I Wake Up Cuffed to a Bed and Guilty as Sin

Nick

“You chicken?” James shoots me a daring smile as we’re both stood at the edge of the quarry way out in Jersey. We ditched out on school, swiped a car and took a joyride out to this private little lake. James even let me drive – my first time behind the wheel. He goes cliff jumping all the time apparently – out here in the wilds, away from the big city, where no one can spot us, and no one could step in and save us should we drown…

James is already stripping off his clothes. He takes it all off, even his boxers…

“What you staring at?” he teases, and I jerk my eyes quickly back up to his face. “You got a pair on you too, now don’t you?”

I feel my face flush red with anger. “Yeah, and I ain’t chicken.” I strip off my own shirt and bottoms and give him a full view of my bare ass, before sprinting straight at the edge of the cliff, taking the leap, right out into open space…

I feel myself screaming, arms windmilling like mad, as I keep falling and falling… The sound is echoed by James: a full-throated howl of animalistic delight, as he jumps right after me, before I’ve even hit the water.

The shock of cold knocks the wind out of me, and I give a compulsive gasp – Rookie mistake. The water floods my lungs, and I start thrashing all the harder, then sinking, going numb…

A pair of much stronger arms slip around my chest in an instant, powerful kicks propelling us back to the surface.

I don’t register anything else, until I’m lying in the silt of the rocky bank, spewing water while James is bent there over me, pounding on my back. He tilts up my face. “You’re not supposed to gulp it down, dumbass. You good?”

I give a shaky nod. He looks down between my legs, smiling all the broader. “Because your balls have shriveled up to nothing.” He puts his hand to the area. I stiffen, licking my lips. This feels… I look to his own equipment. It’s not shriveled at all. It’s…

He holds my eyes, giving a nervous swallow. “Hey… Hey Nicky.”

“What are you…?”

“Don’t be scared. We can do… whatever we want out here, alright? And no one’s gonna see.”

“The Lord is always watching.” Father Sicillio’s jarring tenor cuts right into this memory, and I cut short the rest of what James did, what we both did…

It’s not James naked up against me anymore. It’s Christian, and I’m the one on top, the one in control…

I will never be in control. I’m a wild animal, driven by instinct, unnatural yet overpowering instinct.

Christian clamps his teeth into my neck, and I moan for him to keep going, even if he sucks it all dry, turns me into a demon, just like he did to that civi I was charged to execute...

* * *

I jolt awake and feel a shock of clanging resistance as I go to lift a hand to my pounding head. I’m cuffed to a hospital bed. I crashed the Cadi while fleeing a crime scene dizzy from blood loss. Now the cops don’t just got a description of that civi’s assigned executioner; they got me dead to rights.

The lead detective comes in asking questions the second the nurse reports to him I’m finally awake, but he don’t get far in before the knock comes at the door. “Priest is here.”

“So? This filth ain’t dying. Tell him to wait.”

I scoff, and so does his partner. The law in this city is that a member of the arch daises can speak with anyone, at any time, to receive their confession. You can put pause on a murder trial if the convict ain’t got his daily consultation with a good old priest of St. Christians within 24 hours of a request. ’Course if you overuse that privileged, the church ain’t likely to keep indulging you. If they rule the requested meeting as ‘in bad faith’, they ain’t gonna visit you again, not unless you’re a friend of the Family that is.

“You don’t make the Father wait. It’s impolite,” I dryly reprimand detective overzealous here. It’s a rare copper that takes his job so serious, thinking he can actually challenge the group that holds this entire city in its pocket.

The detective grinds his teeth. “You’re headed to a jail cell, Derosso, soon as your confession is finished,” he swears, putting a clear double meaning in that word. I always wind up confessing, but only to my priest. With the blues, I ain’t copping to shit, but this gray-haired wannabe hero grilling me – he knew my old man. Means I’m already in the cross-hairs, a personal enemy of his, even though we’ve never spoken before this most screwy of days.

The detectives exit the room (they ain’t allowed to sit in on a private discussion with a priest) and Father Sicillio walks in. I knew he’d come in person, wouldn’t send one of his underlings.

“Father.” I give a limp-wrist, handcuffed wave. Normally I’d sit up straight and try to look respectful, but today… Don’t got the energy for that. “The boss is angry I take it?” I mutter. Maybe even angry enough to revoke his blessing and call off my engagement…? That prospect shouldn’t make me so relieved.

“Jack has agreed to hold off judgment until I confirmed certain… suspicions of just what happened to botch that job,” the priest assures me, crossing over to the bedside. He peels back the bandage at my throat without even asking, exposing the pair of bright red fang holes to the light. “And there we have it.”

“Yeah, that civi I was supposed to off?” I whisper. “Blood-sucking demon by the time I swung by. Drained his old lady, hours before I got there by the look of things.”

“I don’t suppose you’ve any leads on a sire?”

I shrug. Not sure why. I should not be lying to my priest. I do have a lead. I shouldn’t even need to go over there and confront the vamp to be certain of his guilt… Something has a hold of my tongue though, and the words catch in my throat.

Father Sicillio seems to buy I’m clueless. He’s already turned away. “I’ll send the others to look into it. You rest up, child. It is fortunate you were properly armed, fortunate you survived a solo encounter with such a deadly foe.”

“This ain’t a further danger?” I rasp, touching my free hand to the bite mark in my jugular.

“You cannot turn from just a bite,” the priest placidly assures me. “Such demons would need to feed you their blood, then end your life. Only then would your soul be forfeit, your body resurrected in service of evil. Still, I will pray your strength return to you quickly, and that your body be cleansed of all lingering taint.”

I give a shaky nod, and he once again turns his back, putting his hand on the doorknob.

“Wait. I… I need to confess,” I forestall him.

He looks over his shoulder and shoots me a benevolent smile. “Yes, you should have come to confession days ago. You violated one of the Lord’s commandments, murdering an enemy on command of your employer. Yes?”

“Yes,” I gasp, and he can see the ragged guilt in my eyes.

“You struck down a non-beleiver in service to your Family. You did what was needed, and so you need not carry the guilt,” he insists. “I absolve you of all sin.”

“Thank you, father.” But I haven’t even confessed in full. I haven’t told him I…

He’s already gone. He is a busy man, with probably a dozen more ‘confessions’ and business matters to see to today before evening mass.

The detectives come back into the room and grill me some more. I keep to my amendment-afforded right to remain silent. One of the boss’s lawyers shows up within the hour, and the handcuffs are removed by the end of the day. They ain’t even allowed to keep my revolver in evidence, since their only corpse died of ‘exsanguination’, hardly a gun related crime. And hey, I got a church-provided license for that firearm. I’ll be getting it returned to me, soon as I check out of this place.

I’ve had a full transfusion, scarfed down a few free meals to spike up my blood sugar, but I’m supposed to spend another overnight in the hospital anyhow while they monitor the severity of this concussion. I ignore doc’s orders, check out my gear, and go strolling back out onto the street just minutes after the detectives turn me loose.

I don’t call for a ride, because I ain’t headed home right away. That closed down hotel is just a few blocks away from the hospital. I don’t expect Christian to still be lounging around in that basement. I fully expect him to have fled the scene in wake of his crimes: feeding his disease to our citizens.

Bastard’s still lounging, stretched out casually on the bed, so I lift my gun and open fire, the second I enter.