Bloodsucker

Krista Winter sat in her small office at the law firm of Merrell, Rothstein, and Hogarth, gazing longingly out the window at the blue sky. It was one of those November days in Dallas when it was still warm and sunny. She wished she could be out on the golf course or the tennis court, but she still had a lot of paperwork to wrap up from her last case.

Krista was 32 years old and, like most attorneys her age, fully engaged in the shark-like battle to the top in her profession. She was currently a "non-equity" partner at the firm, meaning that she was allowed to use the title of partner, but didn't get a share of the firm's profits like the equity partners did. Still, she was doing quite well. She was one of the youngest lawyers to make partner, even a non-equity one, and though she didn't get to share in the firm's profits, her promotion had come with a very nice raise. And she had her own office, unlike the cubicles the junior attorneys were stuck with.

A knock on the door made her look up. Her boss, Mr. Hogarth, entered the office. "Good morning, Krista. Just got in and heard the news. Congratulations on your victory in the Jones case."

"Thank you." She smiled in her well-practiced, confident but not too cocky manner.

"Ready for another one? This one may sound dull, but things could get a lot more...interesting."

"Sure. Tell me more."

"Well, recently, one of our clients, an 83-year-old man named Anton Vonn, passed away. He owned a large mansion in Maine, and in his will left it to his only known living relative, his nephew, Darren Vonn. Unfortunately, Darren seems to have disappeared from the face of the earth. He was living in Maine, near his uncle, but vanished around the same time the old man died. We need someone to go to Maine, find Darren Vonn, and straighten this whole thing out."

Krista perked up. She enjoyed traveling, especially if it was on the firm's dime, and loved a good mystery. "Sounds interesting already, actually."

"That's not even the most interesting part. There are rumors that the old man, Anton Vonn, was, well..."

"Was what, sir?"

"That he's...well...a vampire. That when he was about to die, he performed some crazy ritual, turned himself into a vampire, rose from the dead, and is haunting the mansion." Hogarth, seeing the expression on Krista's face, quickly said, "I know, I know."

"Is there any...evidence for these rumors?" she asked.

"Well, the old man's body disappeared from his coffin. And he was always very eccentric, living alone in that creepy old mansion."

"Doesn't sound like very strong evidence to me. Some weirdos probably just stole the corpse for God knows what."

"Probably. But at any rate, there's a missing body and a missing, presumably living nephew. How soon can you be ready to go? How are you coming along with the Jones paperwork?"

Krista glanced briefly over her desk. "I can get it wrapped up today no problem and be ready to go tomorrow."

"Great. I'll have our travel secretary make the arrangements." Hogarth handed her a file. "Here's all the information you'll need about the new case. Good luck."

* * *

TWO DAYS LATER

Krista sat at the counter of the small-town Maine diner, going over the information in the file one last time as she ate her sausage and eggs. Yesterday had been a long day of traveling, flying from Dallas to Philadelphia, changing planes, flying to Bangor, Maine, and renting a car for the two-hour drive to this small town deep in the Maine woods. By the time she had gotten there, the November sky was dark. The lumpy bed in the cheap motel, the only one in town, hadn't been the best for her sleep schedule, and she found herself thinking longingly of the elegant luxury hotels she'd stayed in on trips to big cities. At least the firm had paid for first-class tickets for her on the plane. And at least the breakfast was good. She finished her meal, paid the check, leaving a generous tip for the waitress, and went to the restroom to freshen up.

Inside, she studied her reflection in the mirror. Krista was a very attractive young woman, with long auburn hair, blue eyes, tanned skin, and an elegant, high- cheekboned face. Long hours of soccer, ballet, and gymnastics practice growing up, along with good genes, had granted her a muscular but feminine athlete's body (and a full soccer scholarship to a Division I college). She carried all the archetypical female athlete traits on her 5'7", 130-pound frame - toned arms, long and well-muscled legs, a slim wasp waist, perky and natural 34C breasts, and a round, hard dancer's ass.

She took equal pride in her beauty and her intelligence, knowing that both were vital to getting ahead in her line of work. She loved outsmarting opposing attorneys, and also enjoyed it when those men (and sometimes women) were clearly attracted to her. But though she was ambitious, she hated the petty office politics that everyone had to be dragged through. This case - if it did turn out to be something more than a simple missing person, if she solved the mystery - it would put her on the fast track to advancement and reduce the number of years she would have to wait until she could rise above her rivals.

Making a final adjustment to her hair, she checked her watch (a large-faced gold man's Rolex that hung slightly loose on her slender wrist). It was almost time. She quickly exited the restroom and headed out to her rented Nissan Altima.

It was a brief five-minute drive across the small town to the home of her contact, a man named Carl. Carl had been the closest thing to a caretaker for the Vonn mansion, driving up there once a week to clean up the grounds, deliver supplies, and check in on the old man.

Carl turned out to be a gray-haired but wiry man in his late fifties. As she shook his hand with her trademark firm grip, she could see from the look in his eyes that he was clearly attracted to her, and also both intimidated and turned on by her wrist strength. She allowed herself a small smirk at that when he wasn't looking.

Carl knew little more about the case than what Krista had already learned from her file. He informed her that on one of his weekly visits, he had discovered old Anton Vonn peacefully dead in his bed and had called the authorities. As for the missing nephew, Darren Vonn, Carl had last spoken to him two days before he had discovered Anton dead, and hadn't seen Darren since then.

"Would you like me to take you to Darren's house to look around?" Carl asked.

Krista shook her head. "The cops probably combed the place already. I'd rather go out to Anton's mansion. The old man apparently died a natural death, so the police wouldn't have looked around too closely. Anyway, it gets dark early, and I'd like to use what daylight we have to look around."

"If that's what you want. It's about twenty miles out of town, with a bumpy dirt road the whole way. Does your rental car have four-wheel drive?"

She shook her head. "The rental place was all out of them."

"Then we should take my Jeep. Come on."

* * *

Krista looked out at the gray sky as the Jeep bounced along the narrow dirt road, meandering between the tall trees of the dark forest. Quite a contrast in the weather, going from 75 degrees and sunny in Dallas to 35 and cloudy here. It looked like it might rain, or perhaps snow.

She looked over at Carl. "Have you heard the rumors that old Anton was...a vampire?"

"Of course. Rumors are all over town. The whole thing is ridiculous, of course. Vampires? For real? Come on. But people in towns like these are superstitious, and like to believe anything as long as it sounds cool and dark and scary."

"What about the body disappearing?"

"Probably some of our local punk kids stole it as a prank. We've been having some issues with a group of our local teenage boys. They think of themselves as some kind of occult club, and they've really been getting into this whole vampire thing. Wouldn't surprise me a bit if they lifted that corpse for some kind of so-called ritual."

"And Darren? What do you think happened to him?"

"Don't know. The guy was always going off on unannounced trips, though. Most likely he's off on one now and will turn up a few days later."

Krista nodded, but she was skeptical. Darren vanishing at the same time that Anton died...it was too much to be a coincidence. No, something more was going on here, vampires or not.

When they finally reached their destination, Carl parked the Jeep near the front entrance. Krista climbed out from the passenger seat, stretched her limbs, and looked around.

The large two-story mansion was built in the Gothic style. At first glance, it appeared luxurious and elegant, but a closer look revealed scratched walls, a damaged roof, and boarded-up windows. That, combined with the gloomy skies and the dark woods all around, made for the perfect archetypical eerie vampire setting, Krista couldn't help thinking. As a cold wind began blowing, she shivered despite the warm coat she was wearing.

Carl unlocked the front door. As she followed him in, Krista stopped in surprise at how warm the interior was. "The heat shouldn't be on, should it?"

The caretaker shook his head. "No. Dunno why it's on. No one should be here." He took off his heavy pea jacket. Krista removed her long black coat, standing there in her black leather pants, knee-high black leather boots, and white blouse.

"So where should we start..." she began, but stopped upon hearing a noise. "That sounded like footsteps," she whispered.

Carl, an alarmed look now on his face, nodded. "Sounds like it's coming from behind there," he whispered back, pointing to a heavy oak door on the right side of the entrance hall.

"Well, shall we? I wish I had a vampire stake or something." Krista's words were only half joking.

Carl made his way over to the door, Krista right behind him. On the count of three, Carl yanked it open suddenly.

A large and dusty dining room was revealed. A long table surrounded by ten high-backed chairs was in the center of the room, but there was no one else there. "You sure those were footsteps?" he whispered.

"Pretty sure. But there are no other humans here. Whoever it was must have gone out the other door."

"Unless whoever - or whatever - it was isn't human..." Carl trailed off.

"I thought you said you didn't believe in that stuff."

"That was before all this happened."

"Well, we're not going to figure anything out just standing here," said Krista. "Let's check the next room."

The next room turned out to be a large, empty kitchen. The far side of the kitchen opened up into another hallway. "Let's split up and each take a direction," she said. "We can meet up at the front entrance. If we don't find anything, we can check upstairs next."

"You sure you're going to be all right by yourself?" Carl asked.

She laughed, flexing her right bicep, which bulged underneath her blouse. "Don't worry about me. I can take care of myself."

Krista went through several uninhabited rooms, including a study, a library, and a living room. As each room turned out to be empty, she relaxed a little. That was why she was so startled when she opened the next door.

A teenage boy was in the room. He stared at her for a second, then jumped up, looking as if he was about to take off running. "Hey! Wait!" she called out.

He froze, looking at her with fear and intimidation, both from being caught and from her beauty. "Who are you and what are you doing here?" she demanded.

"I'm Joey," he said nervously. "I live in town."

She moved closer to him. "Well, Joey, I'm Krista and I'm an attorney investigating a case. But you still haven't told me what you're doing in here."

"Well, I..." As he tried to think of what to say next, he attempted to stealthily move his hand to cover the growing bulge in his pants. However, it only drew more of Krista's attention to his obvious hard-on. He was pretty cute, she thought. So she gave him a wink. He blushed bright red in response.

They both whirled at the sudden sound of heavy footsteps. Carl entered the room, looking at the boy. "Joey? What are you doing in here?"

"You know him?" Krista asked.

"Yeah, he's one of our local kids into that whole occult thing." Carl gave Joey a hard stare. "Did you punks break into this place for your silly vampire games?"

"We didn't break in! One of the back windows was open!" Joey protested.

"You're still trespassing on private property," Krista scolded him. "Now how many others are there?"

"Just two of my buddies, Zach and Willie. They're upstairs..."

He was suddenly interrupted by a loud, high-pitched, and terrified male scream coming from above, followed by the sound of something heavy falling down the stairs. "Oh, shit! That sounded like Willie!" cried Joey.

They all raced to the staircase. At the bottom of the stairs lay the corpse of a teenage boy. His dead eyes stared up at the ceiling, and his body was deathly pale - as if all the blood had been drained out of him.

"Willie! Nooo!" cried Joey.

Krista bent over the body. She paled as she saw two fang-like marks on its neck. "Are those what I think they are?"

"Holy shit," said Carl. "The rumors were right all along. There is a vampire! We have to get out of here!"

"Wait," said Krista, turning to Joey. "What about your other friend, Zach?"

"He should be upstairs..."

"Then we have to go up and find him. We can't leave him behind. Come on. The three of us will go up together, rescue Zach, then we'll all get out of here and get the police." She looked at each of the others in turn. Although they were both trembling, they both nodded.

Krista, trying to control her own fear, was about to lead the way when something like a basketball came rolling down the stairs. As it came to a rest, she saw with horror that it was no basketball, but a decapitated human head.

"Nooo! Zach!" cried Joey. He looked like he was about to faint.

"Now we're getting out of here!" shouted Carl. He turned and ran for the door, Joey and Krista right behind him.

But as they got to the Jeep, they froze. All four tires had been slashed. "What the fuck..." said Krista.

Carl turned to Joey. "Did you punks slash my tires?"

"No, I swear! We don't do that stupid shit, we're just trying to learn about the occ...fuck, that's not important now! But we're not vandals!"

"What about your vehicle?" Krista interjected. "You must have one; you guys couldn't have walked here."

"Yeah, we came in Zach's pickup truck. But he still has the keys. I mean, he did. I mean...you know what I mean."

"We can't go back in there!" said Carl. "Not with that bloodthirsty vampire loose!"

"It's okay," said Krista. "I know how to hotwire a car. Come on, Joey. Lead the way."

They walked quickly and nervously around the side of the mansion, jumping at every little noise. When they saw the pickup truck, they all breathed a sigh of relief...for a second.

Joey pointed at the pickup with four slashed tires. He swallowed hard. "Whatever got Willie and Zach...the vampire...it's not going to let us leave. It's going to kill us all..."

"We're not going to make it that easy." Krista had already taken out her cell phone.

"No good. There's never any reception out here," said Carl.

"So what are we going to do?" Joey was shivering, both from the cold and from fear.

"We could walk back to town..." she began.

Carl shook his head. "It's twenty miles. We'd never make it before dark, and there's going to be a wind chill of below zero tonight. We'd die of exposure."

"Better that than having all the blood sucked out of you!" said Joey.

"No," said Krista, trying to hide the fear and uncertainty in her voice. "No one else is going to die. Now we're going to go back into the mansion all together and look for another way to call for help. Now there's no phone line leading to the house, but there must be something else, a radio...some way. Also..." She turned to Carl. "Did Anton keep any weapons in the house? Anything we can use to protect ourselves?"

"Yes. I think he had something in his downstairs study."

"Good. We'll go there first."

The three of them approached the wide open front door again, Krista in the lead. She listened carefully. Nothing.

"Okay," she whispered. "Follow me, I was in the study earlier. Everybody stay together."

They tiptoed single file into the mansion, Krista in the lead, Joey right behind her, and Carl in the rear. As they made their way around a corner, all of them jumped when there was a loud bang behind them. "What was that?" Joey demanded.

"Just the wind blowing the front door shut," Krista replied. "Now come on."

When they had almost reached the study, she relaxed ever so slightly. It was at that point when the scream came, followed by a thud. She and Joey both whirled around to discover that Carl had disappeared.

"Shit! It got him too!" Joey shrieked.

Krista kicked open the door to the study with her big black boot. Seeing it empty, she yanked the teen inside, then closed the door and barricaded it with a heavy oak table. "Now listen. We need to find some kind of weapons so we can have a fighting chance against...whatever it is we're up against. Then we can go look for Carl, if he's...Anyway, come on and help me search."

A thorough examination of the study revealed no radio, but there were two guns in separate drawers - a black 9mm pistol and a shiny silver.44 magnum revolver - along with a single loaded magazine for the pistol and six bullets for the revolver.

Krista handed the 9mm to Joey. "Here, take this one. That.44 will have a strong kick, and my wrists are probably stronger than yours." She swiftly and expertly loaded the revolver, then cocked the large, intimidating-looking weapon.

"You know how to use that?" she asked. Joey nodded as he loaded the pistol, though his hands were trembling.

Krista's heart rate slowed slightly for the first time in a while. She looked over at her companion. "Sorry about your friends," she said.

Joey's lower lip began to quiver. "We just wanted to have some fun and learn about the occult at the same time! And then a real vampire showed up and started killing...It's going to kill us all!"

She held him protectively. "No. I don't believe in vampires. I think those murders were the work of an evil but human killer who wants to play vampire. Blood can be drained with instruments made to look like fang marks. We have weapons now. We can protect ourselves."

Joey calmed down and looked at her gratefully. "Thank you for that. So...do you have some sort of military, or law enforcement, or warrior princess background of some sort?"

She laughed. "Nope. Just a regular old law degree. Why did you think I was a..."

"The way you're so brave and calm and fearless, the way you're clearly an expert with weapons...Not your stereotypical lady lawyer, that's for sure."

"Well, I like knowing how to protect myself. And protect others. And I'm not fearless. Trust me, I'm as scared as you are. I'm just better at hiding it."

He nodded. "So what are we going to do?"

"Well, first we should go and look for Carl, see if he's still alive. Then we need to find a way to call for help..." She suddenly froze when she heard footsteps in the hall outside. Coming closer, slowly but surely.

"Shit. Hide! Quickly! Under the desk." She motioned for Joey to move, then took up a position in the corner, aiming her gun at the door.

The footsteps stopped right in front of the study. Then there was a banging on the door. Whoever...or whatever...it was, was trying to break it down.

Krista swallowed hard. "Stay there and shoot when I start shooting!" she instructed Joey. The banging continued, and cracks began appearing in the wooden door, growing larger and larger. Finally, the door and the table in front of it shattered and a male figure entered the study.