H Is For Human (Garlic Is For Vampires, Book 3)

Chapter 8: Scout

Matt and I spent the remainder of our day collecting the things he would need from his apartment in the Bronx. He luckily had empty food boxes to put his things in, otherwise we'd be carrying Chemistry sets all the way back to the warehouse. We'd look like kids trying to set off bombs or make drugs. In the Bronx, it was suspicious to look interested in science. I couldn't even count how many drug deals we passed by.

"I know, I know," Matt said, snickering as we crossed the street. "You're disgusted by the poverty and violence here."

"After what I've been through, this looks like heaven," I replied with the same bitterness. "I'm not as shallow as you might think I am."

"I know you're not, but anyone would want to flinch from what they see here." We passed by a broken down house covered with bullet holes and grime. I could imagine this place having been attacked by vampires and whoever lived in this house tried killing them, but once they realized they couldn't, they were screwed.

Once we took everything to the warehouse and on the floor upstairs, we set up a table with Matt's things. He sat down to look through old textbooks and a notebook with unidentifiable scribbles. I leaned against the railing and watched him.

"I was a dork," he said. "Obsessed with science."

"What do you want to be?"

"I wanted to be a biochemist. Science was my life. When my mom died I made it my mission to go to college for her. But then I had that werewolf thing, and after that my dreams were dead." He went back to work, with the same dead look in his eyes. I nodded and stood up to leave him to his work. I decided to get a few punches into the punching bag until I was sure I had driven all the day's frustration into the exercise before I did anything else.

"I think I need a couple more days to prepare this," Matt called out from above. I nodded and looked up at him over my shoulder.

"Whatever you have to do, do it."

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Matt and I were scouting the empty train tracks to develop a plan about taking out the guards. The warehouse was there, and inside lights flickered, like someone was working on something. I had a bad feeling Mason was being tortured right at this moment.

"Do you think they set up any booby traps?" Matt asked, staring at the corner of a working shed a little too much. I walked up to it and stood on a couple of crates leaning against the wall. I reached up and touched the corners of the shed, searching for cameras or wires. This part of the vampire territory was clear. I stepped down from the crates and kept walking.

"No cameras, and so far no traps-"

I spoke too soon. A vampire came running around the corner and they struck me in the stomach, knocking me down to the ground. Matt reacted quickly as the vampire brought its fist down to my chest to rip out my heart. Matt shoved the vampire off me and drove a stake through its back, and the end protruded from its chest. I stood up and Matt dragged the vampire into the shadows closest to us.

"Are you okay?" Matt asked. He braced his foot on the corpse and swiftly pulled the stake out. I brushed the dirt off my back and nodded.

"Let's move on. But I think we should take the roof."

We each helped one another up the fire stairway on the side of the warehouse building. So far no vampires seemed to notice us. This place just looked like a dead-end. But there was something going on in the warehouse. I knew it.

"Tell me something," Matt said as we walked carefully across the metal-covered roof and onto a shed.

"What?" I asked.