me.

“Perfect,” I praised her, and I opened the notebook to a random page to find rows and rows of neat, loopy handwriting that described in precise detail the type, amount, and ownership of various gardens. She even had several lines at the back that tallied up total square footage of farmland and approximate yields of each item. Based on her notes, the people around here had a real love for squash, cabbage, snap peas, and basil, so we’d have an abundance of a few things. “Great job, Bree. Make a few notes in here about what we have the least of, we’ll need to expand the variety of things we plant. Can’t live on squash and beans forever.”

“Okay, Sam.” The blonde nodded and gave me a small smile as she took the notebook back from me. Then she took out her pen and started to make little tally marks on the last page.

“Neko, when Bree’s done with that, I need you two to go take over for Nat with the other girls.” I knew my girlfriend had an itch to get our rifles sighted in, and that definitely needed to be done before Thaddeus’s fanged fucks stormed our barricades.

“Sure thing, boss.” Neko smirked and gave me a mock salute.

“Thanks.” I smiled and chuckled at the Japanese girl’s sass, and then I walked over to the group of military veterans. “Celia.”

“Hey, Sam,” she greeted me. “This here’s the best gathering of military minds in the entire county. Well, at least the ones who are still human.”

“Lieutenant Perkins, sir,” a man with thinning silver hair said. He gave me the most proper salute I’d ever seen and stood as straight and still as the Washington Monument. “At your service.”

“At ease, Alan,” Celia chided him lightly and smiled in a friendly way. “Alan comes from a long line of military family.”

“All the way back to the revolutionary war,” Perkins added, and his steely gray eyes looked at me with an intensity that lingered all about the man. He was about my height and an average build but looked like he had a strength in his leanness that had served him well. His face was shaved clean, and his hair was cropped short about his head.

“Is that so?” I asked. He looked every part the honorable soldier, and I liked him instantly.

“Yes, sir. Genealogy is a hobby of mine, and I’ve traced my family tree as far back as the original colonies. The Perkins family has served this great nation since before she was even a proper nation.” His chest puffed slightly with pride, but his hands never left their folded position behind his back. Then he lowered his eyes and shook his head with disgust. “Except great granddaddy Earl, that scoundrel.”

“Oh, here we go.” Celia rolled her eyes and shifted to one foot.

“The man had no honor,” Perkins declared, and he stood ramrod straight as if he could regain the honor for his entire family to make up for great granddaddy Earl. “Fought for the confederacy.”

“Ah, I see. Well, you’ve certainly made your ancestors proud.” I nodded before I shifted attention around the group in an attempt to get back on track. “Now, I think we should have guards head up to all the hunting blinds you have set up in the forest around town. We should work in threes when possible, but never less than pairs.”

“We’ve got about a dozen blinds on either side of town,” a younger man said. He looked about thirty or so and had jet black hair and bright green eyes. “I don’t think we have enough people to patrol them all and keep to pairs.”

“That’s fine,” I said. “Try to spread out among them as evenly as possible, and send your best shots up there. Anybody with more hand-to-hand experience would be better suited staying closer to town. Even if you have experienced hunters in town, people who never served, they could be useful in those positions. All they’ll need to do is keep eyes out and give us a heads up when there’s movement in our direction.”

“I’ll grab Mark and Jerry,” the young, dark-haired vet said. “The three of us go hunting every year, and they’re both crack shots. Name’s Ross, by the way.”

“Thank you, Ross,” I said and shook his outstretched hand. “Gather up anyone who has hunting experience. Do you have radios in town by any chance? A way we can keep in contact with the guards posted around in all the blinds and at the north and south barricades?”

“We’ve got a network of CB radios all set up in town already,” Celia answered. “Small town, we like to keep in contact with one another.”

“That’s perfect.” I smiled at her. This town was already remarkably well set up for the end of the world. “Make sure every guard post has one radio. And make sure there’s one set up at the general store and another in the church.”

“How’s it going?” Natalie asked as she strode over to us and paused by my side. Then she took a moment to smile brightly at each of the people in the group.

“Really well, actually,” I told her and gave her a quick rundown of all the information I’d gathered already. “They are pretty prepared already, and it should be easy to tweak things into the best defensive walls we can.”

“That’s great,” my beautiful girlfriend said, but then she shifted anxiously from one foot to the other and chewed her bottom lip. “Sam? If you’ve got things covered here, I wanted to go and sight in those rifles for us, finally.”

“Why do you think I had Brianna and Neko come and get you?” I teased her. “Go on, I’m sure Perkins here can show you a good spot to do it.”

“Lieutenant Perkins, sir,” he corrected me as politely as possible, and he gave another proper salute to the gorgeous brunette vampire by my side. “At your service, ma’am.”

“Lieutenant, our rifles are waiting for us.” Natalie smiled kindly at him, and they walked off toward the church together.

“Is there anything else we should do, Sam?” Ross asked as he turned a little in the direction of the small diner beside the post office. “I just spotted Mark and Jerry head into Duke’s, and I was gonna grab ‘em before they wander off again.”

“No, nothing else right now,” I said. “Remember to spread out the radios and do a check in at least every half hour. And call in immediately with anything suspicious. We have no idea when or from where these blood suckers might attack.”

“Can do,” Ross replied and jogged off toward Duke’s Diner.

“Alright, you lazy bums.” Celia waved her hands around like a mother hen corralling her chicks. “Off you go, get up to them blinds and start keeping a watch out.”

“Sam?” Gary, the barrel-chested man whose blood gave me hearing like a fucking bat, stepped up to get my attention as the group of veterans dispersed.

“Gary, you’re a rancher aren’t you?” I asked.

“Sure am,” he replied. He puffed his chest and grabbed hold of the straps on his dusty overalls. “Got the biggest farm in all of Red House, nearly a hundred acres in all.”

“Wow.” I whistled in amazement. “I suppose that’s way on the outskirts of town, huh?”

“Yep, furthest part of town on the north end.” He winked at me. “Plenty far off from Black Betsy, you see.”

“Well, isn’t that a bit of luck?” I chuckled. “What do you grow there, Gary?”

“Well, I gots everything you could need, Sam,” he answered. “I do all kinds of berries, tomatoes, broccoli, spinach, carrots, plenty of potatoes, they keep real nice, you see. Plus, I have a dozen dairy cows.”

“Dairy cows?” I asked, and my eyebrows rose up in surprise. “That’s awesome. Do you grow food for your cows, too, by any chance? Or did you rely on outside sources for that?”

“Nah, my ladies eat plenty from my own crops,” the big man answered. “Plenty to go around for them from the weeds and scraps and about ten acres of field they get to roam in.”

“Sounds like your land is already pretty fucking self sufficient.” I clapped my hand on the burly man’s shoulder and stifled a cough at the plume of dust that puffed off his shirt. “We could use your knowledge in getting new crops started closer to town here.”

“I-- uh-- I believe I can help with that,” the narrow young man I’d seen in the crowd earlier said. He raised one hand and stepped into the circle of farmers that had gathered around Gary and me as we’d discussed his cows.

“Town surveyor, right?” I asked the sandy brown-haired man. “What’s your name?”

“Jason,” he answered and straightened his wire glasses on his nose. “Jason Deel.”

“Okay, Jason, go with Gary and pick out the best spots to start new crops,” I instructed. “We need space that’s big enough to make it worth the work, but close enough to town to make it easily defensible.”

Jason and Gary nodded and immediately started to discuss the best areas downtown for new crops.

“We’ll need plenty of sun,” Gary began.

“I know a good spot out past the church,” Jason replied.

It was easier to give orders with every new one I doled out, and these people acted like they craved the direction. They all jumped to do whatever I told them to, without hesitation or question, and it made me think about the way James had reacted when I first drank his blood. It was like his loyalty was anchored to me the moment I fed from him. Now, after I’d fed from all the adults in town, they seemed to accept me as their leader without question. I had a feeling I could send them off on any number of missions, and they would follow without hesitation. It was something to think about more with the girls later, but for now I was glad we’d gotten so much done in such a short time.

The veterans of Red House had sorted and handed out CB radios while I’d talked with Gary and the others, and I could see them head off in various directions in small groups of threes and fours. Celia scolded her son, Bud, as he hauled a much larger radio unit up the steps of the general store, and my improved hearing from Gary’s blood let me know that he and Jason continued to swap ideas about which points in town would be best for new crops. I heard the sound of Jason’s pencil scrape across a notepad as the burly man pointed out the amount of sunlight a particular spot offered, and I decided they had a handle on things for now.

I wasn’t sure where Lieutenant Perkins had led Natalie to, but I’d started to hear the unmistakable sound of rifle fire and the steady plink plink of lead on metal targets. I smiled at the image of my girlfriends’ chestnut hair pulled up into a ponytail while she leaned into the scope of our rifles.

“Busy this morning, huh?” Valerie’s voice drew my attention, and I realized I had let my thoughts wander.

“Oh, you know.” I shrugged playfully. “All in a day’s work for the savior of a town.”

“Yeah, sure.” The farm vet rolled her eyes but smiled brightly at me, and just the hint of a blush colored her freckled cheeks. “What do you need me to do, o’ savior?’

“Actually,” I laughed. “Gary and Jason are figuring out what areas in town would be good for planting new gardens, but I was thinking I’ll need to make a supply run before long. We’re going to need seeds and tools if we plan on expanding our growing territory.”

“I was thinking the same thing,” the dark blonde beauty replied. “We’ll need to make sure we have enough crops for the livestock as well as all the people. Which means you’ll need seeds, fertilizers, chicken wire would be helpful, and plenty of rakes, shovels, and hoes so everyone can help out.”

“I could use the help assembling a list of supplies,” I said. “I wanted to make another weapon run, too, so I might as well get all that at the same time.”

“Your best bet is to head toward Charleston, then.” Valerie pulled the tie from her hair as she thought out loud. Then she bent forward, flipped her long dark blonde hair over, and brushed it out quickly with her fingers. The smell of fresh spring grass and wildflowers that hovered around her silky locks assaulted my senses, and a wave of heat crashed through my veins. Then the sexy vet gathered all her locks and twisted them up into a fresh bun. “There’s a Cabela's in the city. It’s only about 30 minutes from here, and you can hit Town and Country Supply on the way back. You’ll have to pass right by it.”

“A Cabela’s would be perfect. Based on what I saw down in Black Betsy, we really need to step up our game. I want to arm anybody in town who can hold a rifle, and that means a lot of ammo, too.” I shook my head to clear my muddled thoughts and forced my attention away from the perfect curve of the dark blonde’s breasts. She wasn’t as curvascious as the other girls, but her figure was perfect, and I couldn’t stop myself from thinking about what the shape of her body would feel like in my hands. I also wondered if her whole body was sprinkled with freckles like her beautiful face.

A shout in the distance suddenly caught my attention and pulled my thoughts abruptly away from the sexy vet in front of me.

“No! Catherine, stop!” I heard Neko’s far-off and muffled cry mixed with the sound of wood as it crashed to the ground.

“Shit.” I took off immediately, ran the short distance from the general store to the church, burst through the front door, and flew past the rows of pews to the back office.