Blood & Dust. Jason Nahrung
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father will still be dead.
Kevin let out a deep breath, then used his towel to sweep the pieces of glass against the wall.
He opened the door. 'Sorry. I, um, broke the mirror.'
'It happens.' She brushed past. 'Drop your dirties out the back. Brekkie's on the bench.' She gathered his clothes from the corner where he'd kicked them, handed them to him and shut the door.
He heard the plastic crack as the toilet seat was dropped, followed by the echo of tumbling water. He walked away quickly, found no sign of Hippie or Nigel, so threw his dirty clothes onto the back veranda. On the bench, he found a slice of pizza, a mug smelling of coffee and another next to it containing a dark, steaming liquid. He gobbled down the pizza, relishing the bite of pepperoni. His stomach made a gurgle of disagreement. He reached for the coffee but somehow picked up the other mug; sniffed it, and cautiously probed the liquid with his tongue. It made his stomach growl, the saliva flow.
He almost dropped the mug as a woman spoke up behind him. 'Newborn, eh?'
He turned, embarrassment warming his face. It didn't help that the stranger was gorgeous, her skin shiny black, her face framed in dreads.
'I didn't hear you,' he stammered. 'I'm Kev. Kevin. I'm with Kala.'
'Good for her.' The woman leaned back against the fridge, dislodging a magnet shaped like a pineapple. She caught it in one hand and put it back in a fluid move so quick Kevin barely tracked it. There was a finger painting on the fridge: four stick figures besides a house under a yellow sun with long rays. 'The mechanic from the garage, eh?' the woman asked, as though nothing had happened.
'Yeah, that's me.'
She looked him up, down, up again. 'I'm Acacia.' She stood as tall as Kevin and was as wide in the shoulder. The sleeves had been torn from her denim shirt, revealing muscled arms. Several necklaces of beads circled her neck. She smiled broadly, her teeth white, eyes lit with humour, as she pointed to the mug in his hand. 'Don't let me put you off, mate. Most important meal of the day 'n' that.'
'You guys keep calling this breakfast but-'
'We work the night shift,' she said with a wink.
He nodded, and turned away from her to hunch over the mug of blood. It looked like tomato juice gone wrong. His gut churned. With his eyes closed, willing himself to stop smelling it, he sipped. Sipped and groaned in delight. It warmed him all the way to his toes. Numbed his forehead like a generous shot of OP rum. Before he knew it, he was lapping the last traces from the lip of the mug. An uneasy peace wrapped around him, as though he had just finished a huge meal and was ready for a nap. But he couldn't imagine sleeping any time soon. Not after all the weird shit he'd just been through.
'That all right?' Kala asked, a hand on his shoulder. Her fingers smelled of soap.
'Yeah, thanks.' He licked his lips and put the mug down on the sink, pushed it away from him.
'Rinse it,' she said. 'It stains.'
He felt his face flush again. He washed the mug and tipped it upside down on the draining rack. Vampires still had to wash up - bloody typical.
'Quite the neat freak, our Kala,' Acacia said.
Kala hugged Acacia and apologised for waking her. Acacia brushed it away with a wave of her hand, then yawned. 'I was awake. Just wanted to see what was on the stove. He'll need more. A lot more.'
Kala nodded. 'There's not a lot left. I'm hoping Tai will-'
'He shoulda fed him already. The boy's barely standing.'
'He was in a mood.'
'Really?' She rolled her eyes, then added, 'I guess getting staked out by your own sister will do that.' She sighed. 'I'm sure he'll get around to feeding the pup. Anyway, I'm gonna stretch my legs. See if that storm's still building. Shout if you need anything.' She glanced at Kevin with what he took to be either suspicion or amusement, maybe both, then added, serious, 'Budgie's out the front.'
'Why don't I just jump in the car and leave? Get out of your hair?' Kevin asked.
'I don't think that's a good idea,' Kala said. 'Remember the girl at the house - your girlfriend?'
He stared at her, fuming, helpless, confused. Was surprised to see sympathy in her face.
'Stay till tomorrow night,' Kala said. 'When Tai comes back and everyone's, well, calmed down, then he can give you what you need.'
'And what's that? Another bullet?'
'More blood.'
He collapsed into the sofa. 'Was that what I just drank?' he asked, wiping his mouth.
'Decant. Stored blood. It'll keep the hunger at bay. For now.' She sat near him in a stuffed armchair.
'What the hell has happened? Who is Taipan, and why were those guys after him?'
'Until Tai gives the word, I can't say too much. It wouldn't be safe for you, and it wouldn't be safe for us. But basically, Tai found out his sister was out here, so he came looking, but there was a problem and she, well, I guess you could say she called the authorities, invoked a kind of restraining order. They were gonna put him away, but we stopped them. You just kind of got caught in the middle.'
'None of that makes any sense.'
'Sorry, it's the best I can do.'
'And my dad?'
'Unlucky, I guess.'
'Unlucky? So when can I go home?'
'Not now. Trust me, you're better off with us. We can look after you, teach you; and maybe later-'
'I hurt Meg tonight. Really hurt her.'
'She'll be fine. Takes more than a little love bite to turn someone.'
'To turn them?'
'She won't change, if that's what you're worried about.'
'Jesus Christ! I was worried I'd hurt her, not if I'd made her into something - something else.'
'Just be glad I got to you and not VS.' Kala walked to the kitchen and put the electric jug on. 'God knows what they would've done.'
If you tell Taipan what we've just done, you and me, he'll kill you.
He fought the memory, was amazed Kala couldn't see the guilt on his face. 'You guys keep mentioning them,' he said, looking for distraction. 'Who are they, this Vee-Ess mob?'
'Von Schiller. Kind of like, I dunno, BP or some other bunch of arseholes. They're based in Brissie, mainly, and try to lord it over the rest of us, tell us how to behave 'n' that. Real bastards. Anyway, they had a spy watching the house. We were lucky they didn't see us slip out the back.'
'Yeah,' he said, picking his words carefully. 'Lucky.'
Kala poured milk into her cup, as though making coffee and talking about vampires were the most ordinary things in the world.
She hadn't noticed Kevin's nervousness, the way he looked over his shoulder as though expecting to see Taipan there with an axe or a gun.
'VS has a lot of clout in Queensland,' she said. 'They got their hooks in the government and the cops and, well, pretty much everyone who's anyone.'
'My dad died today,' Kevin said quietly. The words seemed shallow; should he write them out fifty times? 'And no-one knows the truth of it.'
'There's no-one to tell,' she said. 'There's no-one you can trust. No-one who can make a difference, anyway.'
'There has to be someone. Dad's gone, the servo's gone - what are we going to do?'
'Your days of pumping petrol are over, Kev. Unless you want to run an all-night servo.'
He stared at the wall, trying to see past it to a future he couldn't even begin to fathom. The present was still far too slippery.
'Come on,' she