Vampire at the Gate
an excerpt

I came slowly back. I could feel warmth on my lips, and then on my skin. I braced myself for pain.

“Did you get ‘em all?” It was Martin’s voice.

“We’ll find out in a moment or two.” That was Edward.

I could feel by the dampness of the air around me that I was in some basement. It was cold, and there was something wet and thick smeared over me. I opened my eyes.

Edward was standing over me. He had a blood-covered scalpel in one hand. No gloves. No protective clothing. I guess that’s one advantage of doing impromptu surgery on a vampire. You don’t have to worry about infection.

“Any left?” he was all business.

I shook my head, and closed my eyes again. They must have gotten some blood in me some way, because I wasn’t overwhelmingly hungry, I was just tired.

“Hey. Vampire.” Martin again.

“It’s Daniel.”

“Might want to think about getting’ washed and dressed.”

I sat up. I was lying on a metal table in some kind of basement. I was naked and covered, I mean literally covered with blood. Some of it had pooled on the table below me, and some of it had dried. Most of it was a thick, sticky layer. Underneath it I could see healing wounds, places where Edward must have cut the shot, and the acid out of me. Mostly they were over my torso, but I had a few on arms and legs. I was covered with the damn things. I lifted my arms. “Shit.”

“From the way you aren’t reacting, I’m guessing that’s all of them.” Edward tossed the scalpel in a nearby barrel that was apparently being used as a trash bin. From where I was sitting I could see the trash bin was full of a lot of plastic syringes, mostly covered in blood.

The rest of the room was full of equipment, chemicals, more barrels, and a stacks of what looked like picnic coolers. The lighting was fairly dim, and the windows that I could see; up high, basement windows, had all been covered with black paint. The place smelled like chemicals; harsh and sharp. I looked around again.

“You took me to a meth lab?”

Martin made a disgusted sound. “That shit’s not worth the trouble it causes, dude. Coke. Not meth, not crack, coke.”