A Sampler Pack

by Jill Cooper

Chapter One

  Rain hit the pavement.

  The street lights glowed amber in the darkness. Off in the distance sirens wailed and the flashing police lights beckoned Natalie Johnson closer to the scene of the crime.

  She was dressed all in black, her brown hair pulled back in a loose ponytail and her head covered in a black knit winter cap. Natalie was dressed more like a super spy than a teenage girl with the propensity for shoving a piece of wood through a vampire’s heart.

  But things were different. Things had changed.

  Vampires had caught the eye of government officials and now she had to balance her duties of being a paladin while sneaking past the FBI. There was a city wide curfew and with Halloween just days away, the city was on high alert. They thought a serial killer was on the loose, but the truth was much worse.

  Much darker.

  Natalie couldn’t tell them. She couldn’t tell anyone. Instead she had to fight pockets of vampires one on one, hoping her actions depleted the vampire’s numbers enough that the media would stop sensationalizing the murders and the FBI would be called away somewhere else. If Natalie could figure out who sired all the vampires, why they could now get in uninvited and go out during the day time, her life would be so much easier.

  This was bad enough, but she actually had a week’s worth of detention. Talk about cramping a girl’s style.

  65 Maple Street was a brick apartment complex and where Flora and Ivan Grayson had lived, before they were murdered. Natalie came to it and saw what she expected, flashing lights from an ambulance, a coroner’s van, and the host of regular suspects; Special Field Agents Jack Davis and Grace Farland.

  Good people, but Natalie was pinned down; unable to move with them in town watching everyone’s every move. She hadn’t run into them yet personally, but it was only a matter of time.

  And what was she going to say? Sorry I broke curfew. Vampires made me do it.

  Natalie squatted down beside an old dark Chevrolet, her jacket giving a light crinkle that only she could hear thanks to the pelting rain. She took in her surroundings with one swoop of her eyes: Two gurneys with people in body bags and the FBI headed inside the apartment while the police strung the yellow do-not-cross tape.

  It almost seemed safe. The police were there. Everything was going to be fine. But the rules weren’t the same and no one knew that.

  Except Natalie.

  She touched her ear and static came over her new communication device; issued from WOMP after a series of late night paperwork filings. Natalie still had the paper cuts to prove it. “Two bodies,” she whispered. Natalie paused, her eyes being drawn to the roof of the apartment buildings.

  Behind the backdrop of the moonlight she saw a human form moving, shadowing the movement of several officers on the west side of the building.

  “Bob’s still here.” Natalie used their keyword for vampires since the media had dubbed the ‘serial killer’ Pinhole Bob thanks to the marks left on the victims’ necks. “He’s on the move.”

  Her ear cleared of static. “Be careful,” Charles Buckle, her guide and old mentor said with a stern sharpness to his voice. She didn’t have a cover story if she got caught and the last thing she needed right now was having her parents awoken in the middle of the night by the police.

  Natalie managed to skirt closer by ducking car to car. She reached down and gathered some small pebbles, but they were big enough to do what she needed them to do.

  Reaching her arm back, Natalie propelled them toward the police cruisers and then ducked down low, her back against the tires and her knees bent to hide her frame. The flashlights from the officers changed direction and their footsteps moved to investigate the noise.

  Natalie used that time to move around the side of the car and duck behind the other side of the apartment building. Using a drain pipe, she climbed the side of the house like she was Miss Piggy in the Great Muppet Caper, only with more skill and more comfortable shoes, and launched herself onto the roof.

  She sailed through the air, her legs extended and the soles of her boots collided with the chest of a fangy vampire, his eyes glowing yellow like the rodent he was. His back crunched against the roof and Natalie rolled onto her feet, reaching inside her pocket and retrieving her wooden stake.

  She gave it a spin for bravado and took an offensive stance. The vampire launched an attack, swinging his mighty claws, but his eyes flashed recognition.

  He stopped. Recoiling away, he hissed a warning.

  “Finish it.” Natalie taunted. “I’m just a girl. Come here and take me on.”

  All vampires fought to the death, but not this one. He ran like he was afraid, like he was acting on more than just instinct. “Hey!” Natalie called and lunged; grabbing the hem of his jacket and yanking him backwards.

  He growled, his nose against hers. There was no fight in him at all. He was the most non-vampire vampire she had ever fought. When Natalie pushed the wooden stake into his chest, it was too anticlimactic. Like the battle had to be fierce to be won, but he just dissolved.

  Into a black puddle, like they always did.

  And then there were a dozen small lights shining on her.

  Crap, Natalie thought and dove to the ground, rolling against the flat roof. Voices ran out from downstairs. “Someone is on the roof!”

  She scampered across the rooftop on all fours, keeping her belly low to the ground. When she reached the other side, footsteps charged the fire escape. Her heart galloped so fast in her chest, she could barely breathe. There was no time to think or plan, Natalie just had to react.

  She jumped off the roof, landed in a squat on the dumpster below, and dove onto the grass. She fell into a rolling summersault and before she knew which way was up, Natalie was charging from the street. But she wasn’t alone, there were officers charging her and in the distance, a car engine reved to life. Sirens turned to full volume.

  If ever Natalie needed an emergency super spy extraction, it was right then. But there was no one that could help her. Only she could get herself out of this. Heck, Natalie had created a dream dimension out of nothing where everyone she knew had an alter personality. She herself was the all-powerful slayer. What would the slayer do?

  She couldn’t get caught. She couldn’t be arrested or let the secret out, not without WOMP being seriously pissed of at her. Natalie didn’t know if she was right or wrong, but she needed to hide.

  And hide fast.

  She led the officers away from the apartment building and she did it by cutting across lawns, jumping fences, and breaking at least half a dozen property laws along the way. Natalie cringed as she jumped into a tree, her shaking limbs pulling her up into some kid’s tree house. She barely managed to pull her legs in before she fell to the planks of wood that served as the floor.

  Her lungs were laboring hard and Natalie wanted to gasp for breath, to take a deep inhale, but voices whispered below. Her chest was aching, screaming for relief, but all she could do was squeeze her eyes shut and pray to God they didn’t find her.

  “We lost him.” Said a female’s voice. Natalie thought it might be FBI Grace McFarland, but her voice was raspy—like she had a cold.

  “Him?” The raspy, grating voice could only be that of Jack Davis, the lead agent and major thorn in Natalie’s side. “I’m pretty sure when I shined my flashlight on the killer, I saw a woman. A girl.” Davis corrected himself.

  Natalie squeezed her eyes shut and in her mind, she swore. She didn’t do that a lot, but it seemed appropriate given the situation. Had they seen her face clearly? And had they realized what she did moments before they discovered her?

  “Keep sweeping the area. The killer has to be around here somewhere. Maybe even lives here. Keep your eyes open.”

  Natalie laid still until the footsteps and the lights of the cars were gone. Then she rolled onto her back, finally taking a deep much needed breath. She touched her hand to her ear.

  “How bad was it?” Charles asked.


  “Bad.” Natalie heaved.

  “Should I put on a pot of tea?”

  Natalie didn’t even need to think about it. “That’s the best thing you’ve said all week.” Communication fell silent and Natalie rolled onto her belly. Outside the coast was clear so she made her way to Buckle’s Gifts, using buildings for cover.

  When she got there, the lights were dim but Charles was at his desk with two cups of strong tea. Natalie sipped hers and it warmed her. The caffeine helped give her a nice jolt of energy. “Tomorrow night is Halloween.”

  Charles sighed. “I know.”

  “We need to call the city dance off. It’s too dangerous.”

  Surprised, he glanced up. “I don’t see how we can do that. What reason would we give to alert the police? The mayor?”

  “How about a serial killer?” Natalie said.

  “The FBI and police are going to be there. Everyone will assume they are perfectly safe. A dangerous assumption, but we have no other choice.”

  She sighed and rubbed her forehead. “So tomorrow night, we go and cross our fingers. Hope for the best?”

  Charles nodded and held his breath. “It’s our only option.”

  Natalie drained her cup. “Make it a double.” She slammed it down and waited for Charles to fill her back up.

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