Even with the windows closed, they could both hear the chants and yells from the crowd.

Swann took a steadying breath and turned back to the general. “Please, listen to me,” he said in a quieter but no less insistent tone, “we may be seeing the emergence of a new race of people. Or, the return of an older race. Either way, they are part of the overall human race. They are brothers or cousins. To destroy them all is tantamount to ethnic genocide.”

“Oh, don’t be absurd,” sneered the general.

“I’m not. And I warn you now,” said Swann, “if you proceed, I’ll say as much to the world press.”

The general got up in Swann’s face. “That would be a mistake,” he said quietly.

Swann nodded. “I know what you could do to me. I know what you probably will do to me. But, I won’t stand by and watch my country do the kind of thing that we have fought against since we went to war against Hitler.”

Before the general could reply, Swann turned and walked away, but he paused at the door. “And consider this, too,” Swann added, “right now a lot of the infected are coming out and declaring themselves. They’re seeking medical help, they’re joining support groups. Right now most of them are not attacking us. But, if you go to war with them, then you will force them to fight back. Don’t forget, general, that they are stronger than us, faster than us, and almost all of them look just like us. And we have no idea how many of them are out there. There could be millions. Hold that thought for a moment — millions of creatures who are higher on the food chain than we are. Is that really the war you want to fight?”

Before the general could answer, Swann turned and went out.

"STALKING ANNA LEI" PT.2

James A. Moore

— 9 —

So what do you do when you’re a stranger in town and the cops want to bust you and the crooks want to kill you?

What else? Go deal with politicians. In this case, I had to stake out a certain congressman. I didn’t much care one way or the other if William Blevins continued to breathe, but if there was a chance that watching him got me to my sister, I had to take it. It’s not that hard to find a person if you really want to. It’s even easier if the person is a celebrity. Even if they don’t like to admit it, politicians are celebrities. They have to be if they want to get re-elected. Okay, maybe that’s not true, but it sure seems that way to me whenever election time comes around. In any event, the man had offices in the city and he went to them. I don’t know what I was expecting. I mean, I’d seen the guy a few times on the TV and they kept showing the clips of him going on about the horrors of vampires and how we should be controlled before we became a problem. I guess I was expecting some kind of larger-than-life type. But you know what I forgot? I forgot that the man I was trailing was a father who had just lost his son. I barely recognized him when he left his offices and got into the car that drove him back to his house. He was a thin man, and his hair was even thinner, and even though he was taller than me — not hard, I stand five feet, eight inches tall — he was so hunched over in the cold air that he seemed shriveled. And yes, he had a driver. Maybe he didn’t normally have a driver, but with his son freshly murdered they weren’t taking any chances.

I felt for him. I was trying to make sure my sister didn’t join his son in the afterlife. For that reason I was going to follow him. But you want to know something? It’s a lot harder to follow a man who has a police detail on him. The cop cars were all over the place. They didn’t go crazy with the sirens, but they had blue lights going and he got where he was going in a damned big hurry. And unlike me, he was in a car. I couldn’t trust my lemon to get me anywhere, so I had to stay on foot. Like I said, I’m really fast. I was also panting and wheezing by the time he reached his house.

His house, with the really big fence, and the nice, smooth lawn without any bushes. His house, out in the damned open, and me on the wrong side of the security.

There was good news. His neighbors had a lot of bushes and a few trees. I made it into a nice elm and recovered from the trip.

I thought about circling the perimeter a few times while I was bent over and catching my breath. Seriously, I watched all the vampire movies with my sister. She loved the sparkly guys. And okay, some of the girls were hot. But in those movies the vampires can do anything and they come out of it smelling like roses. I was stinking to high hell, my deodorant had died about five miles back, and I wasn’t at all calm and cool. I thought my pulse alone was going to give me away. I waited outside until the sun set. Then I waited some more. The good news is, the cop cars vanished from sight eventually and started just checking the place out whenever they drove by. I guess maybe they were paroling the whole neighborhood. When I was pretty sure I had the routine figured out, I took a run at breaking into Blevins’ place.

Really fast, really strong. Seriously useful stuff. So was the night vision. I was over the fence in one leap and I got up to the side of the house fast enough that even if I had screwed up the timing on the cop cars, I would have made it without being seen. I hadn’t screwed up. The walls were brick and mortar, which looks great and is supposed to be all kinds of cool for saving money on heating and air conditioning. You know what the problem with brick is? It’s not so easy to climb.

Unless you have claws, of course. I took off my boots and socks and started climbing. It wasn’t easy and I had to take my time, which when you are considering how soon the next squad car is going to come around the corner, is not comforting, but it can be done. I made it to the second floor and to the balcony under what I guessed was the master bedroom before the police drove past. I don’t think I’ve ever squatted that low or for that long in my entire life, but I waited it out as the car oozed along the road. I kept waiting for a searchlight, but I guess they were trying to be considerate of the people inside and I got lucky.

The door to the balcony was unlocked. Seriously. I figure if somebody had just killed my kid and I was worried that they might be coming for me, I probably wouldn’t be at home. Even if I was, I would be locking every door and every window, because I’m paranoid like that. Of course, I’m not exactly the sort to run away, either. Need proof? I was breaking into a high profile government official’s home and I was willing to do whatever had to be done because I was looking for my little sister. Not really the run-away-from-a-problem type, if you see my point.

There are a lot of old legends about vampires. One of the ones that never made sense to me is you need to invited into someone’s place before you can enter. Know what I like best about that one? It’s a lie. I moved into the place easily enough, crouching low and settling my feet carefully. I’d feel damned stupid if I snuck all the way into a place and then got busted because of a squeaky board. I found Blevins without any trouble. He was sleeping on the bed in the middle of the room. The woman next to him was probably his wife. I don’t know if I ever saw a picture of her, but she was older, a little heavy and sleeping heavily. Not exactly the sort you expect a politician to cheat with, if you get what I’m saying. I didn’t see any evidence, but the way they were resting I’d guess they’d both been hitting the sleeping pills.

So I was there and now all I had to do was hope that I was right and the damned green ogre was going to come for the old man and soon, because I didn’t want to be waiting in the corner of the bedroom when the sun came up. It’s a lot harder to hide in broad daylight and monster-face or not, I didn’t much like the idea of trying to explain my presence to the police or to the nice politician who already felt I deserved to be locked away.

Used to know a cop when I was a little kid. He was a big guy, or at least I remember him that way and he was always hanging around thesame restaurant when he did his paperwork. My uncle owned the restaurant and he kept me and Anna a lot of times when my parents were working. Anyway, the cop was always full of information. I think he just liked to listen to himself talk, but me and my little sister liked to hear him too, so it worked out pretty well. One of the things he told me that always stuck with me was that stakeouts are all about patience. You have to wait a lot, and then you have to wait some more. I guess maybe that’s true. It felt like I was waiting for a few days, but the clock on the night stand said I waited about thirty minutes before the green ape showed itself.

I tried for subtle when I came in. Seriously. I was as quiet and fast as I could be. I was freaking brilliant. I wouldn’t lie about that.

The ogre? Yeah, I’m guessing it jumped from the ground floor and just landed on the balcony because I felt the ground under me vibrate — and rouse me from my half-sleep, because apparently stakeouts require naps — and I carefully got myself back into a proper crouch as I waited for whatever would happen next.

What happened was Hsi-Hsue-Kuei. Blood-Suck Demon. I’d seen myself in the mirror, and I was kind of cool looking in a freaky way. But this thing? It was scary as hell. Seriously. The shape that came into the room was massive. I was about the same size as always when I changed. If that was true of this thing, I’m guess the biggest dude in the NFL got vamped when no one was looking. I guess if it had been standing up, it would have been close to seven feet tall, but it came in low and slumped over, arms nearly dragging the ground and head hunched until it was nearly between the two oversized shoulders. You ever see some of the pictures of Chinese monsters? Big, bulging eyes, mouths full of teeth too damned big and wide, ugly noses with flaring nostrils? Not far off from the reality, but not really quite as creepy as the reality, either. I’m guessing close to five hundred pounds of pissed off and ugly came into the room in a hurry, panting and grunting, with a thick black tongue poking out between the tusks on the sides of the mouth. Yes, tusks. Looked like somebody had mated a gorilla with a wild boar and only kept the ugliest of the offspring. The entire package was wrapped in long, stringy, green fur. The arms were too long, the legs were too short and the body was too damned thick with muscles. And looking at it hurt my eyes and my mind; it didn’t fit with the real world. Oh, sure, the same could be said for me, but like I said, at least I’m sort of cat-faced and cool looking. This? It was a mess with uneven features.