ADULT: Meeting Of Minds - Part 25 of 26
Dana Short (DanaShort@aol.com)
Sat, 19 Jun 2004 16:29:56 EDT
Ok, almost done.
26 is being proofed, and should be back Monday, I hope.
This story may be considered PG-13 due to both the situation, and
the occasional use of profanity (Chapter 11) when a char was upset.
Please direct flames/comments to DanaShort@aol.com
Please note the story title in the subject line, or your message will
be lost to my SPAM filter.
Legal Disclaimer: See first post, or visit the URL below for full
disclaimer. Just let it be known I don't own this universe.
Archive only according to rules mentioned in full disclaimer.
I hope you enjoy the story.
Fully formatted text of Chapters 1-25 available at:
http://www.DanaShort.com/HL-MOM.htm
========================== ==========================
Chapter Twenty Five
Just Deserts, Desserts, & Dinner
(With a Party in the Parking Lot)
Adam started cursing as white smoke suddenly erupted from beneath the
front of the RV, curling up over the windshield as the motor home
hurtled along the highway through the desert towards L.A.
"What's wrong?" Sally asked from her seat beside him.
"No clue, but I don't think smoke is good. Damnit, we were going to
make the flights by this evening. Now I don't know if we will even
make L.A."
Adam pulled the RV over to the side of the road, the trailer banging
along behind it as he edged off onto the shoulder.
Opening the door, he climbed out, and made his way around to the
front of the rig, leaping swiftly aside as what looked like the same
Volvo station wagon shot past him on the highway honking the same
horn as the one which had herded the stampede of cattle along the
highway a few days before, resulting in Patrick and the coyote
plummeting to their deaths, not that either one seemed the worse for
it now.
Opening the hood, Adam peered in to find a jet of water erupting from
a crack in the hose, and shooting onto the left header, where it
fizzled into steam.
"It's a leak in the hose," he called around the side to Cassandra who
had emerged and was walking up to join him.
"Is there any way we can patch it?" Cassandra asked.
"Not that I know of," Adam replied sadly. "And if we try to drive
with it leaking like this, we'll just end up running out of water,
and cracking the block."
"Darn it!" Cassandra cursed, turning back towards the door to the RV.
As she entered, she called out to Sue, "Sue, I think you need to dig
up the keys to the Geo, someone's going to have to head to the
nearest town and try to get a replacement hose."
Sue nodded and turned towards her purse, nearly tripping over the
coyote as he suddenly shot out the door and disappeared into the late
afternoon glare of the desert sunlight.
"What's up with him?" Sally asked, looking out a window to try and
spot the fleeing form of the coyote.
"I dunno, call of nature?" Patrick asked offhandedly.
Adam had come back inside, and was listing to the conversation, but
interrupted, "Patrick, if you think your curse is safely neutralized,
would you mind helping me remove the cracked hose so someone can take
it back into Phoenix and try to find a replacement tonight?"
"Uh, sure. But it's already four. It'll be almost five before anyone
can get back there." Patrick commented, "We passed it almost half an
hour ago, and we didn't really go through it."
Adam nodded. "Yes. It'll take a lot of luck to get us back on the
road tonight. Whoever goes to town had better plan on staying the
night in case they can't get the part. At least the rest of us will
be able to bunk down here. Good thing this is an RV."
As Patrick and Adam worked on removing the hose from the engine,
being careful not to burn themselves on the hot motor, Sue,
Cassandra, and Sally worked on trying to get the Geo off it's
trailer, but ran into a major roadblock; the engine wouldn't start.
Somehow, the battery had died over the past few days. All it would do
was whine and make the motor go "clunk".
Cassandra went up to tell Adam and Patrick the bad news, and ask them
to remove the RV's battery as well so they could use it to jumpstart
the Geo, since there was no way they could push it up even the slight
incline the RV was parked along, especially along the edge of a busy
highway.
Patrick was looking at the offending piece of hose in his hand, and
muttering to Adam, "It's too bad we couldn't use something to just
patch this so we could get the rest of the way to L.A. It's only
another three or four hours drive, darn it. Sue and I could get the
whole thing replaced tomorrow at a dealership, if we could only find
a way to limp the rest of the way there."
A muffled "Yip" came from behind him, prompting both Patrick and Adam
to turn around.
The Coyote stood there, a smaller gauge radiator hose in his mouth, a
pair of hose clamps still affixed on either end, and water dripping
occasionally from the still wet inside.
Adam looked amazed, "Where'd you get that?" he asked the coyote, who
merely laid it at his feet, then looked at him with a mocking
expression.
Bending over, Patrick lifted the hose, and held it up before the one
from the RV. "Uh, I don't think it'll fit." he said, holding the two
hoses up for comparison. "The one you brought is almost small enough
to fit inside the one for the RV, and it's a bit too short as well."
The coyote looked at him as if he had just said the dumbest thing in
the world, before replying, "Yip".
Suddenly, Patrick's eyes widened, as he took the new hose, and
actually tried to slide the protruding end, up to the hose clamp,
into the larger piece of cracked hose. It was a snug fit, but it did
fit inside. The coyote nodded and walked off towards the side of the
RV.
Taking the screw driver, he swiftly removed both hose clamps from the
smaller hose, then slowly edging it entirely inside the larger one.
Sue, Cassandra, and Sally clustered around Patrick as he worked, none
of them noticing the faint whine of the can opener coming from inside
the open door of the RV.
As he finished centering the smaller hose inside the larger one, he
looked up at Adam's disdainful glance, and asked, "What do you think?"
Adam looked at the hoses, then shook his head as he replied, "If we
had something to support the center so we could use the clamps to
snug the outer hose as tightly as we can against the one on the
inside, the flow would be constricted, but it just might work."
"What do you mean?" Patrick asked, perturbed, "The coyote said to do
it this way."
Adam just looked at him, before replying flatly, "He said that, huh?
Then he lacks a basic education in hydraulics and mechanics. The
inner hose will buckle somewhere, and the pressure will once more
seek a release through the crack, although now with the added stress
of the inner hose, the pressure would be higher. We almost have a
fix, but we are missing a key part. Without it we wouldn't get a
quarter of a mile."
Another muffled "Yip", followed by a pair of metallic clanks came
from the coyote where he stood just below the front passenger's
window of the RV.
Turning around, they saw a pair of Red Bull cans, the ends cut off
lying on the ground before him. This time, it was Adam who reached
out and wonderingly picked up the coyote's latest gift. He then
looked at the hose he had handed back to Patrick, then once more at
the two cans in his hands, back at the hose, then at the coyote, his
eyes somewhat glazed as he slowly shook his head, muttering mostly to
himself, "Now, I've seen everything."
About fifteen minutes later, the "mended" hose was back on the
engine, and the radiator fully topped up using water from the sink
inside.
As they piled back into the RV, Adam grudgingly gave an approving nod
to the Coyote, "That was a good job. Though I still wonder where you
got that hose from."
The RV pulled back on the highway, and headed along it on towards L.A.
After they had been on the road for about five more miles, they came
to a scenic pull out. Parked there in the pullout was that white
Volvo station wagon again, the family clustered around the opened
engine compartment, and a large puddle of water on the ground beneath
it.
Unable to resist his curiosity, Adam pulled in to the pullout behind
it, and got out.
"Problem?" he asked the man who had almost run him over earlier.
The balding man nodded his head and replied, "I don't know how I did
it. Somehow I managed to blow the radiator hose clean off. Dumped out
all the water before I noticed, and cracked the block." The man
gestured at the oil leaking from the side of the engine block which
was visibly damaged. "We only stopped to take some pictures of a
coyote chasing a roadrunner. Then, when I went to start it back up
again, Voom! Can't even see what I did to the hose, it's like it just
vanished into thin air. I called Auto club, and their on the way
though. Thanks for stopping."
Adam turned and climbed back into the RV, then fired up his recently
repaired engine.
Looking to his right, he met the eyes of the coyote.
"You have anything to do with that?" he asked the beast.
The coyote's customary "Yip" was his only reply as he drove away.
----------------------------------------------------------------------
They had been driving for 4 hours, the past three finally in
California, when they finally gave up on the direct push, started
after the noontime lunch at Gus's Navajo Tacos.
They were still an hour or more away from Sue's house, but lunch had
been far too long ago, and snacks were no longer holding it at bay.
Especially since all the frosted pop tarts seemed to have
disappeared. Adam suspected the coyote, who merely looked smugly back
at him.
"We're someplace called 'Sunnydale' I thought that was in Northern
California, up by 'Frisco?" Cassandra asked from her position behind
the wheel.
Sue abandoned her own quest for something to hold her over. "No,
that's Sunnyvale. Sunnyvale is where Silicon Valley is, Sunnydale, is
a small suburb of Los Angeles. More or less."
Adam, still glaring at the coyote, added his two cents worth. "It's
also a hellmouth. 'La Boca Del Inferno' it was called by the earlier
settlers. I certainly wouldn't want to live here. I think it also
holds the distinction of having the most murders per capita of any
city in the U.S."
"Sounds lovely," Sally chimed in from her place in the front
passenger seat.
"The real question," Patrick began, "is does it hold any food? I'm
starving, and there's nothing left in this bus to eat!"
Sue sat back down at the table, opposite Adam at the table, and
seconded the motion, "I agree. If you see anything that looks like
food, please stop."
Sally peered through the window, and spoke up, "How about a double
meat palace?"
Patrick suddenly whooped out, causing Cassandra to swerve slightly in
surprise.
"Yes! They are great! Stop there! I used to eat there all the time!"
"Double meat?" Adam asked, sounding a bit unsure.
"Chicken and Beef. One burger. It's great!" Patrick tried to reassure
him as he twisted on the couch to catch a glimpse of the once
familiar sign.
Cassandra swung off the highway, and made her way into the unkempt
parking lot alongside the restaurant, with an empty lot on the one
side, the back of some building behind, and the side of the
restaurant, broken by the drive through window on the other.
Finding no spaces long enough to possibly accommodate both the RV,
and the car on the trailer behind it, she opted for parking
lengthwise, and blocking an entire unoccupied row of spots, their
locations denoted by the faded lines drawn on the cracked asphalt.
Even before she had shut down the motor, Patrick had opened the door,
releasing the coyote, who immediately shot off to the side of the RV
towards the empty lot, and out of sight.
Patrick followed almost immediately by Sally climbed out, then stood
there contemplating the building.
Sally was unimpressed with what she saw, and asked, "Are ye sure it
is here ye wan ta be eatin, Patrick? I think the Pop-Tarts would be a
safer meal."
Patrick turned to grin at her, and replied, "Yes, Sally. I'm sure; I
used to eat at a Doublemeat Palace when I was in college. I didn't
know any of them still existed. I thought someone had shut the entire
chain down or something. I was never sure, but the Doublemeat Deluxe
was one of my staples when I was in school. I can't wait to get a
couple. You know how getting killed makes me hungry."
"Yeah, but you haven't gotten killed yet today, so your appetite
should be dying down by now." Sally remonstrated.
Sue came out from behind them, followed by Adam and Cassandra.
Just as they were entering the front of the restaurant, all four of
the Immortals felt themselves broaching the edge of a Quickening.
They all instinctively came to an abrupt halt, Sally unknowingly
taking a pair of steps away before realizing no one was following.
She paused and looked back.
"Uh, Cassandra, did you feel that?" Patrick asked, realizing that
they had to cover somehow for both Sue and Adam.
Cassandra nodded, scanning first the customers, then the employees,
until her gaze fell on a blonde teenager standing at the drive
through window. Relaxing, she pointed at the girl, she softly told
everyone, "Over there, the girl at the window. She's the one, I
think."
Sally, impatient to get over with "What is it, Cassandra?"
"The girl at the drive through. Not old, hardly stronger than Patrick
here, based on where we felt her for the first time," Cassandra
replied, nodding at the girl.
"I wonder where her Watcher is." Sally asked, looking around, while
deliberately brushing her hair in a move designed to expose her
tattoo for anyone who may be looking, but not seeing any reactions
from either the employees or the customers.
"She may not have one yet. As I said, she's new. You might want to
make a report or whatever it is you do." Cassandra answered, starting
forward towards the counter, everyone else following along behind her
now.
Cassandra paused before the menu, allowing the confidant Patrick
first chance at the register, "I'd like a pair of Doublemeat Deluxes,
with everything on 'em, please. An' a coke."
Sally went ahead and asked for a coke as well, but after asking about
the offering of salads, decided she wasn't as hungry as she had
thought before coming inside. Taking her soda, she made her way past
the still waiting Patrick, and staked out a large table against the
side of the restaurant.
Sue next ordered a double cheeseburger, catsup only, and a cup of
water.
Adam finally settled on two chili dogs, an order of fries, and a
large coke.
Cassandra, bringing up the rear, ordered a single bacon cheeseburger,
and fries, with a sprite.
As everyone else sat down with their food around her, Sally's stomach
growled it's displeasure at her leaving it out of this dubious feast,
so with a bit of reluctance, she got up, and returned to the counter,
where she ordered a crispy apple-fry.
Adam, still looking around for the girl's Watcher, asked, "Do you
recognize anyone here, Sue?"
"I don't see any Watchers I recognize, no, but it's been a long time
since my Dad was the head of the local Watchers," she replied.
"Oh well. Perhaps Cassandra is right, and she doesn't have one yet."
Adam replied, turning his attention towards the consumption of his
last chili dog.
Cassandra, finishing her own burger, asked Sue, "So, what time do you
think we could make it to the airport? I want to call my agent and
have them try to get us a flight to Seacouver tonight, if possible.
I really am looking forward to seeing Duncan again."
Sue looked at her, and shook her head. "Do you really have to go so
soon? I know it's only been a few days, but I've gotten used to
having you all around."
Sally looked up at her, and said, "You could come with us to
Seacouver, you know."
Sue shook her head, as Adam replied around the last bite of his chili
dog, "No, she can't. She has to stay away so she can appeal in
person if she looses this first hearing."
"Yeah, that's what Joe told me as well," Sue said, before finishing
the last bite of her burger.
Before long they had all finished eating, so they gathered their
trays, and dumped their contents into the trash as they headed out
door for the RV.
"Any sign of that damn coyote?" Adam asked, as they headed across the
dimly light parking lot towards their RV.
"Nope," Patrick replied, "Heh, I think it's my turn to drive,
Cassandra, may I have the keys?"
Adam muttered, "Good riddance. At least the beast only wanted a lift
to the hellmouth."
Cassandra tossed the keys to Patrick, who grabbed them and opened the
door to the RV, before climbing inside, Sally just a few steps behind
him.
However, those were a few steps too many, as out of the darkness, a
group of hoodlums appeared. The leading one reached out and grabbed
Sally by the arm, yanking her painfully back away from the RV and
towards one of his friends.
He then dove up the stairs and into the RV after Patrick.
The hoodlum has barely vanished into the dark interior, however,
before he fell back out the door, to land on the asphalt of the
parking lot, banging his head with a loud gong-like clang on a hubcap
which had not been there when they had parked.
The thug's falling body was followed out the door by the lean frame
of the coyote, who leapt from the opening to land on the ground and
snarl at the still form.
The hoodlum who had grabbed Sally however, was far more active. He
had hit her alongside the head with an aluminum baseball bat he had
been carrying, but then things got really weird, as his face
literally transformed, his brow and nose growing furrowed, and sharp
fangs protruding from his mouth.
Cassandra, recognizing the monster for what it was,
yelled "Vampyres!" as she drew her saber and neatly chopped the head
off of the nearest assailant, his body simply vanishing into a cloud
of dust.
Sue, noticing that Sally was unconscious, called out, "Methos, I
really don't think we should worry about Watchers just now, it's ten
to three!" With that, she pulled her katana from her coat, and turned
towards the one holding Sally. She moved in, feinting a stab, which
drew a clumsy block from the creature holding Sally, then before it
could respond, she sliced down with a curving blow to decapitate it,
and as its form turned to dust, the bat and Sally clanged to the
ground.
Adam also pulled his bastard sword from his coat, and together the
three turned to face the remaining group of nine vertical vampires.
Suddenly, Patrick leapt from the doorway of the RV and launched
himself into the melee.
Tripping over the bat, he lost his balance, his inertia carrying him,
and his sword forward until he skewered Adam, much like a shrimp on a
shishkabob.
Adam looked down at the blade sticking out of his chest, and promptly
died.
Patrick looked at the body as it slid off his blade, and
murmured, "Sorry," before turning around with his blade again
extended to take a wobbly swing at the nearest Vamp.
Once again, he did more harm than good, as his swing managed to miss
the Vamp entirely, but brought him and his blade around to slice
neatly through the blouse and stomach of Cassandra just as she
finished decapitating her third Vampire, spilling a torrent of blood
from her torso as her body slumped to the ground by Adam's.
The blood seemed to transfix the remaining Vampires, allowing Sue to
score her second kill a moment later, after which she took in the
carnage wrecked by Patrick in the few moments since his emergence
from the RV.
"Uh, Patrick, you do know you are supposed to kill them, not us,
right?" she asked, in a calm voice.
"Uh, sorry Sue. This is the first time I've tried to do anything
other than practice swings, remember?" Patrick whined, looking
mournfully at the dead bodies of his two friends lying on the ground
in separate pools of blood.
The first Vampire, apparently their leader, finally climbed back to
his feet, and stealthily approached Patrick and Sue from behind,
while the remaining five Vampires continued to stare, apparently
mesmerized by the pools of blood surrounding Cassandra and Adam.
"I know. I'm not much of a Teacher, am I? You really should let the
Witch take you on, you know. She's been doing this for thousands of
years, you know," Sue said, shaking her head.
"No," Patrick replied, swinging his sword wildly for emphasis as he
spoke, "YOU are my teacher. If you don't want me, then fine. But I
want to stay with you. You are the only thing that I have to steady
me anymore." Patrick's wild swing inadvertently connected briefly
with one of the stationary vampire, separating his head from his
neck, and leaving just the four, plus the still approaching leader.
Sue noticed the movement over Patrick's shoulder as the leader closed
on them, and called out, "Pat, behind you!" even as she spoke the
vampire reached out, and calmly grabbed Patrick by his neck, jerking
him off his feet, and snapping his neck with the same movement.
While the Vampire leader snapped his minions out of their daze, and
started directing them to encircle Sue, the lone survivor of her
group, Adam's Quickening suddenly spiked, and he came back to life,
the hole in his chest fully healed.
Adam looked down and casually straightened his shirt before reaching
over and retrieving the fallen sword from the ground then climbing
silently to his feet.
Adam quickly analyzed the situation, taking in the corpses of
Cassandra and Patrick, the location of Sally's body by the door to
the RV, and Sue's position, slowly rotating in the middle of the now
closing circle of Vampires.
Suddenly from beneath a parked car, the coyote's head poked out, and
it bit viciously into the ankle of one of the encircling vampires.
Sue took the distraction as an opportunity to slash out with her
sword, truncating the cry of pain from the now severed neck of the
bitten Vampire, thus leaving her with only four opponents to track,
as she stepped into the sudden hole in their circle and placed the
empty car with the coyote coughing up Vampire dust beneath it to her
back.
Adam slowly snuck up behind the Vampire leader, even as he felt
Cassandra's Quickening spike, and saw her roll over onto her back.
To gain a bit of time for Cassandra to finish reviving and get back
to her feet, Adam reached out and calmly tapped the lead Vampire on
his shoulder.
The Vampire spun around, displaying his fanged countenance, and froze
at the sight the man who stood behind him. "Wha, who are you?" he
asked.
Adam spoke softly, telling the vampire, "I am Death, once known as
the Pale Rider on a Pale Horse, one of the Four. I am your Doom."
At those words, the Vampire's eyes widened in panic, and his face
once again resumed a normal human appearance, as he stumbled a few
steps backwards, loosing his step as he tripped in a pothole the
coyote had apparently dug in the parking lot while everyone was
inside eating dinner.
Sue took his moment of distraction as an opportunity to slash out
with her katana again, and the remaining three Vampires found
themselves leaderless.
Cassandra had risen to a sitting position, and was reaching for her
own fallen sword even as Patrick's quickening spiked as well, and he
returned to life with a yell as he also sat up.
The three remaining Vampires realizing they were suddenly
outnumbered, and by opponents which didn't seem to stay dead, turned
to flee only to find the way blocked by the snarling visage of the
coyote.
Turning back towards the four Immortals, who were now moving to
encircle them, the Vampires apparently decided to split up.
One ran towards Sue, which was not the brightest move, as with a
final flash of her katana she reduced her fourth Vampire of the
evening to nothing more than dust on the wind. As Sue started
humming the song by that name from Kansas, she saw one of the
remaining two had chosen Cassandra as the supposedly weakest link in
their circle. It likely had no chance to even learn how foolish its
choice had been, as the blade of Cassandra's rapier shot out so
swiftly that it was invisible in the darkness, as it separated the
Vampire's head from it's body.
As Patrick was staggering to his feet without his sword, the final
Vampire decided to charge towards him, and came to meet the most
bizarre end. As it charged through the pool of blood left behind
from Adam's earlier demise, he slipped, then his foot caught on
Patrick's abandoned sword, and he fell forward, right onto the up
thrust end of a branch the coyote had dragged out of the abandoned
lot next door shortly after their arrival. He shuddered momentarily
before vanishing with a soft pfoof sound, leaving just a dissipating
cloud of dust to mark his departure from this world.
Adam bent to check on Sally, and finding her merely unconscious, he
lifted her and carried her gently into the RV, to lay her on the
couch.
Outside, the coyote immediately bent towards the branch which had
dispatched the final Vampire, and started dragging it back towards
the empty lot next door, its task apparently finished.
Patrick bent over, and retrieved his own sword, while Cassandra
quietly surveyed the site of their recent struggle. "I suppose it
should not be unusual to find a gang of vampires on some place called
a hellmouth. What is unusual is how bold and open they were.
Creatures of the night such as they tend to be more circumspect and
stealthy, trying to keep a low profile, not attacking in mass on a
public street in the full view of the general public."
Adam, apparently having settled Sally on the couch, had already fired
up the engine, prompting Sue and Cassandra to hurry inside, followed
immediately by Patrick, who started pulling the door closed.
Before the door was even half closed though, the slender form of the
coyote came shooting in, knocking Patrick off his feet, and slamming
the door closed behind him.
Sally started to stir as Adam pulled the RV out of the lot, and
turned it towards the highway.
She opened her eyes, and said muzzily, "The fangs, he had fangs, and
his eyes, they were this disgusting yellow."
Cassandra laid a hand over her head, and said softly, "Hush, Sally.
It's ok, the vampires are all dead. We took care of them."
Sally groaned, as she tried to sit up. Sue, remembering a vial she
had always carried in her purse, turned to find it.
Coming back forward a few moments later, she said softly, "Here
Sally, I know it tastes bad, but drink this, it's called Rescue
Remedy, and it is the fastest thing I know of for treating pain."
Sally took the proffered squeeze tube, and put a few drops on her
tongue. Sue then went over to the kitchen and dug up a paper cup,
which she filled with tepid tap water from the tanks filled back in
Memphis, then offered Sally a pair of Ibuprofen to take as well.
Turning her eyes to Cassandra, she saw the witch smile, and
say, "She'll be ok. It's just a bump on the head. Which is good,
since if she were to get killed, she wouldn't be coming back any time
soon."
Cassandra picked up her cell phone to start calling her travel agent,
as Sue turned to the front to help direct Adam the rest of the way in.
========================== ==========================
To be continued in Chapter 26, the conclusion to Act 2, next week!