“You deserve it,” Philo’s voice reassured Cy over the phone the next day. “If I’m any judge, the Coffinmaker isn’t going to bother us for a little while. Even if he does, we can handle it. Besides, I’ve got my hands full trying to find a new base for the Order.”
“Where are you now?” Cy asked, sitting at the family table.
“In the urgent care ward,” Philo grumbled. “I’m fine, but they have to do all this stuff with me and make sure my urine smells good and everything. I hate hospitals.”
Cy laughed. “Alright, Philo. You should come over one of these days, we could have a night barbeque!”
“Ha!” Philo’s chuckling voice made the phone go static. “That would be nice. It’s almost summer now, that would be great to ease my nerves. But I can’t for a few weeks yet. I’m full up. When all this new Headquarters business is done and I can actually call five seconds my own, then I can plan relaxation.”
“Sounds good, Philo. Talk to you soon.”
“Alright, talk to you soon, buddy.”
Philo pushed End, smiling. It was a victory, and he knew it. He had rescued his son from the coven and that gave him a great feeling inside. For once he felt like a good father.
Cy blinked. There was a new text message from ‘Unknown caller.’ He thought only friends could text him.
Cy opened it up.
Good job. -Night.
“Honey!” Mara’s voice reverberated from their room. “Are you ready to go to the pool?”
“What? Is it evening already?” Cy called back, saving the text message.
“No, honey, the sky’s clouded thickly over. The weather reports say the sun won’t be back out for the rest of the week.”
“Cool.” Cy put his cell back on the charger and strode across the kitchen and through the living room, to his own room.
Mara walked out of the closet and glared at him.
“You’re not in your bathing suit.”
“Sorry,” Cy smiled, looking at Mara’s bright one-piece swimsuit. “I was talking to Philo. He’s in the hospital, but he said we have some well-earned time off.”
“Good.”
“Yup,” Cy took off his jacket and hung it on the hook. Then he slipped off his shoes and peeled off his socks. He took his bathing suit off the rack.
It was about that time that Cy heard the buzzing again. He looked at the window and glared. There was a fly caught in between the window frame and the screen.
“That was what was buzzing all last night!” Cy growled. “I couldn’t sleep ‘til three o’clock.” He put his bathing suit on.
“It’ll be dead soon, honey, flies only live for a day,” Mara strode out. “We’ve got to go to the pool.”
Cy strode over to the window. “One second, honey.”
It was a big one, that fly. Big and fat. Cy eased open the window and slammed his hand down at the fly. The annoying pest ducked and flew out of it’s confinement, heading for the door.
“Oh no you don’t!” Cy flew across the room, not on his own feet and slammed the door shut. The fly retreated, searching for an open window.
Mara’s voice came to him. “Honey! Come on!”
Cy growled at the fly and exited with a set grimace on his face. He stuffed a towel under the doorjamb.
“I’ll be bock,” he whispered.
He strode into the kitchen and faced his wife and son.
“Alright,” he sighed. “Ready to go?”
Zeph grinned and Mara nodded. The three strode toward the front door, out, and down their long driveway into the suburb below.
The neighborhood was just getting into the spirit for summer. The day was cloudy and overcast, but it things were in full bloom and kids were playing on the sidewalks, despite the cold breezes.
“Hello Mr. Dodridge!” Zeph called.
The skinny Will Dodridge stood up from watering his lawn and blinked at the Walkers, amazement on his face.
In fact, everyone was amazed to see the Walkers. The Walkers were a family that seldom came outside together. They were seen at night parties and other get-togethers, but never in the day.
And they were all in swimsuits on a totally overcast day, no less.
The public pool was empty. Or, nearly. In the spa at the back a plump but small man lazed, eyes half-closed, with his toupee dangling from his scalp.
Cy set his towel down and kicked off his thongs. Zeph did the same.
“Are you guys gonna get in first thing?” Mara frowned. “I’d like to get a tan first.”
Cy smirked. “Honey, you’re going to be pale forever.”
“Oh.” Mara smiled a bit. “That’s right.”
Then she shoved him into the pool. Cy surfaced, laughing. Mara guffawed and then screamed as Zeph cannoned into her and sent the both of them flying into the pool.
Cy backed up, grinning, and spread out his hands. Then he charged at Zeph and Mara, bringing up a tidal wave of water that flung them against the side of the pool.
The tidal wave, nearly five feet high, continued out of the pool, over the spa and through the bars of the fence. The fat man shouted “Bloody hell!” as he was deposited in the parking lot outside.
Mara looked at the water line that was now up to her waist. She frowned at Cy.
“Bad, honey.”
Cy winced. “Sorry. Should I go help him?”
Mara nodded.
Cy climbed out of the pool and opened the gate. He knelt in the asphalt by the fat man.
“Are you okay?”
“Bloody hell!” the man sputtered.
Cy picked him up like a cat and deposited him back in the spa.
“Are you okay now?” Cy put his hands on his hips.
“Bloody hell.” The man slumped.
Cy nodded and began to walk away.
“My hair,” the man pointed to a soggy, wet black thing lying just outside the gate.
Cy smirked and handed it to the bald man. The man nodded at him, his mouth pursed.
Zeph had found a large hose and directed it into the pool, which was now filling to its regular height as Cy walked to the edge again.
“Dad, watch!” Zeph crouched three feet away from the edge of the pool. Then, with a running start, he leapt off the lip of the pool and flipped in the air. Then he flipped again. And again. And again.
He flipped twenty-five times and then landed in the pool, a water shock-wave flying out from him.
Mara brought a floating pad, tossed it into the water and sat on it with a magazine in her hand, dabbling her toes. Cy eased himself into the pool once more.
“Gosh, it’s really good to not have a ton of stress on my shoulders anymore. I’d say the last raid on the vampires was successful, wouldn’t you?”
Mara shrugged, her eyes scanning the magazine. “Yeah.”
Cy leaned against the floating pad. “You sound bothered, honey. In fact, I thought you seemed bothered last night, too, and somewhat today.”
“Oh…I don’t know.” Mara sighed and set down the magazine. “I just think…is all this conflict getting us anywhere? Sure we staked one or two and sent them on the run, but they killed more than one agent. Besides, is the violence just going to continue until all the vampires are staked?”
Cy became slightly indignant. He frowned a bit. “Honey, of course this is getting us somewhere. I mean, we have to fight the vampires that suck people’s blood. We can’t just put down our weapons and say ‘Oh, this fighting isn’t getting us anywhere, we might as well just give up.’”
“I wasn’t saying we should give up…” Mara looked up to the cloudy sky. “But there must be a better way. Some way to end the conflict, all in one swoop.”
Cy shrugged. “I don’t know, Mara. Maybe, if and when Night comes, she can put a stop to all of this. I really don’t know.”
Mara looked at the water, her eyes showing her dissatisfaction. Cy ran his finger along her leg, and then said,
“Perhaps if we could kill the Coffinmaker…then things wouldn’t be nearly so hard.”
“They’d elect a new leader.”
“Yeah, but he wouldn’t be as cunning as the Coffinmaker. Philo was having a heyday with the vampires until the Coffinmaker came along. Now, in the last few months, we’ve nearly broken a record in vampire slaying, honey, only surpassed by the one Philo set seven years ago when he dropped a garlic napalm on a coven of vampires in Arizona!”
“We? Are you one of them, Cy?” Mara touched Cy’s hand.
“Well…yeah, dear. I mean, they found me right after I was transformed. They’ve given us funds when we need them. Why shouldn’t we be part of them?”
“Well, it’s fine to help them—I mean, I want to do it too when you and Zeph do—but I don’t think we’re really vampire hunters. That’s a violent lifestyle, and there’s other ways than violence to stop this conflict.”
“I’m sorry, honey, but I don’t see any other ways.”
Mara sighed. “I don’t either. But…there must be.”
Cy was still in high spirits when they left the pool, walking through the neighborhood back to their house. The cold air was just what he had needed on his bare chest.
And then, there was that thing he needed to do.
When they got home, Cy went for his flyswatter atop the refrigerator. Entering his bedroom, he shut the door behind him quickly. There it was, perched on the bedstead. Waiting for him.
“We meet again, fly,” Cy struck a kung-fu pose. “This will be your last breathing day. Even,” he added, “if it wasn’t your first breathing day.”
Then Cy leapt into the air and twirled. The fly dodged and flew under him. Cy recoiled, hacked, lunged, twisted, smacked, swung and feinted. He and the fly were engaged in a dance of pest control.
Cy landed on the ground and pulled out a box of throat lozenges that Mara kept by the bed. They were sugar free, but the fly didn’t know that. He laid them out on the table.
Charging once more, Cy ran up the side of the wall and onto the ceiling, chasing the fly. Then he landed on the bed.
The fly alighted on the throat lozenge. Cy tensed—then struck.
“Honey?” Mara opened the door. She found Cy bowing to a little speck on her bedside dresser.
“You were a noble adversary, O Fly,” Cy said, lifting the fat insect up on his swatter. “But you were no match for my skills.”
Cy walked past Mara and out the door, whistling ‘Another One Bites the Dust.’
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