Chapter 69 Rescuing Johnny
It was Johnny. I mushed the face a bit and then leaned in and said, "Hey, b*tch. It's me Dylan. I'm here to rescue your dumbass."
"Aww, thanks. You do actually care. I was thinking you would leave me to rot. I wasn't the best father, I'll admit. But at least I never put my hands on you," he said.
"What are you talking about old man?" I said as I cut the ropes holding his hands behind his back with blood manipulation. "You were a fine father, which is more than many people can say."
The dust cleared and a bunch of vampires were aiming guns at us. "Oh sh*t," I said.
I threw up an ice forcefield around us using blood manipulation just before they started firing their guns. I continuously made the forcefield thicker but the bullets kept cracking it and almost making it through. This kept up for a bit.
Then I started hearing grunts and screams from outside the forcefield. One by one the assailants were taken down. I shattered the forcefield and saw Alice shooting the assailants in the head with a gun she borrowed from them.
"That should keep them down for at least a while," she said. "Maybe forever, but I don't like to make assumptions."
"Fair," I said. I stood Johnny up and walked him away from the exploded wall and around the corner away from the light, so Victoria could do the same. Once we were all safely around the corner inside the house, I said, "Ok, now's the time to ask questions if anyone has them."
"Uh, yeah, Dylan, I know you said you were a vampire, but I didn't expect there to be so many. What's that about?" Chad said.
"There's this organization called the Vampire Association that's obviously full of vampires. They really do not like me, and they will do anything they can to get to me," I said.
"What's this about vampires? Dylan, what's going on?" Johnny said.
"Ok, long story short, this woman," I pointed at Victoria, "turned me into a vampire. I entered this Vampire Association for protection. I broke their rules and they tried to execute me for it, but it didn't take. Now, they're trying to finish the job," I said.
"That was actually pretty good explaining. Good job, kid. I taught you well," he said. "The one thing I can't get my head past is vampires are real?"
"Yeah, check this out," I bared my fangs and lengthened and shortened them multiple times.
"Ok, I'm convinced," Johnny said. "Now that we have that figured out, what do we do now?"n/ô/vel/b//jn dot c//om
"We either need to lay low until I get strong enough to take them down, or we relocate, try to rebuild until we can take them down as a team," I said.
"I'm not one for lying down and taking it in the ass. If I'm going to take it in the ass, I'm going to be standing up and looking them right in the eyes as they do it," Johnny said.
"That made a lot less sense than you think it did, but I understand what you mean. I agree. We should be fighting back. So rebuilding it is," I said. "Then I have an important question for you, Johnny."
"What is it?" Johnny said.
"Are you willing to relocate?" I said.
"Why? Do we have to?" He said.
"The Vampire Association is headquartered in this city. Going somewhere else will make it much harder for them to get to us, especially in the numbers they hit your house with," I said.
"Yeah, but all my operations are here," he said. "I can't give up thirty plus years of infrastructure, supply chains, and connections. We've got police on the payroll, judges in our pocket, established territories, loyal customers, and political influence that goes all the way to the mayor's office. Hell, we even own half the warehouses on the east side.
Moving means starting from scratch, and in this business, scratch means dead."
"Here's the problem. I would leave you here in this city to go back to your business, but the Vampire Association has already used you once to try to get to me. You don't think they'll do it again? If you stay in this city, you're dead," I said.
"Besides, with the gun fight that happened at the house, the cops will be all over it, going through all of your stuff. You think they won't find anything to put you away? You may have some cops on your payroll, but do you have all of them?"
"No," Johnny said.
"Are your files encrypted? Will they be able to get into your records?" I said.
"…" Johnny didn't reply.
"Don't tell me you kept paper records?" I said.
"Maybe," Johnny said.
"You wrote things down that they can just grab and look at? Are you insane? You're supposed to keep everything encrypted on a computer system. A local system that has no access to the internet and can't be remotely hacked," I said.
"I'm old school kid! I write things down! We were supposed to go digital years ago, but I kept putting it off. No one had the nerve to knock on my door in thirty years. How was I to know keeping paper records would bite me in the ass?" He said.
"I should have never let you come back. You came back and you brought all your problems with you. Now all my sh*t is f*cked and it's all your fault."
"I told you to use backchannels. How was I supposed to know you wouldn't listen?" I said.
"Backchannels. I'll give you backchannels. I'll give you backchannels in your ass!" Johnny said.
I looked at him weird when he said that.
"Ok, I didn't mean it to sound like that. You know what I mean. I'm screwed and you're at least partially to blame," he said.
"Ok. I'll take half the blame. You happy? Playing the blame game isn't going to get us anywhere. It doesn't matter whose fault it is. Your business is done.
Gone. Bye bye. Start over. You still have a crew. You still have men. Let's get out of this town and figure it out somewhere else," I said.
"I still have my men? Wait, you actually saved them?" He said.
"Yes and no. They've been saved yes, but that was mostly Luther's doing. Most of them made it. Except Lenny and Timmy. I'm sorry. I know you liked those guys," I said.
"I did. They weren't the best or the brightest but Lenny could cook a mean casserole and Timmy told great stories. They had their charms. That's too bad. I'm glad everyone else made it out ok though," he said, wiping a tear from his eye.
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"See? We have the two most important things, family and money," I said.
"We've got money?" Johnny said. "I know I've got money. Do you have some hidden wealth I'm not aware of?"
"Yeah, actually, I do. I have about 1.4 billion dollars in gold coins like the one I gave you," I said.
"Billion? As in B?" Johnny said.
"Yes, billion," I said.
"Hey, if you're footing the bill of this relocation, I'll bite," Johnny said. "I'd thought I'd have to pay for it all myself."
"I'm not paying for your food or your fun money, but I'll cover shelter and travel costs," I said.
"Sounds good enough to me," Johnny said. "Let's go get empty my stockpile and we're out of here."
"Sounds good. Oh, and I'll reimburse you for anything you can't liquidate fast enough before it gets taken by the cops," I said.
"Even better! Road trip it is my son. Let's go on a road trip!" Johnny said, enthusiastically.
"Don't celebrate yet. We still have to get out of this city. And we can't leave until tomorrow," I said.
"Why's that?" Johnny said.
"My girlfriend Victoria has to see a friend she hasn't seen in a while. She's only in town for tonight," I said.
"That couldn't be more important than not dying could it? How long has it been since she's seen her? Judging by Victoria's age, maybe a few years at most? What's another couple years?" Johnny said.
"A few years? Try 190," I said, with a dead serious look on my face.
"190 years? How is that even possible?" Johnny said.
"She's a vampire, remember? We don't age," I said.
"Right. Ok. She can see her friend. Me and the boys will wait." He said.
"Do you like plays? Her friend runs a traveling theater group and they'll be performing tonight. Victoria and I are going." I said.
"I'm more of a fight guy myself, but if it keeps us close by in case anything goes down, I'll suffer through it," he said.
"Ok, I'll buying everyone tickets. Chad included," I said. I spent a few minutes on my phone. "And done! Now let's go get your money."
"Oh, wait," I said. I pulled his finger out of my pocket. "I have to reattach your finger."
"Oh, that old thing? You can keep it. Who needs it?" He said.
"No. Let me try to reattach it," I said. I grabbed him and tried to reattach the finger while he struggled against me.
"Consent! My consent is being violated! Where are the cops when you need them," Johnny said.
I kept trying to reattach his dumb pinky finger while he struggled like an idiot.