Here is the old story. It provides some background that I really should put into the current story.

 

Unbecoming

by Dave Krenitsky

 

James pulled the rental car into the parking lot. The Colorado sun had baked the dirt as hard as concrete but the top layer was still dust. He got out and started walking toward the bar. His contact, a local private eye named Louise, was supposed to be here. When he was ten feet from the door it burst open and a large man in biker colors flew over the steps and landed at James's feet. At the same time a police car slid to a stop a few feet from his back. A short wide woman jumped out and landed next to the biker. The biker leapt to his feet and took a roundhouse swing at the woman. She blocked it easily, kneed him in the groin and then half carried him to the police car. The sheriff opened the door and the woman tossed the groaning man into the back seat.

"Thanks Louise. You know where to pick up the bond." The sheriff closed the door.

James and Louise looked at each other. He was six feet tall and she was five foot two. Both weighed 150 pounds and none of it was fat.

"Louise, I'm James, James Jackson. Your service said that I could find you here," James paused. "They didn't say that you would be working." James bent down to wipe the dust off his shoes.

"No problem, job's done. Let's go inside, you can buy me a beer." She looked at him as he put the handkerchief which matched his tie back in the suit pocket. "You're not gay are you? This ain't the kind of bar you want to go in if you're gay."

"No, I'm not gay."

In the bar James took off his hat and sunglasses and looked around. On one side was a group who must have been friends of the man Louise had thrown out of the bar. On the other side were men in work cloths and cowboy hats. Neither side looked friendly.

"Hey, two beers." Louise yelled at the bartender.

One of the bikers walked over. "That was my brother you threw to the cops."

"It was a fair fight. He beat up his wife so I beat him up."

"Well, how about I beat up your pretty boy here." He spun on one foot to face James then lunged at Louise with a knife that had appeared out of nowhere.

James caught the hand and bent it down stretching the tendons and muscles until the biker's knees buckled and the knife dropped to the floor. James knocked him out with a short jab to the forehead and dropped him in a chair.

The rest of the bikers jumped to their feet but stopped when Louise put her hand behind her back as if to draw a gun.

"You know. Maybe we should get those beers somewhere else," James said.

"Not that many bars around here. I can't let these punks chase me out of here." Louise sat down and motioned to James. "Who we looking for? All I know is that it's a missing person."

James sat down and looked at the beer. "Do they have wine here?"

"Course, boxes of it. Or do you prefer a jug?" Louise laughed.

"Beer will be fine." James pulled out a picture. It was a pretty young woman. "She dropped out a couple of weeks ago. The," he paused and looked around, "her family hired me to check on her."

"She have a place?"

"Don't know of any."

Louise scowled then pulled out her cell and made several calls. "We'll check some bars tonight. If she turns up in a morgue or hospital I'll get a call."

"Lovely," James said.

* * *

James entered Louise's office to find her working at a computer.

"No one's reported a missing girl. So the cops aren't looking for her."

James sat on the desk as Louise continued her search on the computer. Last night they had each visited at least a dozen bars in the Boulder area. At this rate it would take months to cover the front range.

Louise leaned back from the computer. "You sure we can't get the cops involved? Her picture on TV would speed this up immensely."

"You know better than that," James said.

Louise's phone chimed and she flipped it open. She grunted a few times then said, "OK, I'll take it from here. Thanks. I owe you a beer." She looked at her phone then showed the display to James. "This look like her."

James stared at the small screen and nodded. "Where is she?"

"Some biker friends found her in the foot hills," she said heading to the door. "Let's go. It's an hour drive up the canyon but someone will find her and call the cops."

"She should be gone before the cops can get there. We have to find who killed her."

"And then?"

"Then it's my problem."

* * *

James and Louise looked down at the body in the ditch. The bruises on her milk white skin indicated some rough treatment before a bullet to the chest ended her life.

"She shouldn't still be here," James said.

"The cops don't know about this yet," Louise said.

"We have to keep it that way."

"Good. A body and no cops, I charge extra for that."

James walked ten yards away and pulled out his phone.

"It's James. We got a bad one. I've got the body of a family member here."

"So," said the voice on the phone, "an hour, two at the most and it'll be gone."

"That's the problem. It's been here over a day, in the sun, and it's still intact."

"Then it's not a family member."

"I know her. Her name is Danica. I was at her becoming. For some reason she didn't ash after she died."

There was a pause as the voice on the other end checked the records. "Damn. Where are you?"

James gave their location and walked back. "Take the car back," he said to Louise. "Some people are coming, I'll ride back with them."

Louise was standing looking down at the body. "You sure she's who you're looking for? Maybe she's an albino? She's pale enough."

"No, I know her. Keep tonight open, we may be working. " James looked down thinking, she's a member of my family, a vampire, or she had been.

"It's your money."

"We have to solve this fast. Whoever did this is dangerous."

"To you maybe," but Louise didn't smile.

James looked up at the sun. A rain drop splashed off his cheek. If it wasn't for waterproof sun block his kind would not make it in the Colorado climate. He looked at the body. It had not even started to darken in the sun much less dry up and blow away.

An hour later a black SUV with tinted windows pulled up. The men inside were used to cleaning up after a member of the family had lost control and killed a normal.

"We're supposed to take this back to--shit, I know her. What? How?"

"Don't know. Just take us back." James rode in the back seat next to the body in a bag. At a warehouse, owned by a family member, they placed the body on a table.

A family member, a doctor, drew some blood and carried it to a lab bench. She added a drop of the blood to each of three vials.

"If these turn blue or green she was one of us. Just to be sure we have the right person. You say you knew her?"

"Yeah, I was at her becoming a year ago. Since then I've seen her a few times. She seemed to be adjusting well. Then she moved out here and dropped out of touch"

Two vials turned blue, the last remained clear. "Weird. I've never seen this. She's susceptible to the virus, has the blood chemistry changes the virus causes but doesn't have any active virus. I'll try one more thing." She opened her bag and pulled out a probe. At the body she plunged it into a leg muscle and extracted a sample.

Back at her bag she placed the muscle sample on a slide and shaved off some thinner pieces. "If you told me that she passed two out of three tests, I would have guessed that she had been recently infected and hadn't completely changed yet."

"She's been a family member for over a year," James said as he watched the doctor remove a small microscope from the bag. "How much do you have in there?"

"I was told to come prepared. But I don't know what to make of this," she said indicating Danica's body.

"Now what?" James asked.

"I'll look at the muscle fibers. The reason we're so fast and strong is that our muscles change to a combination of fast twitch and slow twitch. That takes time. If she was infected a year ago she should be all converted by now." The doctor looked through the scope. Her face didn't show any indication of enlightenment.

"Well."

"She's about three quarters changed. Maybe a month from infection."

"Impossible. Her becoming was over a year ago."

"So's the results of the blood test. If I had to guess I would say that her body was fighting off the virus."

"Impossible. Right?" James asked.

"It's never happened before."

James walked away from the table. He opened his phone and called Louise. "It's her alright. I'll meet you at your office about eight, we'll continue the bar sweep. And bring trackers, we'll work separately."

* * *

James entered the Rousting Pelican Club. So far he hadn't found anyone who knew or would admit to even seeing the girl. This bar was not popular with the vamps but it did draw some. He walked to the bar and laid a twenty down and a picture.

"I'm looking for this girl. Runaway. Parents just want to know that she's OK."

The bartender picked up the twenty and then looked at the photo. "Maybe." She pointed to a group in a booth across the bar. "Try them. Oh, and it would help if you bought them some beers."

James looked at the group and then nodded to the bartender. He laid another twenty on the bar and carried the drinks over to the booth. He dropped the photo on the table and put the beers behind them.

"Bartender says you may know this girl. I'm a friend of the family, just checking to see if she's safe."

One of the boys reached for a beer but James pushed the picture in front.

"First look then drink."

The boy picked up the picture. James could see his eyes widen and hear his heart speed up.

"No. Not familiar." He reached for the beer.

James grabbed his wrist and squeezed. "What?"

The boy's face grimaced, "OK, I know her. She has a place a few blocks from here. She hasn't been in here for weeks though."

"Show me." James picked up the boy with one hand and started him toward the door. It was a short walk to the apartment building.

At the apartment the boy knocked on the door. "See. I told you she's not here."

"You can go." James waited for the boy to clear the hall then twisted the knob. The metal bent and tore and he opened the door. The apartment inside was clean and orderly. It was not what you would expect from most young people but exactly what you would from a vampire. OCD was one of the milder manifestations of the virus. Staurophobia and hagiophobia were more annoying but the paranoia and megalomania could be dangerous. Until the development of the anti-psychotic drugs vampires couldn't fit in with normal humans.

James looked around the apartment. There wasn't anything unusual. The bathroom held the usual sun screens, artificial tanning creams, anti-psychotic and anemia drugs. A picture on the night stand drew his attention. It was of the girl and an older version of the boy who had led him here. Behind him, he heard the door he had forced, creak open.

James walked into the living room and found two men. An older man held a box in front of him. It had multiple barrels and infra-red LEDs glowing dimly. It made him look like a mad science professor. The other man was six feet tall and four feet wide. He didn't look the intellectual type.

The man in front looked down at the box. "Your body temperature is ninety and your heart rate is twenty. I expect you're a good friend of Danica"

"A friend of the family."

"Not of my family, she killed my son."

The large man reached in his jacket and pulled out a handgun with a silencer screwed to the barrel. On a normal man it would have looked cartoonish here it looked dainty.

"If you know what I am you know that I'm too fast for that gun," James said.

"For that yes, but not for this."

James could see the smaller man's finger push a switch on the strange box. The IR LEDs brightened. James feinted left then right then jumped up and toward the two men. The large man started to move to his right. The LEDs on the boxy weapon followed James's every move. The weapon popped and two darts with wires trailing them sped toward James. In the air James twisted out of their path but a second set followed and caught him in the lower back. The current locked up his muscles and he fell to the ground. The big man pointed his gun at James's chest and fired.

* * *

"You don't bleed much," the older man said.

James looked down at his chest. The ache was starting to fade but his shirt had a hole surrounded by a ring of blood. He was strapped to a metal table with wide kevlar straps.

"Where am I?" James looked around, he was in a morgue or some small research lab.

"My home, actually a small lab next to my home. I used to work for the military doing anti-bioweapons research. After I retired I played with vaccines for the orphan diseases, the ones too uncommon for the big companies to work on."

"And now?"

"My names Jack, by the way. And now? I'm working on a cure for you and for what killed my son."

"Your son?"

"Danica infected him. He died a few days later. We found them together, she was... was feeding on him." Jack stopped talking. He wiped his eyes. "Frank kicked her across the room. She bounced off the wall and then came at me. Frank shot her. We were cleaning up when she came at us again. Frank shot her again. We tied her up and brought them both back here. I don't know why. Maybe I thought my son would come back to life too."

"She wasn't feeding on him."

"What?"

"She was probably trying to give him more of her blood. More virus. Too little, it kills, too much, it kills."

"Are you saying that I killed my son by stopping her?"

"Probably not. Most people have no reaction, a few get a bad flu. In only a few in a hundred thousand does the virus take. Even in that group half can't survive. We check as best we can before we infect someone. Even then we loose one in ten."

"So my son was one in ten out of thousands?"

"We never checked him. Danica was a recent convert. The first year or two can be rough. You have to get the meds right. The virus affects the brain makes you psychotic, paranoid more. She must have been trying to convert him when it went bad. What happened to her?"

"I cured her."

"What?"

"I cured her. All that work I did for the military. The years of studying diseases that never happened. We developed ways of analyzing samples, isolating viruses, creating an anti-virus or vaccine quickly. I still had friends there, it was easy."

James pulled at the straps. "If you cured her why did you kill her?"

"She's dead?"

"I found her in a ditch this morning."

"Don't bother. Those straps were made to hold down a full grown mountain gorilla." Jack pulled a jet injector from a drawer and fitted a vial to the gun. "I'm not too sure of the dose but in a few days you should be human again." He pressed the tip to James's neck and fired.

"I am human."

"And soon only human."

"And then you'll kill me--like Danica?"

"That was an accident. I gave her the vaccine and the virus died out. Except she didn't like it. She attacked Frank and me. I didn't realize that she would stay strong. Frank didn't know so he shot her again. She knocked him against the wall and ran off."

An alarm beeped and a light started blinking on a small panel by the door. Frank looked at Jack, pulled his gun and started for the door. Jack stopped him and gave him the box that had dropped James.

"Where's your pet going?"

"Someone's in the house. A friend of yours? That little contraption of mine will take care of them. It's an army anti-infiltration system tuned for your body temp and heart rate. If it's not one of you then Frank can handle them by himself.

"Frank is quite amazing. Reflexes like a cat, muscles like a gorilla, but unfortunately a temper like a rattlesnake. I found him after he had been kicked out of an unlimited fighting league for roughness. He had an addiction and picked up AIDS from the needles. I cleaned him up and got his temper under control."

"You can cure AIDS? I thought--"

"Not cured, not like you will be."

The door burst open sending wood splinters flying across the room. Frank followed the door, landing on his stomach. His head faced up. He didn't move. Jack looked at him then the door. Louise entered the room. Her teeth were bared and her fingers were tipped with inch long claws.

Jake screamed and rushed for a cabinet. Louise was in front of him before he could take a second step. She raked one set of claws across his chest knocking the injector to the floor. The second set tore open his throat and then she clamped her mouth on it.

"No. Stop." James yelled but stopping a werewolf took more than simple words. He watched as Jack stopped struggling and Louise backed off. She leaned against the wall and looked at James.

"You OK?" she asked, panting.

"Yeah, I'm fine. Could you release me?"

"In a minute." She left the room and returned dragging a large wolf. It was dead.

"What's that?" James asked.

"Alibi. Wouldn't want the cops looking for a wolf. They might find me." She wiped blood off her face and smeared it on the wolf's muzzle.

"The way you twisted his head isn't exactly wolf like."

"He was quick, real quick for three hundred pounds." Louise walked to the table and undid the straps holding James down. Her claws made her actions clumsy. "Damn, I'll need a manicure. Every time I get excited they grow."

"You didn't have to kill him." James said indicating Jack.

"He killed Danica. Wasn't he killing you?"

"He had developed a vaccine for vampires. It's how Danica was able to die so easy." James bent down and looked at the injector. The vial on top was labeled "Part A."

Louise jerked her head up. "Got to go."

"What? No, I've got to check for--"

Louise picked James up like a doll and carried him through the door. "Sirens. We've got to get out of here, now."

* * *

James sat in a park. It was a nice park. The kind you get when money isn't tight and an election is coming up. James wondered if he was still a vampire. Did "Part A" mean there was a "Part B"? Or did the vaccine simply take a few days or weeks to work? But he was still sensitive to the sun and still needed his anti-psychotic drugs.

Louise walked up. She was putting away a cell phone. She didn't look happy.

"You look grumpy. Here's a check for your time."

"Stupid cops. Why would you autopsy a wolf?"

"What?"

"I shot the wolf with a .357. Frank was carrying a .44 mag. Now the cops are wondering how the wolf got shot with a different weapon."

END

 

---

Here's the new story. I finally got an ending that wasn't bad.

Going Viral

James entered the room and saw Louise sitting at the other side of a small table. He checked the chair for dust then sat down and said, "I hear you asked for me. I thought most wolves would rather have a wolf as a defender."

"You know me and you know I wouldn’t have done it. Besides when you clear me both us wolves and you bats will know I’ll innocent."

"Bats!" James smiled. They had worked together before and she had saved his life. From anyone else he would have been insulted but not from Louise. "I know that Boris was found dead of sun exposure. You and he had an argument two nights before. You both claimed to be able to kill the other with no problem. So tell me what happened."

"I didn’t do it," Louise looked at her hands, "He called me a dog. He said I couldn’t find my tail if it wasn’t attached to me. Do you know how insulting that is."

"You’ve been called that before. You just called me a bat."

"Not that. The couldn’t find my tail. I’ve been tracking..."

"We’re getting off course here." James interrupted. "I didn’t ask you what you didn’t do. I asked you what you did. If I’m to prove you innocent I need to know why you could not have done it and for that I need to know where you were, what you were doing and with whom the night before he died."

Louise fidgeted in her chair. "I was home. Alone."

James could sense her heart speed up and saw the slight dilation in her eyes. "You’re lying and you know that I know that you’re lying. So give."

Louise looked down, "I was with my boyfriend."

"Well, another wolf isn’t the best alibi but it’s…"

"He’s a vamp."

"Ah, ah. A vamp. Ah." James took a deep breath and regained his composure. "Good. Actually that’s quite good. That takes the whole vamp vs wolf controversy off the table."

"I can’t tell you who he is."

"Will he come forth if they are about to put a silver bullet in your heart?"

* * *

James entered the bar. It was family owned and operated. That was the only reason Louise and Boris could have had such an argument in the open. James went to the bar and ordered a red wine.

The bartender served it and asked," You the guy investigating the murder? You looking for people who were here two nights ago?"

"Yes to both. Were you here?"

"You trying to get that dog off?"

‘I’m trying to find the truth. And that lady saved my live once." James looked around. It was mostly a vamp bar but a few wolves were scattered about. "So, were you here?"

"Yea, I don’t have much to do with--" he looked at James, "wolves, but L is OK and that Boris guy was a real jerk. A couple of non-family guys came in once and started to make a problem. She picked them both up, tucked each under an arm and carried them out. Good thing too because some of the regulars were about to to go all Bela Lugosi on them. She probably saved their lives."

"So why did you call her a dog?"

"Just checking you out. Anyway, Boris comes in and starts going on about how we’ve gone soft and how in the old days we would just feed on whoever we wanted. All these anti-psychotic drugs and skin creams have turned us into wimps. Louise let it go since he was talking about vamps. Then he saw her and started on wolves. He said something like she couldn’t find her own tail if it wasn’t attached to her butt. Then he said that he could sneak up on her without her knowing. That’s when it got nasty and all those threats were made."

"Did he threaten her?" James asked.

"Oh yea, said he could get a sliver collar on her before she even knew he was in the same town. That’s when she threatened to take him outside and show him what she could do. That’s when I had a couple of guys escort her out."

"You kicked her out?"

"It is a vamp bar. As she left she said that he would never see her coming."

A few others had heard the talk and gathered around. James asked if they had anything to add or change. None did. James’ phone chimed and he checked it. The autopsy report was ready. He walked to an empty booth and called the doc. After a few minutes he went to the bar keeper. "You said he didn’t like sun blocks?"

"Said he never used the stuff. It made one soft."

James put the phone on speaker. "Did you check for any sun block?"

"No. The body was burnt but not anywhere near it would be if he hadn’t been wearing block."

"Well check and get back to me as soon as you know. You remember the Danica incident? Check to see if there is any trace of that." James broke the call.

Everyone in the bar had gathered around. "We may have bigger problems. I told you she had saved my life. A few years ago a young vamp was found dead in a ditch. She had been there for days. She hadn’t burned. Some crazy bio-weapons guy had found out about us and developed a cure. He caught me using some automated stun gun and was injecting me when Louise came in and saved me."

"You were cured?" several asked.

"Partly. Temporarily. I only got a part dose. My virus was able to come back."

"You expect us to believe that?"

James took off his jacket and rolled up the sleeve on his arm. Instead of the normal spray on tan for his hands the color went all the way up his arm. "I can still tan." The phone rang and James checked the ID. Then he put it on speaker. "What did you find?"

"No sun block of any kind. I’m not yet sure about the antiviral but the preliminary indications are positive."

James ended the call and started another. "This is James. You can release Louise on my authority. Ask her to come to the bar and one more thing tell her ‘Danica’. Yea just Danica, she’ll know. James looked around. "I’ve other calls to make. And everyone be careful.

An hour later Louise showed up to a friendly reception. Everyone wanted to buy her a beer and hear about the Danica incident. She looked at James.

"Tell them. A bulletin will be going out soon to all family members," James said.

The place was loud when James’ phone rang. He answered it and asked, "What you got for me Doc." The place fell silent.

"Come on, we’re vamps and wolves. We can practically hear both sides of the call." Louise said.

James put it on speaker. "Save your ears you’ll need them. Continue Doc"

"Defiantly an antiviral of some kind but is wasn't to effective against Boris. I think since he was infected so long ago that the virus has mutated a bit. It did work a bit which is why he wasn’t totally burnt but it wasn’t enough to save him from the sun. I’ve sent my findings to the council. I expect we’ll be hearing from them soon."

Louise raised her bottle, "A toast to old Boris. Without him we wouldn’t know what was coming."

END