by Maria Arnt
She locked herself inside the silent building. Quiet as a tomb, she thought, and suppressed a fit of hysterical giggles. All the adrenaline from the fight was making her goofy. The guy who had answered the door lay on a ratty old couch, looking like he was taking a nap, except his chest no longer moved. Contrary to popular belief, vampires did breathe, and this one definitely wasn’t.
The warehouse had been converted into living quarters for the vampires, but only barely. Brick walls and cement floors still showed, and the rooms were divided with hastily-erected drywall. A quick survey of the place revealed terrible interior decorating, a la 1980s flea market, and a few more deceased vamps. A more thorough inspection would have to wait until she was clean.
Tanya found the bathroom. The shower was—thankfully—clean. She stepped in and turned on the hot water, letting it rinse the blood down the drain. Stripping, she let her clothes fall to the bottom of the tub where the water pounded on them.
As the adrenaline began to drain from her system, Etienne’s last words started to bother her. But… he said… Who had the vampire been talking about? And honestly, if she thought about it, it had been almost too easy to kill Etienne, despite the good hit he’d gotten in on her ribs. It was like he wasn’t trying to fight back, like he didn’t think she was really a threat.
But then, that wasn’t terribly unusual. A human wouldn’t expect a cheeseburger to suddenly attack them, so why should a lowly human like her be worth worrying about? She tried to shrug it off. Maybe “he” was something totally unrelated. Maybe Etienne had gone to a fortune teller who said he’d have a really great week. Who knew?
When everything was clean, she stepped out, looking for a towel. A whole stack of big, fluffy, hotel-style ones was ready nearby, and she smiled. Score. Tanya had learned along the way to leave nothing at a nest that could tie her to their deaths, but it was amazing what a person could cart off and no one ever missed it. The owners were all dead, and who else would know? Selecting one, she dried herself off quickly. A glance in the half-fogged mirror showed a colorful bruise forming below and to the side of her left breast. She scowled and poked it a little, hissing at the spike of pain.
In the adjoining bedroom, she found one dead female vampire and a well-stocked closet. At this point, she was more interested in the latter, and she picked out a few pieces that fit her decently; a button-down shirt and a baggy pair of pants that gave her plenty of room to move.
The full inspection of the nest revealed twenty-six dead vampires—none of them the one she was looking for—and all the supplies necessary to make it like she was never there. It would have been far easier to burn the place, but arson drew a lot more attention than she wanted. Better to let the cops discover the bodies, long after she was gone. Tanya kept spare supplies in the car to make sure, but it was usually better to use what was on-site. Bleach for the gravel in the alley, foaming drain cleaner for the shower, and a sealable plastic bag for her discarded clothes. Later she would burn them, but she would find somewhere across town to do that. She cleaned up after herself, put the bottles back in their places, and grabbed another couple towels.
Lastly, she went to what she assumed was Etienne’s room, since it was the nicest, and looked for her keepsake. It had to be something special, something that made her think of him. Vampires liked to keep little trinkets from their own time periods, and she usually tried to find one of them. At last, she found it. Hung on the bedpost by its chain, it was a silver filigree pendant, spherical and about the size of a ping-pong ball. She had no idea why a guy would have such a flashy necklace, but it was pretty and smelled faintly of some kind of perfume. On closer inspection, she realized it opened like a locket. Shrugging, she stuffed it deep into the pocket of her purloined slacks and headed back out to the car.
Digging her phone out of her bag, she texted the address to a number she had memorized, and then deleted it. Tanya knew the message could still be retrieved, but it was a disposable phone anyway. As she started the car and pulled out of the alley, she breathed a sigh of relief—as deep as her aching side would allow. She had succeeded again, and if she hadn’t found her attacker yet, at least she had another name to pursue. Life is good.
From atop the building, a man watched the car pull away and slowly grinned.
“Magnificent,” he murmured, and turned to leave. He had been preparing for this for a very long time, and soon, very soon, the wait would finally be over....
3
Detective Tom Bradley glanced down at his phone and opened the text message. It was an address in St. Louis, nothing more, from a number he didn’t recognize. With a slight smile, he turned to his desk and excavated the mouse and keyboard from a pile of paperwork, fast food bags, and used napkins. He jiggled the mouse to wake up the computer, pulled up the records database, and started looking.
Sure enough, there was a string of disappearances and drug busts surrounding the area. Nothing reported in the last twenty-four hours though, so he would have to keep his eyes and ears open. Still, it was enough to know that Tanya had managed to bring down another nest, and had made it out alive. He worried about her sometimes. Glancing over at the photo of his daughter, he picked it up. Lexie had been about the same age as Tanya when she disappeared, he realized. So young.
But Tanya was tough, and she certainly made his job easier. There had been no new suspected nests in the last six months. Maybe the message had finally gotten out: St. Louis was not a friendly place for vampires.
There was a knock at the door and his partner, Jessica Davis, poked her head in the tiny office. “You busy?”
“Nah, just doing some research.” He quickly closed the search he’d been doing.
“This isn’t more of your crazy conspiracy theories, is it?” she asked, exasperated.
“Leave it, Davis,” Tom growled. He wasn’t having this argument again.
She shrugged, defeated. Davis didn’t really like to talk about it either, he knew. “All right. We’ve got a case down on South Broadway.”
Bradley squashed his excitement before it could show. It was too soon for it to be Tanya’s work. Still, it was the waiting that killed him. “Let’s go,” he said, and reached for his jacket.
“Yes, Daddy, I’m fine.” Tanya sighed into her cell phone. “It’s just a cracked rib, they said it would only take a couple weeks to heal.” She rolled her eyes, looking up at the roof of her own car.
She had filled the gas tank of the stolen one and returned it to the exact same spot in the parking garage she’d taken it from. The whole process had only taken four hours, and the owner would probably never even know it was gone.
The hospital had been worse. They had taken one look at her too-big clothes and the bruise and tried to pump her for information. The fact that she had no ID to match the fake name she gave and paid in cash didn’t help, either. But after a long argument, she had managed to get away with nothing more than a pamphlet on how to get help for domestic abuse. She was used to the routine.
“Well, you know I worry. What you’re doing is really dangerous.” Her dad’s voice was full of concern and love. As irritating as he was being, she felt better just to hear it.
“I know.” She sighed again.
“When do you think you’ll be able to visit again?” he asked, trying to sound casual.
It made Tanya smile. “A week? Maybe two. Depends on how long it takes to get reported. Longer means I did a good job.”
“That’s right.” Her father had been the one to point it out in the first place. “Mom was asking, that’s all.”
“How’s she doing?”
“Oh, she’s alright.” She could hear her father’s weary smile. “They’ve got her doing overtime at the hospital again. I keep telling her that if she just told them no, they’d hire more people to help her out, but you know how she is.”
She did. Her mother was somehow simultaneously a doormat and a martyr, not a good combination. “Give her kisses, okay? Tell` her I’ll st
op by when I get this next story done.”
“Will do. Do you need me to wire some money?” he asked.
Tanya bit down on her irritation—he knew she hated it when he offered to help. “Nope. Turns out drug dealers carry a lot of cash!” She grinned because for once her excuse was true.
“That’s my girl,” he chuckled.
Tanya was lying on her hotel bed and scrolling through the internet on her new iPhone (purchased with funds courtesy of Jimmy the drug dealer) when she got the text she was waiting for.
She knew the number, so she jumped up and grabbed her jacket and purse, cramming the iPhone inside her packed bag next to the bed. Check out time. A short drive later, Tanya fished out her camera and approached the same warehouse, but this time she went for the front door. It had the usual yellow tape stretched out in front, and they had even gone so far as to post a guard at the door. Looks like the St. Louis Police Department has rookies to spare. She chuckled as she ducked under the tape.
She gave him an innocent smile, the one that usually got boys to smile back. He didn’t. Okay… obviously, this one’s a hardcore motard. Time to switch gears. “Hello sir, I’m a member of the press, and I’d like to ask some questions about this investigation.” She flashed him her press badge, but he looked unimpressed.
“No one is allowed inside the restricted area,” he parroted.
“I don’t need to get inside the building,” she pointed out patiently. “I just want to talk—”
“I’m sorry ma’am, but I’m afraid I have to ask you to step outside the tape,” he said, extending a hand as if to make her back up.
Tanya resisted the urge to roll her eyes. “Look, the people of this city have the right to know what’s going on here,” she raised her voice in the hopes of being heard by someone within. At this point, he decided to try the hands-on approach and grabbed her arm.
She was about to hand his ass to him when a voice called from inside the nest. “What is it, Lee?”
“Just a vulture, sir,” Lee shouted back over his shoulder.
“Snarky redhead with a press badge?”
Lee stopped trying to show her out and really looked at her. “Yes, sir,” he said, bemused.
A man ducked under the tape, coming out into the street. Tanya smiled. Here, at least, was one place where TV and real life agreed. Detective Bradley looked like all the detectives she had ever watched on screen: short, a little thick around the middle, balding with a horseshoe mustache to compensate.
He smiled at her. “Cooper. I knew you’d show up eventually.”
“Detective Bradley. Just doing my job, like you.” She shot a glare at Lee.
“Of course.” Bradley turned to him and said, “Why don’t you see if Dr. Chase needs some help?” he suggested. “There’s a lot of bodies.”
The rookie looked between Tanya and Bradley, clearly torn between his sense of duty and the desire to get the cooler job. “Sure,” he said at last, returning Tanya’s glare before he ducked through the taped doorway.
“Wow. Any greener and he could lead the St. Patrick’s Day parade,” she muttered.
Bradley chuckled. “Well, you know. Better for this sort of investigation.”
She lifted an eyebrow. “And what kind of investigation would that be?”
“The kind you show up to and poke your nose around. Twenty-six bodies, no signs of trauma. Seventeen males, nine females, various ages but no one over forty, all looked in good health,” he rattled off.
“Drugs?” she suggested.
He frowned. “Well, we found some cocaine, but we think they were only dealing. It was all kept in one place.”
“So what’s the story gonna be?” she asked, moving out of the way as a gurney rolled out the door, the first of many bodies on it. It certainly wouldn’t be the truth that he suggested to his colleagues, and she knew he would have to come up with something convincing for them.
He sighed. “Carbon monoxide? Looks like they all went in their sleep.”
“Why aren’t they pink then?” She gestured toward the body.
“They aren’t always. Maybe some other gas, though. We don’t know yet. We’ll need the coroner to do some tests back in the lab,” he argued. This was his way of saying he’d think of something later. “And you? I imagine you have some kind of crazy story explaining how twenty-six people mysteriously die at once with no visible cause of death. What is it this time, aliens?”
“Nope, cult.” She grinned. “I checked, there have been a lot of disappearances and deaths in this area. I think they were practicing human sacrifice,” she said dramatically.
Laughing, Bradley shook his head. “So what, they all drank the kool-aid and went to bed?”
“Exactly,” she agreed.
He rubbed his mustache thoughtfully. “So then, where would the leader of this cult be?”
Tanya shrugged. “Took out the trash and got the hell out of Dodge,” she suggested. “Maybe he wanted a clean break, so he just wrapped everything up and left. He’s probably long gone, hiding out in some dump somewhere.”
Bradley’s eyes twinkled at the riddle. It was a game they played—she left him breadcrumbs so he would be the one to close her cases, making sure no one dug any deeper. Four years ago when she had started hunting vampires in the greater St. Louis area, Bradley had hauled her into the precinct for questioning. A group of serial killers he’d been trying to pin down had turned up dead, and she’d been sloppy.
She had been young, and she freaked out and told him the whole truth. Fortunately, he hadn’t needed much convincing. His daughter had disappeared years ago, and he’d found out the truth about vampires the hard way. He’d devoted his career to chasing down bloodsuckers, and her marks had just been his latest investigation.
Ever since then, he’d been working with her from the inside, covering up her work and even giving her leads when she ran dry. He was the coolest cop she knew, and they both rested a little easier thanks to their arrangement. That, and she thought Bradley probably got his kicks trying to figure out where she’d stashed the Masters.
“Well. That’s an interesting idea,” he said. “I’m sure the rags will pay good money for it.”
She snorted. “Yeah, they’ll eat it up. Everybody loves a good story.”
He nodded his agreement. “One of the guys had a freaky tattoo. You want a picture?”
“Sure.” She hefted her camera, and he led her into the warehouse.
It was always weird for her, coming back. She didn’t get the old ‘the murderer always comes back to the scene’ theory, Tanya would have preferred to never set foot in there again. Every cop they passed was just one more witness, and it set her on edge. The warehouse looked different, lit up with halogen lights exposing every nook and cranny. It made the place seem surreal.
Bradley showed her the body with the tattoo. It was a pentagram. How edgy, she thought sarcastically, but snapped a few pics anyway. She got more money when she had pictures to go with the story.
“Hey, no pictures,” Davis approached them, her hand held out in the same authoritative gesture Lee had used. When she saw who it was, though, she sighed. Glancing between Bradley and Tanya, she shook her head and turned away. “I never saw anything!” She threw her hands up in the air and went on her way.
Tanya had never liked Bradley’s partner. She refused to believe in vampires, and generally devoted her life to convincing Tom he was crazy. Why he didn’t get a different partner was a mystery to her.
As they walked back out of the nest, Bradley asked her casually, “Hey, did you find that guy you were looking for?”
She shook her head. “Nah. I think maybe he left town.” Honestly, she should have thought of looking outside of St. Louis sooner, but working with Bradley had made things easier here.
He grunted, obviously having reached the same conclusion. “You got any leads lined up?”
Tanya smiled grimly. “I’ve got something up in Chicago I’m gonna go look into.�
�
“Chicago?” He lifted his eyebrows. “That’s a little out of the way.”
“Yeah, well, I think it’s a really good lead,” she said truthfully. “St. Louis isn’t the den of iniquity it once was,” she laughed.
He chewed on the corner of his mustache a little, thinking. “I know a guy up in Chicago, name’s Shiro. He’s a bit… overenthusiastic, but he does good work. I’ll give him a call and let him know you’ll be coming his way.”
“Thanks, man. I appreciate it.”
“No problem,” he said. “Now get off my scene.”
She gave him a half-assed salute and booked it.
4
“So then he says, ‘I’m sorry, ma’am, but you have to leave.’ He actually called me ma’am.” Tanya imitated the greenhorn’s serious tone, and then stabbed a forkful of mac and cheese. It was her favorite, especially when her mom made it. No matter how grown-up she had become, there were some things that never changed.
She was regaling her parents with the story of last night’s investigation. She’d stayed up late to write her fake article, slept in, edited and emailed it around noon. After that, she’d texted her dad to say she’d be joining them for dinner and hit Interstate 44.
“Well maybe he was just trying to be polite,” her mother offered, ever the optimist.
“Yeah, but ma’am? What happened to miss?” she complained.
Her dad chuckled. “You said he was young, was he younger than you?”
Tanya thought about it. If he was fresh out of the police academy and still in his probationary period, he could be twenty-two, maybe twenty-one. She was twenty-three. “Couldn’t be by much...” Then she noticed the amused looks on her parents’ faces.
