“Change it.” Checking out the situation, Vince said.
Ruiz agreed, I guess they didn’t want to cause a ruckus amongst the humans just yet. Everyone walked towards the chapel in silence.
I was about to step over the threshold when Vince squeezed my shoulder, “Lyle, this isn’t necessary.”
“If you’re going to yak about how you don’t want me to get hurt and all that crap, save it.” I said, “I turned eighteen, I know what I’m doing.”
“You’re dying.” Vince pointed out. That’s pretty unforgiving.
I shook my head in a righteous manner, “I’m an ethical agent, okay? I stand by my clients no matter what – for richer or poorer, in sickness and in health.”
Vince looked helpless, “I’ve thought of an epitaph for you: the flesh perishes, but the spirit of entertainment lives on.”
“Thanks for the submission, I’ll take it under advisement.” I said as we walked into the auditorium together.
“I’m borrowing your space, Father.” Luz said.
“Who’s the newcomer?” The priest greeted us with a smile. Ruiz waved his hand and one of his men grabbed the priest by the back of the collar and picked him up as if he were treating a Scottish Fold cat, which the priest was built like.
“What are you doing? Put me down! I’m calling the police!” Protesting to no avail, he was carried all the way out the door. With a clang, the door closed before his eyes.
Ruiz was standing in front of the altar, and the statue of the all-conquering Jesus Christ was staring down at him. We were in the aisle, facing him side by side, his men surrounding us, and it really did look like a proper wedding.
“Ah, quiet at last.” Ruiz let out a long breath as the door closed. It was as if he had just swatted a mosquito that was disturbing his dreams.
“Hello Vince, we meet again,” he braced his hands on the spread bible, “although this is going to go faster than I thought – a lot.” He paused, “But what the hell, I came to see you about a problem, a problem about respect.”
How ironic, a vampire casually trampling on God’s turf and actually talking about respect. I really don’t know how I held my tongue.
Vince inclined his head toward me, “What’s that word, you like to use to discredit me?” He asked in a whisper.
“Chutzpah.” I replied in a low voice, “And by the way, that’s not a denigration, it’s a fact.”
Luz cleared his throat and held up his index finger like a French teacher who’d noticed someone deserting the class, “Pay attention, gentlemen, we’re talking about respect.”
Vince bristled noncommittally and didn’t say anything.
“You know, in my free time,” Ruiz began, I thought of those TED speakers, he must have been a fan, “I conduct some research in social psychology.”
I hope he keeps it to ten minutes, my feet are starting to get sore.
“Some people, it seems, are born with a defect that prevents them from maintaining long-term stable relationships with his kind.” Luz pointed to Vince, “No need to guess, I mean you, dear. It made me very curious, so, in an attempt to find out why, I did some in-depth profiling and came to a conclusion – I think you’ll be very interested.”
Vince raised one eyebrow, “Continue.” I think I know what Lutz is going to say.
“You’re a pretentious asshole.”
Vince takes off his air hat and salutes him. It’s brave to take this accolade in silence.
Ruiz smiled, “You see, to earn respect, you first have to learn to respect others – just like I did.” Should be a counterexample, I thought, “And then let’s review what you did.You came to the West Coast and didn’t even say hello to me ……”
Vince held up his hand, “Sorry to interrupt, but to be precise, I’m in L.A., the open zone.”
“-so I’m not dwelling on that with you.” Lutz circled back, “Nelly, my dear boy, came onto your turf and you found out and didn’t report it to me.” He shook his head, “Uh huh, see where things started to go off on a tangent?”
“Correction, by the time I found him, the wood had turned.” Vince spread his hands in complete innocence.
“- So, I didn’t take it out on you either.” Ruiz continued, then, his gaze darkened, “But you helped him and that bitch escape, and that’s where you’re wrong.”
“After he decided to join Mohammed’s tribe.”
“Oh,” Ruiz said with a look of fake surprise on his face, “do we really have to talk about this?”
Vince closed his eyes and sighed, then reopened them, “Look, Ruiz, if I have an innate lack of the ability to maintain long term stable relationships – and I say if, because obviously my hostile relationship with you is just as stable as it is long term – you on the other hand are naturally lacking in the ability to keep a long relationship short.”
“That’s why I hate you.” Lutz was quite frank now, “You’re telling me to listen? What do you think you are, the Pope?”
Vince ignored him, “Let me help you quickly sort this out, I hit you a little hard, it was wrong of me, and it’s understandable that you want revenge. Just tell me, what do you want?”
Ruiz thought for a moment, “One hand, one hand, plain and simple, is that what you’re suggesting?”
Vince nodded, “Make an offer.”
Lutz smiled a little, “That’s what you said.”
My mind was in a state of flux. I glanced over to Vince and he looked at Ruiz with a firm gaze.
“Number one,” Ruiz held up a finger, “Get the fuck out of L.A. I don’t want to see your fucking face for a century.”
Vince nodded and I breathed a sigh of relief, this was relatively easy. Pity about the little pantheon though.
“Second,” Ruiz’s grin widened a bit and his hand gesture turned into a v, “I want your blood.”
Vince’s eyebrow jumped.
“What’s this for?” I couldn’t help but ask.
“An exchange of blood, a shortcut to becoming powerful.” Vince explained.
「You won’t ……」 I said in mid-sentence, realizing that he didn’t have a choice and I, frustratingly, couldn’t help him.
Vince said, “Okay.”
“There’s a third ……” Ruiz was grinning now like a wildcat that had stolen a pet bird.
Then he raised his arm, pointed at me, and uttered his final condition, “I want your little human friend.”
Although I had made some vague guesses, hearing him say it in person still carried a searing shock.
There was dead silence in the church for what seemed like an eternity before Vince asked, “Why?”
“You took my child,” Ruiz said, “I took your little human friend, and that sounds perfectly fair, doesn’t it?”
“There’s no turning back?”
Ruiz answered with a firm, “No.”
Vince smoothed his hair (his classic move) and his green eyes narrowed into a small smile, as if relieved. All he had to do was keep that smile and he could strip a woman of her underwear thirty yards away.
“So I guess that’s it.” He said.
“You agree?” Lutz was a little surprised, and regretful, that taking me was purely a way for him to use to insult Vince. Pervert.
“I’m going to have a word with Lyle.” Vince said, and Ruiz agreed, turning to me.
“Will you take it?” He asked.
I knew he meant his choice, I looked into his eyes, that beautiful emerald green, and a peace came over me, “Come on, I don’t want to say I do to a man in such a sacred place, in front of God, it’s too much of a buzzkill.”
Vince laughed, “But you won’t blame me.”
I shook my head, “No.”
He nodded thoughtfully, and then, he pounced on Ruiz.
That’s when the scene started to get out of control.
“Are you crazy?!” I heard Ruiz scream, “You think you can beat us all by yourself?!”
Vince ignored him. He grabbed Ruiz by the shoulders and slammed him into the cross. There was a loud crash and the statue of Jesus collapsed. The two of them wrestled and fell to the ground.
At that moment, Ruiz’s men reacted from their shock and several quick shadows ran towards Vince.
Not letting them get in Vince’s way, I grabbed them before they could cross my body and block the aisle. Adrenaline and fear raced through my body. I pulled out my gun, not looking them in the eye (Vince said it was confusing) and pulled the trigger.
I heard a scream. Someone must have been hit. I opened my eyes to see a vampire in a black t-shirt rolling on the ground. Blood was pouring out of his shoulder in pools.
I used a silver bullet, which didn’t kill him but caused unbearable pain and he couldn’t get up for a while. “Don’t be sad,” his black t-shirt reads, and right now that’s just what he needs.
“When did you get that baby?” Vince asked as Ruiz took a swing at him, which he absently dodged, grabbing an ottoman and slamming it into Ruiz’s head.
“POW!”
The bench shattered, splinters flying. Ruiz staggered down, that must have hurt like hell.
‘To quote you,’ I replied, ‘I stayed back.’
In fact, after I was kidnapped, I went and got a .44 (never let the police see it), but the secret to the silver bullets was something Mohammed told me, one of the few true rumors about vampires.
Yes, I’m only human, but there’s room for me to try, and sitting around is not my style.
We were barely holding on, but the encirclement was getting smaller and smaller, and I was able to tell that the enemy was brewing a general attack.
As you can imagine, if we lose here, we’ll be broken into pieces.
“Lyle.” Vince called to me, we were cornered in a corner of the church, above our heads, there was a statue of an angel, but I’m afraid it couldn’t guard us. Vince stepped in front of me and we both gasped a little.
“Huh?” I’d just been dropped to the ground by a vampire, and now my back was on fire. My opponent wasn’t much better though, he was hit in the chest by me at close range.
「I ……」 He didn’t manage to finish his sentence, the church door was blown off with a 「bang」 sound, and a row of searchlights were projected in, the intense light instantly flooding the entire field of vision.
“Get down!” Those were the only two words I had time to say.

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