by Liz Schulte
Back in the city, I dropped Dempsey off where I’d picked him up and headed to the garage where the vampires had taken me. Corbin could have been anywhere in the city, but I had to start somewhere, and he’d be easier to find than Thomas. Getting him to tell me the truth would be the harder part. Corbin’s loyalty was at least predictable. He was mostly concerned with himself. So if he thought I could somehow help him, he’d be more likely to work with me than against me.
If Paolo was in the city, then this was a whole different game. Corbin probably wouldn’t go against his direct orders, which could have been why he suggested I get Sy involved. I stared at the painted-over windows of the garage. Paolo and the other vampires could easily be inside doing whatever it was vampires did during the day: sleeping, Twister, knitting, day drinking…
Charging inside in the middle of the afternoon certainly wasn’t going to make any friends. The street was quiet. There were no signs of life at all, which was weird for being in the middle of the city on a sunny afternoon. I glanced around at the surrounding buildings. Most of them were abandoned. The occasional one still had a sign hanging on the door, but the windows were dark.
I parked a few blocks away in an area with more signs of life. On foot, I went toward the vampire lair and slipped into the back of the building across the street from the garage. The building had layers of dirt over the floor, broken glass everywhere, colorful graffiti on the walls, and, more importantly, a clean line of sight to the entrance across the street. I set up camp beside the window and settled in to wait.
Most of the day ticked by with little to no action. A few vampire groupies went in—someone must have needed a snack—but other than that, no one came out. As the sky grew darker, more and more vampires came out. I had never seen this many vampires in one area in my entire life, and they weren’t trying to blend in. They moved fast or stood completely still. Not one of them even glanced at the building. The skin on the back of my neck prickled as even more joined the crowd. What in the hell was happening here?
Still no one had come out of the garage, or at least no one that I had witnessed. There was probably another entrance, but that really didn’t seem to matter when there were throngs of vampires just outside on the other side of my window. If they caught me here, I was in real trouble. Trouble I probably couldn’t get out of, even with Holden and Olivia’s help.
A creak behind me snapped my attention away from the window. I flipped around, knife in hand and already pulling another one.
A little human child stared up at me with huge gray eyes on top of his bony body. “They’ll find you here. Follow me,” he whispered, abruptly turning around, walking around like there wasn’t a vampire block party less than five feet from us.
Keeping my knife in hand, I stayed close to the walls and in the shadows as I followed the kid. He didn’t head for the back door. Instead, he led me to what appeared to have been a kitchen of some sort. He glanced over his shoulder, making sure I was still with him, before he shoved a little door in the wall about halfway up and climbed inside, disappearing.
I moved toward it cautiously. “Hey, kid,” I called out.
“Follow me.” His little voice came from above. “Hurry. They know you’re here.”
I paused, listening for any indication that someone was coming, but there was nothing. The building was dead silent. I pushed the door in the wall up a couple more inches before it ground to a halt. I ducked down and looked inside. It was basically a narrow shaft in the wall that went up a couple floors. The kid scurried up the rope to the top floor before swinging his legs out, like he had done it a hundred times, and climbed through another opening door. I took hold of the single rope hanging down the center and tugged on it. It’d hold.
He stuck his head back inside and motioned for me to follow. “Hurry,” he said.
“Oh hell,” I muttered to myself, slipped my knife back into its holder, and climbed through. Why wouldn’t I let this kid lead me into another trap? I obviously didn’t have enough problems in my life. I closed the dumbwaiter door behind us—just in case someone was actually following—then climbed the rope and slid through the opening without making a sound.
The room at the top wasn’t really even a room. It was just the space between the roof and the ceiling. The child balanced on the crossbeam and was already across the room. “Faster,” he said.
“Where are we going?” I asked, walking behind him across the beams.
“Shhhh,” he said, pressing his finger to his lips. “Vampires.” He darted forward like we were being pursued, but I had yet to see another soul.
I caught up with the kid, taking him by the shoulder. “The vampires don’t know we’re here.”
He pointed out the small dormer window. I lightly stepped across the boards until I could look out. We were facing the street. Everything looked fairly normal—until I saw him. Paolo stood in front of the garage just out of sight from where I had been, staring at the building, completely still. The starkness of his face and cold death in his eyes sent shivers down my spine. He was the oldest and strongest of the vampires. Sure, he had never really liked me, but he also never wanted me dead. Why, all of a sudden, would I matter so much to him?
Vampires didn’t have any official hierarchy. They resisted legislation—all except Paolo. I had never met a vampire who wouldn’t do practically anything to stay on his good side. Even Corbin wasn’t immune. The rumor was if you displeased Paolo, you had maybe a day to get your affairs in order. I didn’t know a lot about the inner workings of how or why he’d taken on this responsibility, but I did know that he was “friends” with Sy—whatever that meant.
Just looking at him, he didn’t appear to be the type who had friends. Not in the way I had them, at least. He looked through the swarms of vampires right at the building, like he could see through the walls and straight into me, though I wasn’t there anymore. His face maintained a passive expression as he stoically waited for me to be dragged kicking and screaming out of the building and into the mob.
“Did Corbin send you?” I asked the kid, but he was already moving again.
He pushed open a trapdoor in the roof and pulled himself up. Outside, he pressed his back to the brick and peeked out over the top. He waited a couple seconds then nodded to me before he climbed over the ledge and dropped down to the next building’s roof a few feet lower. I was tempted to check the back alley to see if anyone was back there, but I kept going.
The kid took me across roofs with drops and climbs until we were finally out of buildings he could get across, all without saying a word. On the last building, he ran across the roof to the back and popped his head up, looking over. I did the same. The tail end of a line of vampires dressed in full SWAT gear went inside the building where I had been.
Finally, when no one was left, he scaled the downspout and landed safely on the street. When my feet touched the ground, he sprinted in the opposite direction as the vampires and I followed. After all, he had gotten me this far.
Zigzagging down blocks and alleyways, we finally left the more commercial area and went into an older residential section. We stopped in front of a blue house with two windows and a red door facing the street. The house was dark, but the kid pointed at it. “In there,” he said.
I grabbed the kid by the shirt before he took off again. “I’m not moving another step until you tell me who is in there and why they sent you.”
He pushed against me, but I didn’t let him go. “The vamps don’t care about me. I’m too scrawny. They don’t even see me. He sent me to getcha before they did. You couldn’t see them. You didn’t know.” He tried to shove away again then glanced worriedly over his shoulder. “Lady, you trying to get us killed. Get inside before they find us. He’s waiting.”
“Who?”
The kid kicked me in the shin as hard as he could and then bit my hand. Fear was so evident in his eyes that I let him go. He wasn’t going to tell me anything else. Besides, he had been right about the vampires comi
ng for me. By the time I heard them, it would have already been too late for me to do anything but fight. I considered the house again. It looked like any other house in the area, but it was dark inside where the rest were brightly lit.
I could have left, gone back to my car, and found Amos or Dempsey so we could continue working on the case. Holden was probably right that I should have started with solving the case and left the vampires alone until I knew more, but finding Corbin seemed harmless enough. But since I was already here, I wanted to know who was inside and how whoever it was knew where I would be.
There was only one way to find out. I pulled out my knives as I climbed the steps. The door was unlocked. Inside, all the shades were closed tight and taped along the edges. A vampire was definitely squatting here.
“I knew you’d come,” the one voice I didn’t expect said. Thomas.
The sound came from the darkest part of the shadows, but I could still make out his form. Just the sight of him made my fist clench at my side. He had a lot of nerve bringing me anywhere. The last time he swore to help me and my friends, he abandoned us at the first sign we might not win. He was a coward and a traitor, and now he was messing up my case. “You better talk fast,” I told him through clenched teeth.
He stepped into the dim light. He looked rough. Those piercing blue eyes were sunk in and had heavy bags beneath them. His cheekbones were more pronounced, and the skin around his eyes almost seemed to be stretched and thin. He looked older. “I’m glad you came.”
“It’s not like you gave me much of a choice.”
“I sent a child to get you, Femi. You could have stayed. The decision was entirely yours on whether or not you followed him and how far you were willing to go. But you came the whole way.” He smiled a little. “You knew it was me.”
I laughed, but it wasn’t because any of this was funny. “I thought it was Corbin, actually. I came because I wanted to see him. You never even entered my mind.”
Thomas’s jaw tightened and his eyes narrowed. “I hadn’t realized the two of you were so close.”
“Why would you?” I asked. I didn’t owe Thomas anything. In fact, the only one in this room who had anything to feel guilty over was him. “Had I known it was you, I would have called Corbin and told him where you were. He’s been looking for you.”
His smile held, but sadness filled his eyes. “I had to leave you in Arizona. You have to see that. I had no choice. They would have killed me…us all if I stayed. It was more dangerous for you if I stayed than if I left. And you survived, so it isn’t like my leaving did any real harm.”
I pressed my hands against my face, trying hard to not yell at him. “And yet Corbin hasn’t abandoned me even once. Even when he doesn’t want to help, he still manages to do more than you. Doesn’t say much for your character, does it?”
“His situation is different from mine. I was trying not to burden you further.”
“Sure, leaving me for dead is definitely less of a burden. I have an idea, though. How about next time, you stay out of my fucking life.” I crossed my arms. “I am so sick of your excuses. Everything you do is your choice. You’re not a victim.” I dropped my hands back to my sides and took a step into the room. So long as I had him here, I wanted answers. “How did you know where I was?”
“Sy is not the only one with spies. He has his friends and I have mine.”
I blinked. “What spies are those?”
He shook his head. “I’m sorry you’re caught in the middle of this. I never intended for that to happen again, but this time I swear it isn’t my fault.”
“It never is,” I said. And yet in direct opposition, he kept popping up in my life. What did he think would happen? The vampires wanted him, and the only time they ever got close was when I was somehow involved. Of course they would see me as the link. He knew it and I knew it. “Why am I here? I know you didn’t warn me out of the kindness of your heart. I mean, if you honestly cared at all about my life, then you would never have come back here, because every time you do, they believe that I have this magical ability to get into contact with you, which we both know is a lie.”
He ran his fingers through his hair. “I heard they had captured you. I had to see for myself if there was anything I could do.”
I stamped my foot. “Stop lying. You left a package for me at my hotel before the vampires took me. Try again.”
His head tilted to the side and those blue eyes softened. “I need your help.” His voice ran down my arms like a caress.
More vampire trickery, but this time it was harder to shake off. No matter how angry I was, no matter how much he deserved to be hated, I couldn’t do it. And to make matters worse, he was completely hateable. I closed my eyes, trying to dislodge the softer memories that fought to come forward. They were a lie. Everything about him was a lie.
“Every time I help you, you screw me over. I wouldn’t cross the road to get a glass of water if you were on fire. That is how I feel about you. Why don’t you understand this? The last time I saw you was your second chance, and you did it again. You could have gotten me and all of my friends killed. I’m done. Whatever you need, figure it out on your own.” I turned back to the door. “I’ll give you two hours before I tell Corbin where you are. That’s the only help I’m offering today, and it’s more than you deserve.”
“We want the same things, Femi,” he said softly.
“Clearly we don’t.” I just wanted him to leave me alone. “Stop talking before I change my mind and call him now. Turning you over would solve a lot of problems in my life.”
“If you give me to them, your problems will just begin.”
I rolled my eyes and grabbed the door handle. More words. That was all he ever had. The perfect words to make me feel bad for him, to make me question what I know, but that was all they were—words. His actions were the only true part of him.
“You’re here about the killings.” His voice cracked through my internal pep talk. “About the loup-garou.”
I didn’t want to turn around. If I did, he’d pull me into whatever web he was weaving, and by the time it was over, I’d know less than when I started. And that was the last thing I needed. But at the same time, he knew about the loup-garou, and that wasn’t something I could ignore, not when all of my leads were so thin. I turned around, though every muscle in my body rebelled against it. “What do you know about the loup-garou?”
“I know who it is.”
“Who?”
“It’s me.”
Chapter 12
