Relative Stories- International man of various word beginning with M

I knew a vampire of intermittent gender named Ellis, or sometimes Ellie, thet claimed to be able to switch from a innie to a outie when one of the two got boring. They had often introduced me as an international man of mystery, mayhem, or magic depending on their mood. They had loved the sixties and found the Austin Power movies hilarious, forcing me to accompany them to two of the films.

It was still a better nickname then the Leprechaun. I mean yeah, red hair, green eyes and pasty white with freckles. I can see it, but five foot nine isn’t even really short, just not tall.

Since I found myself once again in Mexico, paying off an old favor, that covered the international part. As for the rest of it, mercy started with an M as well.

I slowly reached for Esteban’s gold planted revolver, giving him plenty of time to pull it out of my reach while he gave me a dirty look.

“Easy there El Jefe, it’s just a kid.”

He gave me a look of disbelief. “That kid took down one of my biggest enforcers last night. Thirty eight stitches. I called you in to deal with it.”

I looked down at the tiny girl cowering behind the dumpster. Huddled in an over sized ragged old hoodie that was too filthy to identify by color, and worn out dockers sticking out of the bottom of the torn, faded, old jeans with the over long legs walked off to the point of leaving them in tatters.

“She’s just hungry Esteban, you know what that’s like.”

He gave me a grin. “Yeah, you learn how to take what you need. I don’t need a vampire hanging around my club deciding to feed on my customers. Last thing I need is a plague of the things around here Lucky.”

I shook my head. “Their bites don’t do that El Jefe, your guy is probably safe. Unless he bit her. Even then it takes years and a lot of effort for someone to turn.”

The girl jerked at that, which meant she spoke English, at least well enough to understand the two of us a bit. That would makes thing a little easier. I was good with Spanish, but with some of the more esoteric words, I wasn't always sure how to translate.

“Also. Lucky?”

He grinned at me “Like the guy on the cereal box. The one with the marshmallows.”

I sighed. It wasn’t like I hadn't heard that one before. It just took me by surprise coming from a cartel head in an alley way in Mexico city.

And to be fair, I did carry around lucky charms, or at least enchanted ones. Thanks mom.

Earlier I had checked out the alley after Esteban's dishwasher had told me about finding all the rats someone had tossed in the dumpster. They had been drained of blood. The girl had been trying to feed her hunger with animal blood. That only delayed things for her kind.

I squatted down, just out of her reach. “Miss you can’t stay here. Where is your maker?”

She peeped out at me from under her dark bangs with one milky jade eye, and pulled in her legs until both of her knees were up against her nose. “They took him.”

“Who?”

She glanced at the solid gold cross around Esteban's neck. “Men with crosses, real ones with Jesus on them. One was praying when they kicked in the door.”

Esteban looked down at the gold crucifix hung from his chest in confusion. “These work, like in the movies?”

I tried to give the girl an encouraging smile as I answered him. “Yeah, but only for the guys who wear them. If you believe, it can protect your mind, but not from getting jumped on and clawed up.”

I switched back to Spanish again as I pulled out a small plastic square from my pocket and tore it open. “Rats and other animals are just flavor for you child. Without human blood you get crazy from the hunger.”

I began wiping down my arm with the alcohol soaked pad. No need for her to have to taste sweat and soap residue from my shower. And yes, it was Irish spring. Ellis had sent a pallet load of the stuff as one of their jokes and my wife refused to just throw it away.

The girl’s eyes were glued onto my arm, and her mouth was gaping open revealing her teeth already changed to fangs to feed. But she still managed to turn her head away. “I don’t want to hurt anyone.”

I held out my arm. “Limit your self to three mouth fulls, well let’s say four, you are sort of tiny. But anymore then that and I’ll get dizzy. Plus my blood is pretty potent, if you fill your stomach, you’ll be bouncing off the wall for days.”

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Esteban began laughing to himself, I glanced over to see him leaning against the wall. “Heh, you’re magically delicious! Oh man, that made this all worth it.”

I saw a blur out of the corner of my eye as the girl went from several feet away to on her knees in front of me, her face inches away from my arm. “Mortis always had me drink from his neck. Is this really okay?”

I resisted the urge to reach out and pat her on the head. “The arm is fine, and my wife would never stop messing with me if she found fang marks on my neck. Remember no more then four mouthfuls”

She leaned in with her mouth open, hesitated with one last look at me, then clamped her teeth down.

Ow. Vampire usually use some mind trick to put people into a trance before they feed, but this girl was so young she was probably still feeding on her maker. Or else he had put off training her to feed on muggles to keep her under his control.

With her age? Her maker might be better off if the churchmen deal with him. I wouldn’t bother hunting him down or anything. I would just make a call to Ellis. They had been turned as a play thing, and they had made their maker regret it. For the entire rest of his life.

Sucking at an open wound doesn't make the blood flow out that much faster. For that you need to hit an artery. Just biting down somewhere needs gravity and blood pressure to let the blood flow out into a vampire’s mouth. The sucking was just so they didn’t miss any.

The low purring sounds she was making were completely unnecessary, and if my wife was here it would have gotten me in a lot more trouble then any bite marks. At least after she got off the ground when she was done laughing. Esteban watched with a fascinated look as she moaned. He started to say something, but I shot him a dark look. “She’s just hungry. Don’t try to make it weird.”

He grinned, then made it weird. “I wish someone was that hungry for my bodily fluids.”

I sighed. “Give me a call the next time you’re in L.A. and I can arranged a meeting. Ellie would love to meet a mucho macho latino man.” I grinned at him. “She would literately eat you right up.”

He considered that with and mistrustful look, but it did keep his mouth shut for a moment.

The girl seemed to come of a trance and looked down at my arm in alarm before she pulled away and covered her mouth. She had a scared look on her face as she looked at the smear of blood on my arm, then up to me.

I wiggled my arm around a little. “Well don’t waste it. Clean it up so I can bandage it. Your spit is an antibiotic, just hurry up.”

She gave me a grateful smile, which would have cute as hell if her teeth hadn’t been stained with my blood. Then she too made it weird by spending way too much time licking my arm to get the last of my blood.

I dug out a handkerchief and started awkwardly trying to roll it to tie around my arm. The girl hesitantly took it out of my hand and wordlessly finished the job.

Esteban spoke up. “How did you get away form the church men girl, and what happened to that Morty guy?”

She slide over a bit, half putting me between her and Esteban. “-Mortis- had made a hole in the floor under the bed. I rolled over and fell on the floor, then just rolled underneath and dropped down. I could hear him yelling and fighting, then a boom and people asking where I had gone, so I just kept going.”

She looked down with a sad look. “I hoped he got away and would find me here.”

The cartel boss looked confused. “Why here?”

She looked away as she whispered. “This is where we met. Inside.”

I stood up and glared at him. “Esteban! What the hell. She’s like fourteen, why the hell was she in your club?”

I heard a soft protest of “Fifteen” from behind me as Esteban shrugged. “Girls grow up quick around here. I’m more upset I had a god damned vampire in my club. Anyways what are you going to do with her?”

I looked over at the girl, who had drifted back almost all the way back to the dumpster. “You got a few options young lady. Staying here any longer isn’t one of them.”

“The nests in this city are in a constant state of war, they would just throw your life away. I’m owned a few favors from the Duke of L.A, but it would be like a never ending unpaid internship. The last option involves working retail, at least until you age yourself enough to get promoted to assistant manager.”

Her eyes widened. “I can grow up? Mortis said I would have to stay this young forever.”

I took a deep breath. “I’m not going to say anything bad about your maker, let’s just assume his maker didn’t tell him everything he needed to know either. But yes, older, younger, bigger, smaller. Hair, eyes. Even gender I’ve been told. One guy had made himself into a true giant, he had to live underwater for a while because his legs would break under any extra strain.”

At the moment my phone rang, with the ringtone for the phone I kept in the safe deposit box.

The girl flinched back from the look in my eyes. I answered the phone, knowing at least my wife was alright if she had made it to the bank. But that’s all I knew.

The familiar voice of my wife began to speak immediately. “First, the children are safe, all three of them. I gave them the necklace you mother prepared and their Go bags, then a Uber drove up with a very confused driver.”

I got my breathing under control. “You?”

She sighed. “I’m fine. Just very, very, very angry. Rosario came for Ami, and my Uncle Dave was already here trying to talk me into letting him take her. They got into it and burned the house down. Dave followed me to the bank, and I’m planning on going with him to the family compound and using this to get concessions from great grandfather.”

I stood there for a second until I could here my wife calling my name. The house had been the first place I could call my own, our own. “How bad is the house?”

She took a moment herself. “The whole thing was up in flames when I looked back. The garage too.”

“Right. Right. I got someone who needs a little help, mostly just getting her to the airport and making some calls. Then I’ll be on a flight coming your way. Me and your Uncle will be having a conversation, and maybe the throw down we’re both been avoiding. A little guilt might be the edge I need to make a lasting impression.”

She giggled. Her uncle was her favorite relative, but he had tossed her around the practice mats often enough that she would enjoy seeing him taken down a peg. Then her voice turned so something more serious. “And your aunt?”

I cleared my mind as best I could. “She’s yours. Just nothing permanent.”

She hissed out a long “Yesssssss. Her mom can fix anything short of death. Thanks sweety.” The line cut off before I could take it back. Not that I wanted to, Rose had this coming to her for a very long time.

First. I held up a finger, walked past the girl, braced my feet and punched the dumpster for all I was worth. It slid back down the ally, tilted back on it’s rear edge before spinning then tumbling end over end as it went. A two foot deep dent burst open at the center.

Second, Esteban. “She coming with me, problem solved, favor paid. Agreed?” He nodded at me, eyes wide, and his hands held up in a placating gestures. “Aye, John. We’re even.” He grinned, “I’ll have a big glass of orange juice waiting for you and look for some cookies or something before you go. You got a bad temper when your blood sugar is low Amigo.”

Third, the girl. “What’s your name?” She looked from the dumpster to me. “Ah, ah. Saguina”

I waved my finger at her. “No, no. Not what he told you your name was. Your real name, your person name. Pick a new one if you want, but something real.”

She twisted the bottom of her pullover in her hands. “My Abuela called me Nina.”

I nodded. “Nina it is. We will be talking to a Mr Jeremiah Redd. He will assign you to a mentor and put you to work until you’re ready to leave on your own. You don’t have to get his permission to leave, or do anything with anyone that makes you uncomfortable. Although he does prefer two weeks notice if you’re ready to move on.”

“There is a hanger at International that is shielded for you kind, and his corporate jet will pick you up. I would wait with you, but I have some… family issues to take care of.”

First, the in-laws, then my side of the family. Then figure out where the hell my mom had sent my kids.