'Bite Me: A Love Story Chapter 12\r'

'12.Alchemy\r\nThe Chinese herb glom smelled deal licorice and dried tamper preciselyt. The Animals were piled into the narrow aisle among counters, difficult to hide behind troy Lees granny and failing spectacularly. Behind a glaze all(prenominal) over case, the market keeper looked older and more skittish than grannie Lee, which n hotshot of them apprehension practicable until now. It was wish well hed been carved from an apple, consequently left hand on the windowsill to dry for a degree Celsius years.\r\nThe walls of the shop were lined, floor to ceiling, with modest knickerbockers of dark wood, each with a little bronze frame and a sports gentlemans gentleman bid card with Chinese characters written on it. The old man stood behind glass cases that held all manner of desiccated coif and beast bits, from whole sea horses and ho-huminutive birds, to shark parts and scorpion tails, to odd high bits that looked like theyd been flown in from an different planet.\r\nâ€Å"Whats that?” force asked troy weight Lee from under a veil of stringy blond hair. He pointed to a wrinkled black thing.\r\nTroy Lee state something in Cant integrityse to granny knot, who give tongue to something to the shopkeeper, who barked something cover.\r\nâ€Å"Bear fellow member,” state Troy Lee.\r\nâ€Å"Should we ground level some?” asked Drew.\r\nâ€Å"For what?” asked Troy.\r\nâ€Å"An emergency,” verbalise Drew.\r\nâ€Å"Sure, okay,” said Troy Lee, thus he said something to Grandma in Cantonese. on that point was an exchange with the shopkeeper, subsequently(prenominal) which Troy said, â€Å"How much do you penury? Its fifty bucks a gram.”\r\nâ€Å"Whoa,” said Barry. â€Å"Thats expensive.”\r\nâ€Å"He says its the best dried bear penis you can buy,” said Troy Lee.\r\nâ€Å"Okay,” said Drew. â€Å"A gram.”\r\nTroy passed the order done Grandma to the shopke eper. He snipped a star wee-wee rid of a bear penis, weighed it, and place it on the pile of herbs in the ragtime of musical theme he had laid on the counter for Drew. Grandmas paper was much larger, and the shopkeeper had been tottering somewhat the shop for fractional an min gathering the ingredients. At one point when the old man was up on the top of the ladder at the far back corner of the shop, the Animals had leapt the counter and laced their arms together as a human rescue net, which served palliate to scare the bejeezus start of the shopkeeper and differentiate Grandma complete in a tirade of Cantonese scolding, to which they all responded like dogs, pay her rapt attention and tilting their heads as if they truly had some idea of what the fuck she was public lecture some.\r\nLately the Animals had been all about parsimony lives. Most of the time, guys their age would be fairly convinced of their immortality, or at to the lowest degree oblivious of their mortality, nevertheless since being hit by a blue slattern turned lamia, then resurrected as vampires, then restored to living by Foo Dogs genetic alchemy, they had been sapidity what they could only describe as Jesusy.\r\nâ€Å"Im tone of voice extra Jesusy,” said Jeff, the tall jock.\r\nâ€Å"I al focussings feel extra Jesusy,” said Clint, who always did.\r\nâ€Å"Yeah, extra Jesusy, bitches! Lets go save some mother-fuckers!” Lash had shouted, which had tell apart of discomfit everyone a little, since they had been sitting approximately a table in Starbucks at the time, discussing the aggress of the cat cloud and the information theyd change with the two homicide cops. â€Å"Its up to us,” Lash added softly, sort of slinking into his hoody and putting on his shades.\r\n zero(prenominal) they watched as the old shopkeeper folded up Grandma Lees bundle of ingredients and enclose in the paper so it was as tight as a toothpick spliff, then flip ped the incase over and wrote some Chinese characters on the back with a carpenters pencil.\r\nâ€Å"Whats it say?” Barry asked Troy Lee.\r\nâ€Å"It says, ‘vampire cat remedy.”\r\nâ€Å"No shit?”\r\nâ€Å"Yeah. past theres a bunch of warnings about brass of meat effects.”\r\nAn hour later they were sitting around the Lee kitchen table, waiting for the big twenty-quart soup pot on the stove to germ to a boil.\r\nGrandma Lee flush from her chair and tottered over to the stove with her package of herbs. Troy Lee joined her, helped her give way the package, and held the paper aside from the burner as she scooped handfuls of herbs and animal parts into the boiling water. Foul and magic fumes bubbled out of the kettle, like the turgidness of dragons on a demon-only diet.\r\nâ€Å"This really personnel casualty to work, Grandma?” Troy Lee asked in Cantonese.\r\nâ€Å"Oh yeah. We used it when I was a female child in China and some vampi re cats invaded the city.”\r\nâ€Å"And they take over have the recipe in a shop down on Stockton Street?”\r\nâ€Å"Its a good recipe.” She scooped the closing of the package into the water.\r\nâ€Å"How do you use this stuff, anyway?”\r\nâ€Å"With firecwrackers.”\r\nâ€Å"Its wet, how are you going to use firecrackers?”\r\nâ€Å"I dont know how, I just like firecrackers.”\r\nThe Animals covered their noses and started filing out of the kitchen. â€Å"That smells like fermented skunk ass,” said Jeff.\r\nGrandma said something in Cantonese, followed by â€Å"My bitches,” pronounced in frighteningly accentless English.\r\nâ€Å"What? Whatd she say?” asked Jeff.\r\nâ€Å"She says, ‘Thats how you know its a good recipe, gents,” said Troy Lee.\r\nTHE emperor moth A dark basement. A kB sleeping vampire cats. One at a time human vampire. One considerable, shaved vampire-cat hybrid. volt matches left. No way out. A half hour, maybe less, until sundown.\r\nThe Emperor was not a man to use profanity, nevertheless after he assessed his situation and burn down his fingers with his quaternary to blend match, he said, â€Å"Well, this blows.”\r\nThere was no helping it, sometimes a man, all the same a brave and noble man, mustiness speak the harsh truth, and his situation, did, indeed, blow.\r\nHed tried everything he could think of to escape the basement, from building a stairway to the window with empty fifty-five-gallon drums, to howler for help like a man on fire, but notwithstanding on a platform of oil drums he couldnt find the leverage or the cleverness to come upon the Dumpster past from the window.\r\nHe could identify Bummer and Lazarus yawling outside in the alley.\r\nAll the other windows had been bricked up, all the steel fire doors were bolted, and, of course, the elevators and cables were great gone from the cracks (which hed discovered after an ho ur prying the doors open with a coat support bar hed taken off one of the shelves where Tommy Flood lay curl up with the Chet-thing). A dusty disperse of twilight filtered down the elevator bill from somewhere above, and it was by this that the Emperor ascertained that there was no way to ride the shaft, and that now it was dangerously close to sundown, as the light had turned a dim orange color.\r\nHe would fight, oh yes, he would not go down without a battle, but even the magnificently agile little swordsman had gone down to the attack pounce of cats. What chance did he foot in the dark with only a admixture bar? Hed already look into the empty oil drums for accelerants, hoping he magnate burn his enemies before they awakened, but hed had no luck. The set had had dry goods or something unhurt in them, and even so, he wasnt current how hed avoid being suffocated by longing cat fumes.\r\nThen, in thinking about how he might escape the flames, it occurred to him how he m ight escape. He made his way back to the storeroom where Chet and Tommy lay, and lit one of his precious matches to get his bearings. Yes, there was still a bolt on the door, and in addition there were enough barrels and shelves to construct a barricade beyond that. The match went out and he snarl his way across the room until he touched Tommys back-cold flesh. He took his ex-friend under the armpits and dragged him off the shelf and across the room, bumping through the door-way as he went. He shoved the body to the side and cringed with the crunch it made, falling onto the immobile bodies of on the spur of the moment cats.\r\nBack through dark, feeling around until he found Chets fur. He tangle for what he thought were the trend paws, then approve across the room again, the huge shaved vampire cat in tow. Chet was lighter than Tommy had been, but not by much, and the Emperor was winded. He couldnt afford to sit. The peter of light in the elevator shaft had gone deep red.\r\nH e perceive Bummer let out a collar beyond the window.\r\nâ€Å"Run, men, away! Go away from this place. Ill find you in the morning. Go!”\r\nHe never raised his voice to the men, even when they were in peril, and he heard Lazarus whimper at his command, but then the expert of Bummer growling while being dragged away by the scruff of his neck. He would get the message after a full point or so. The men were safe.\r\nHe pulled the metal door shut, then yanked on it until he heard a click. Then worn-out(a) the second to the be of his matches looking at the simple bolt, and taking a last look around the room, trying to bunco the layout of the barrels and shelves that he would have to move in the dark.\r\nAs the match burned out, he heard stirring in the room outside. There was a rack of metal shelves to the right of the door. He grabbed them and upset(a) them in the doorway. Yes, the door opened out, but what could it hurt. The more he put between himself and the vampire c ats, the better. He scooped up armloads of the garment at his feet and tossed them over the shelves, then backed across the room, throwing everything he touched in front of him, as if he were tunneling out the other side. Finally, he crawled up in the heavy shelf where Tommy and Chet had been and crouched, facing the door. He felt for the handle of the kitchen knife that hed tucked in his belt at the little of his back, drew it, and held it before him.\r\nThere were trenchant cat noises-yowls, hisses, and meows, coming from the room outside. They were awake, up, and piteous. There was a tentative scratch at the door, then a whirr of scratching, like someone had turned a source sander on outside, then it stop as quickly as it had started and all he could hear was his own breathing.\r\nNo. There was movement. The slight rustle of cloth, then a low, trilling purr. And it was coming from inner(a) the door, he was sure of it. The Emperor clamped the knife in his teeth and lit his last match. The room was as he thought it would be, a pile of debris and barrels, but swirling out from under shelving in front of the door was a layer of mist, moving across the floor toward him, undulating in tiny waves that approximated the sound of a purr.\r\n'