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Chapter 10: Count Matthew

The club was in a nondescript old downtown building. Close to a college and city buildings, it had a busy lunch rush. However, once that was over, it was quiet.

That is when the real clients began to arrive. Back 2 Good was a club that the dead just lived for.

Nick and Matthew were sitting at a table off in the corner. The darkened room and the soft music playing in the background gave the club a cozy atmosphere. Nick took a sip of his coffee and returned to whatever he was doing on his laptop as Matthew looked on with amusement.

Nick put down his coffee and looked over at Matthew, he asked “What?”

Matthew cocked his head to the side with a smirk, “Nothing. Just you figure that a ‘spiritual collection specialist’ would write on parchment paper with a quill pen or something.?

“We try and stay up with the times.”

“I can bet. What are you writing.”

Nick slammed the laptop shut, “Nothing.”

Matthew cocked his eyebrow. “Super-secret stuff?”

“Something like that.”

They were then interrupted by a dark brown haired man with a fair complexion and gray eyes. “What brings you here Nick? Shouldn’t you be out collecting things?”

Nick smiled and stood up to shake the man’s hand. “Jake. You got my message.”

The two sat down and Nick looked over to Matt. “Matt this is Jake. Jake this is my current problem.”

The two men studied each other for a moment. Matthew could not help but notice the man was dressed as a priest. Matthew gulped, wondering if an exorcism was Nick’s next big idea.

“Where’s the old priest?”

Nick looked confused for a moment, Jake just showed a scowl.

Jake remarked in a dead panned expression, “I have only heard that one a few dozen times. Today.”

Matthew shot Jake a huge grin, “I’m sorry, couldn’t help it.”

Jake looked at him and then motioned to a dark haired man that was standing behind the bar. He flashed the table a huge grin and hurriedly made his way over to the table.

“Well hello guys,” he said making his way over. Matthew looked him over. The newer man was about 5’10”, had a medium build. He was well manicured and immaculately dressed.

He was staring back at Matthew with a mix of curiosity and an almost hunter to his prey look. Matthew looked down at the table after a few seconds, breaking the gaze.

“Reggie, this is Matthew,” Nick spoke up. “He needs our help.”

Reggie’s smile grew into a lecherous grin, “I am sure I can help him.” He looked at the group and nodded to Jake and Nick, “I say he is a bit better looking than tall, dark, brooding and gruesome you usually hang out with. How is Duffie anyway?”

Reggie slid into the empty seat next to Matthew and looked at him, “tell Uncle Reginald all about it…”

Jake sighed, “Not that kind of help. And Macduff is off doing something. And you know he hates being called that.”

Reggie looked disappointed for a second then grew serious. “Well, maybe later. Matthew, I am Reginald De Los Toros y Torres. The owner of this establishment.”

Reggie winked, “and believe me, I live up to my name. Grrrr.”

Matthew grew pale at Reggie’s glance. Reggie winked and blew him a kiss with a smile. He then turned to Jake and Nick, “So what brings death and death warmed over together?”

Jake just shook his head. He had come to accept Reggie for who he was, but there were times that he was driven to dig deep into his priestly bag of tricks for patience. He motioned over to Nick.

“Well here is the problem,” Nick began outlining the problem, with Reggie nodding in understanding every few moments but not saying anything. Finally, Nick finished and Reggie sat back in his chair, not saying a word for a minute or two.

“So,” he finally said, “beef cakes here should have already assumed room temp, but a total screw up on the afterlife’s part has left him roaming the earth not quite all living, but not quite dead? Am I close on that one?”

Nick merely nodded.

Reggie then smiled, “then the solution is simple. We make him undead.”

Jake scowled, “A vampire?”

Reggie nodded, “Exactly.” He looked over at Matthew with a sly grin, “And if you go upstairs, I can make it happen…”

Jake did not look that amused, “Reggie. That is not the way this will happen. Right, Nick?”

Nick nodded, “As long as Matthew is given free will to pick his future, I can send him almost anywhere. Until he has chosen a path, he cannot be killed in the traditional sense. He has to choose to live the life of a vampire.”

Reggie smiled, “Ah well,” he gave Matthew a said look, “maybe next time.”

Jake still did not look to happy, “And just how do we explain this to the Patriarch?”

“Not my job,” Reggie shrugged. He stood up, “Oh, Mac?”

Jake looked over to him, “Hmm?”

“Rebekah was in here earlier looking for you. Said to call her later.”

Jake nodded, then turned his attention to Matthew and Nick.

“Let’s get this over with.”

“That’s your big plan on how to solve the problem?” a voice said to Miles. He looked over to see Hades sitting on his couch drinking some concoction out of a smoking glass. “turn him into a vampire?”

Miles shrugged his shoulders, “makes sense so far.”

“Come on. The last thing that this world needs is another whiny Anne Rice vampire or something that is sparkly. And to be honest, unless Matthew is going to be a rip your throat out killer vampire, and even then, the genre is a little overdone.”

Hades smiled, “But, I do like the PR my spiritual collection agents are getting. They do so need it. I must admit, the robes and the reapers made perfect sense in the Middle Ages, but today they are so dated. I thought recently about making them customer service reps, so when you were on hold, you wouldn’t notice your soul and life being sucked out…”

Hades noticed the impatient look that Miles had and changed the subject, ”Miles, my boy, you are above the cliché genre that everyone else is doing. So replace a better way to end the book.”

Matthew looked across the table at Nick and Jake. “So how does this work?”

Jake started to say something, then stopped. He looked puzzled, then looked at Nick. Nick gave a half smile back. Jake huffed and then looked back at Matthew.

“Normally,” Jake started, “to become a vampire, we would drain your life essence away to where all that was left is your soul in a what basically is an animated corpse.”

Nick continued, “However, because of your circumstances, we can’t do that. So this is what we are going to try. Just zap you into the role of a vampire. Jake here will act as a guide to help you become acclimated to that life.”

Jake nodded grimly and Nick continued, “I am thinking that once you have ‘fed’ the first time that you will have crossed over into the vampire world and all will be right with the universe and we all go along our merry way.”

Matthew smiled and nodded, “Sounds simple. Why do I have a bad feeling about this?”

Nick scowled then smiled, “it will be fine. Everything will work out.”

Jake frowned, “we hope.”

Nick just nodded his head in frustration. “So, first thing I am going to do is check the boards for souls that we need to collect in the area. That will give us an idea of potential targets. After all, no sense in upsetting the fates any more than we have to.”

Nick grabbed his pad and started scrolling through a list. He would nod his head in frustration every few seconds. Muttering, “Not this one; no, not that one.”

After a couple minutes, he tossed the pad on the table. He grabbed his coffee cup and took a long drink of it. And took an angry look at the pad.

Jake grabbed the pad and skimmed down the list, “What are you looking for?”

“I am trying to replace one, in which there are no other victims involved or no other people. See, a large portion of the list involves a second or third person. Car Accidents, robberies and such.”

Jake stopped at a name and handed the pad back to Nick, “How about this one.”

Nick took the Pad and looked at the name.

“Interesting, Molly Sterns, 7:45 PM. 1550 37th St. No other persons involved. According to her picture and bio, middle aged. Perfect.”

He handed the Pad over to Matthew who took and glanced at the information. He nodded, then noticed another tab marked ‘Secret’ open on Nick’s laptop.

He tapped it open and began to read.

After scanning a few lines he looked up at Nick with a lopsided grin. “So this is what you call ‘secret?’ You write poetry?”

Nick grabbed the laptop from Matthew’s hands and immediately shut the window down. He gave an angry look at Matthew and then a sheepish one to Jake who just smiled in amusement. He downed what was left of his coffee and stood up.

“Let’s go.”

Matthew shrugged and got up to follow; Jake grinned and looked at Nick.

“Sure thing Maya Angelou.”

A few hours later, the three were at an out of the way restaurant on what was mostly a residential street. The restaurant had better days, having looked that it once had been a gas station with a convenience store. The interior had a dark look to it.

Matthew shuddered when he sat down, wondering how many visits Nick had made to this place for those that had eaten there.

“Relax,” Nick said seeming to read Matthew’s thoughts, “not my territory here. And from what I read, there hasn’t been any food related collections here.”

Matthew still looked queasy, wondering if maybe a moist napkin or a dozen were available to clean his chair. He wondered if even that would work. He looked over at Nick and Jake, ’Sorry, just a bit of a clean freak at times.”

The two just shrugged and looked over at the young waitress that was walking over to their table.

“What can I get you?”

Nick took a quick scan of the menu and looked up. “Coffee.”

Jake nodded, “The same.”

Matthew looked a little uneasy. The waitress looked at him, “and you sugar?”

Matthew gulped for a second, the image of whatever brewing in the coffee pot along with the coffee, but managed to creak out, “Coffee, please.”

The waitress grabbed their menus, “let me know if you boys need anything else.” She gave a wink and sauntered off to grab their coffees.

The three remained silent, lost in their respective thoughts until the waitress returned with a tray and handed out their coffee. Nick grabbed his cup and took a drink. Jake did the same. Matthew wondered exactly how sure the other two were that he could not die until he had chosen a new life.

“So,” Matthew managed to say, “now what.”

Nick took a sip of his coffee, “Well, I am basically going to create for you the life of a vampire. Between now and about an hour from now, Jake is going to give you a crash course on how a vampire does his stuff. The rest is up to you.”

Jake merely nodded, “What Shakespeare here just said. “

Jake then grinned at Nick, “I suppose that was one of your newer sonnets? Or maybe it was out of Angelou, ‘I Know Why the Caged Reaper Sings?’”

“Fuck you.”

Jake merely laughed and then looked over at Matthew. “That is basically the gist of it. You are going to learn what most vampires take years to figure out. You have an hour.”

“Sounds like fun.”

Matthew looked over at Nick, “If you would care to make the change happen Mr. Frost.”

Nick scowled then gave a grin back, “Hold your fangs. One new vampire coming up.”

Matthew felt the familiar wave come over him. He gripped the table then looked over at the other two. He was going to say something but was immediately overtaken by the sudden explosion of noises around him. Screeching of chairs the clatter of machinery, the hiss of some pot in the back.

“Why is it so loud in here!” he practically screamed. The other patrons looked over at him in concern and annoyance.

Jake made a motion for him to lower his voice. “A vampire’s senses are heightened. To best look for prey and for survival. Concentrate on one or two sounds and the rest will become background noise.”

Matthew looked over covering his ears but gave a quick nod. He looked at the cup of coffee in front of him, the hiss of the steam from the coffee sounded like a roaring locomotive and stared at it. Soon the sound levels started to subside.

“Better?”

Matthew nodded, taking a long breath. His head had started to stop pounding just when his nose was inundated with smells from all around him. He scrunched his eyes closed tightly, trying to block the smells that were starting to make him very nauseous.

“Smell?”

Matthew looked over gagging and tried to nod. Finally pushing out the overwhelming smells. He was breathing heavy, looked over at the other two that merely sat there watching. Nick with a concerned look; Jake looking as if he were reliving part of his past with Matthew.

Matthew was about to say something when the room exploded in light. He covered his eyes to block out the lights, his head spinning.

“Sensitivity to light.” Jake said, “that is a bitch. Some vampires adjust. Others…” Jake reached into his jacket and pulled out a pair of sunglasses.

“Use these.”

Matthew reached out blindly feeling for what Jake had reached out. He grabbed it and fumbled to put them on. He blinked a couple times, the world coming back into focus slowly.

Matthew started to slowly recover from the assault on his senses from the transformation. He looked pale, with a few beads of sweat covering his forehead. The waitress walked up to the table at that point.

“Everything okay?”

Matthew could immediately hear the rustling of her clothes as she moved. He could head the blood pumping right under her skin, he looked over and could see the minute hairs that were on her body. He could almost swear that he could see the veins and arteries that carried the life giving essence.

He felt his incisors becoming fangs. His hands flew to his mouth to cover it. She looked at him concerned.

“Are you okay?

Matthew merely nodded, trying desperately to not let anyone see the fangs in his mouth. Jake answered for him, “he’s fine. The coffee was just a little strong for him.”

She looked unconvinced at first, then nodded. “So can I get you anything?”

Nick gave a glance at the table next to him and saw a slice of cheesecake. “What kind of cheesecake is that?”

“Key Lime.”

Nick smiled broadly, “I want a slice of that,” Nick looked over at Jake who just rolled his eyes.

The waitress just nodded and looked over at Jake. Jake looked thoughtful for a second, “A salad would be nice. Oil and Vinegar.”

The waitress looked over at Matthew that was still covering his mouth and looked even paler. He nodded his dead no, and she walked off.

“A salad?” Nick asked, “when did you start eating rabbit food?”

“Hey,” Jake shot back, “I noticed that I was putting on a few pounds and felt I needed to stay fit.” He looked at Nick as the waitress returned with their orders, Nick had a broad grin as he grabbed a fork and took a bite of the cheesecake. The delight on his face evident. Jake asked, “What is it with you and Key Lime?”

Nick looked at Jake with a grin, “this stuff is fuckin awesome. Too bad Reggie refuses to carry the stuff. This cheesecake is really just amazing. You want a bite?”

Matthew just followed the exchange in wonder. He watched as Jake took a bite of his salad.

He said through his covered mouth, “You mean vampires eat?”

Jake nodded as he took another bite, “Of course we do, there are a few of us that are real foodies too.”

Matthew looked confused, “But what about the fangs and the ‘I vant to suck your blood..?’” He felt his teeth and noticed that the fangs had retracted to regular teeth. He looked over confused, again.

Jake merely shrugged, “vampires, don’t obtain their nutrients from our ‘feast,’ as it’s called. Well, we do get some. Mostly it is the human hormones that we are after.”

“Have you ever seen a diabetic when they have a low blood sugar?”

Matthew nodded.

“Well, that obsession with replaceing sugar or sweets is the same feeling for vampires. Being the undead, our body doesn’t produce the vital hormones that our bodies need to stay animated. So we have to hunt to get them and stay alive.”

Matthew asked, “Why not just use artificial hormones?”

“Not the same.” Jake answered, “they are relatively new to the market. And not as effective. Most only last a few hours. Hormones obtained from humans can last days, sometimes a week or two. “

Matthew nodded, “So how much time do we have.”

Nick looked at his watch, “About 20 minutes till we have to collect her soul. So I am assuming that she will arrive soon.”

“Then we have a couple minutes to go over a few things.” Jake began, “we will start with the glamor.”

“See the waitress?” Matthew looked over and nodded. “I will concentrate on her. Watch.”

Matthew watched as the waitress suddenly seemed to be overcome with a wave of lust. She was looking over at Jake smiling. She began to smooth over her hair, trying to make herself more presentable. Matthew could hear her heart rhythm quicken and sweat begin to form on her forehead as she began to breathe more quickly and heavily.

Jake blinked and the waitress looked confused for a moment as her heart rate returned to normal and her breathing slowed. She shook her head quickly looked over, she looked self-conscious at the three staring at her and retreated to the kitchen, embarrassed.

Jake smiled. “That is how we capture our prey. Make them euphoric. Their defenses are down, and if our hormone levels are not too low, we can take just enough as to not kill them.”

Matthew just sat there taking in what he had just seen. Jake pulled him out of his thoughts, “Now you try.”

Matthew ran his hand over his face and squared his shoulders. “Remember,” Jake coached, “concentrate your vision on her and reach out with your mind.”

Huffing, Matthew replied, “Sure thing Obi Wan,” He noticed that the waitress had come out of the kitchen and was making herself busy with prep work at the counter, apparently trying to get past the feelings that had overcome her earlier.

“Just call me Count Matthew.”

Matthew exhaled, closed his eyes, then opened them.

He noticed no real reaction from the waitress at first. Then he noticed that she was starting to react. But not the way that she had before. She was looking in concern at a bald headed man that was sitting at the counter.

Matthew noticed the man out of his peripheral vision. He seemed to be larger in size, almost 280 pounds at least. Muscle bound in a biker garb, the lights of the room dancing odd his shiny bald head. He sat up straight and looked over his shoulder, staring directly at Matthew and the group at the table. He winked at Matthew and blew him a kiss.

Matthew hurriedly tried blinking to break the connection of the glamor as the man got up and started to walk toward them. As quickly as he got up the man blinked in confusion and looked around the room. He thought for a second and then sat back down. Matthew let out a sigh of relief. He turned expecting stern glances from Jake and Nick.

They looked to be trying desperately to hold back a fit of laughter.

Nicked blurted out, “I bet Count Chocula is closer to the truth.”

“Well,” Jake said, “I guess that is not going to be the way that we get Molly.”

“Speaking of that,” Nick said, “Look who just came in.”

The trio looked over at the door to see a woman with light brown hair enter the room. About medium in height and build, she walked quickly to an empty table. She noticed the three of them looking at her, smiled briefly and then as quickly ignored them in favor of her cell phone.

She talked on the cell phone while making telling the waitress what she wanted. She kept going back and forth in the conversation and the order, changing the order or repeating herself.

“I am going to enjoy this collection.” Nick intoned, “no manners.”

Jake stood up and motioned for the others to follow, “I have an idea. Let’s go.”

Nick grabbed the last bite of cheesecake and tossed a couple of twenties on the table as they left.

Outside Nick looked at his watch. ’We have seven minutes to collect her soul.”

Jake nodded and pointed at the cars in the parking lot. ’Which car is hers you suppose?”

Matthew looked around settling on the bright white Fiat in the corner. “That one.”

Jake looked at it, “why?”

Matthew pointed at the plate, DIVAGRL

Nick smiled and nodded, “probably.”

Jake looked at Nick pull your car back so it looks like you backed into her car. I’ll go back in and get her. It is dark enough now that we can use the cover of darkness for Matthew here to get this done.”

Nick raced for the car and Matthew stood beside her car as Nick backed up. Once the car was in place, Jake smiled and went inside. A minute later the woman burst through the door hurling obscenities as she stormed to the cars.

“I can’t believe how fucking reckless you guys were to hit my car! I mean of all the stupidity!”

She walked around Nick’s Ford and reached her car. She glanced at his car and then her car. She looked back at her car and noticed that there was no dent or scratch on her car.

“What the –“ she began before she stopped talking and dropped her phone. A smile of euphoria was plastered over face. She started to fall over only to be caught by Jake as he looked up at Matthew.

“Hurry up,” Jake barked out, “it is almost time.”

Matthew got closer and looked at her as she was limp in Jake’s arms. He started to hear the rush of her blood and the pounding of her heart. He could smell her and he felt his fangs grow. He stepped closer and looked at her exposed neck.

“Hurry up!” Nick called out, “You have about three minutes.”

Matthew got closer and started to bring his mouth down on her neck. He could swear he saw the veins in her neck, and the blood streaming through her body.

In his mind’s eye, he could also see the white blood cells and his mind whirled.

White Blood Cells?

That would mean that she was fighting an illness or an infection. He stopped, his mind racing with all the diseases that he could think of that she could possibly be carrying.

He looked over at Jake, “Is it safe?”

“Safe?” Jake asked incredulously, “What do you mean?”

“Disease.” Matthew answered, “Can I catch anything she has?”

“What?!” Jake asked, “No! Now hurry up!”

Matthew opened his mouth, his fangs just a fraction of an inch from her neck. He stopped. He could swear he saw something crawling on her neck. Some sort of microbe. He wondered what sort of bug it was.

“Do you have an alcohol swab?”

Nick called out, “You’re out of time! Do it!”

Matthew still hesitated. Jake sighed and pulled her back to him suddenly, “For the love of God!”

Jake’s mouth opened to show his fangs and in a matter of seconds, they sunk into the skin at the corner of her neck. Her body went tense and then lifeless as Jake sucked on it. Finally, he gently dropped her body on the ground and looked over at Matthew.

Before Matthew could say anything Jake knelt over her body and was muttering something as he made the sign of the Cross. Matthew noticed then that Nick was gone and so was his car.

Jake stood up and walked over to Matthew, “I guess Count Matthew wasn’t meant to be.”

Before Matthew could say anything the world went black..