by Elle Adams
Through the dim glass, a number of people had gathered just inside the reception area, chief of whom was the huge, intimidating Steve the gargoyle—leader of the local police force.
Oh no. Recently, he’d caught me at a crime scene and locked me up for it. I’d been avoiding him for weeks.
Then I spotted the person in handcuffs next to him.
Alissa.
2
I pushed open the doors to the hospital and entered without stopping to think. Nobody noticed me at first, since their attention was on the gargoyle and his prisoner.
“I didn’t do it,” said Alissa, her face pale and her expression distraught. “You must know I didn’t.”
“A vampire was killed,” said Steve, his voice harsh. “You were the last person in the room. And it looks like your accomplice just showed up.”
Now everyone looked at me. Worse, Steve wasn’t the only gargoyle present. Huge and muscular, with greying hair, he reminded me of stone cliffs and had an expression to match.
“You’re being ridiculous,” said one of Alissa’s co-workers. “Everyone uses that room. And Blair… what is Blair doing here?”
“My familiar dragged me here,” I said. “After Alissa. Just what is going on?”
“They found a body,” Alissa said.
“Er,” I said. “Not to sound insensitive, but isn’t the hospital one of the few places where it’s not unusual to find a dead body?”
“The dead man was a vampire,” responded one of the gargoyles.
“Er… they’re already dead, right?” This was not going well. But if I didn’t figure out what had yanked the gargoyle’s chain, Alissa might be locked in a cell overnight. That wasn’t an experience I’d wish on anyone.
“The vampire was poisoned,” said the gargoyle. “Specifically, by poison in the blood bank. The last person to go into that room was your friend.”
My heart sank. Surely nobody would think Alissa was a murderer. No way.
“It might have been an accident,” said the nurse who’d spoken, a young Asian woman around my age. “Vampires are immune to a lot of things that are poisonous to humans. Someone might have put it into the blood supply or dropped it…”
“You don’t accidentally put poison in the blood supply,” said Steve. “This was murder.” To say the guy was a little trigger-happy when it came to arresting people first and asking questions later was an understatement. Not Alissa. She would never.
“Who exactly was it who died?” I asked.
“One of our oldest vampire residents, Lord Goddard.”
Not Vincent, I thought, with some relief. Not that I necessarily liked the slightly creepy leading vampire—who was capable of mind-reading, among other things—but he was the only vampire I was on friendly speaking terms with. And he was also friends with my cat.
Wait. Maybe that’s how Sky had known Alissa was in trouble. I didn’t think Vincent could read minds over a distance, let alone telepathically communicate with my not-quite-familiar, but it made more sense than the alternatives. Sky was definitely more magical than he let on, at any rate.
“This vampire was here to get blood?” I asked.
“Of course,” said the nurse. “The vamps come and go all the time, so nobody pays too much attention when one of them uses the blood bank. He was found dead in the corridor. The effects came on fast.”
“Which was no doubt the plan,” snapped Steve the Gargoyle. “Nobody would question finding a dead body in a hospital. Vampire or not.”
“Actually, they would,” said the nurse. “Vampires don’t get sick and rarely die. Unless they’re deprived of blood, but this is the primary source in town.”
That fit with what I knew. I’d only run into Vincent here before, but most vampires used the blood bank.
“Whoever it is knew how to kill an immortal,” said Steve. “That means they must be arrested and apprehended immediately to protect the other residents of the town.”
Ah. That’s why he was freaked out. Killing a vampire was something even a stone-fisted gargoyle wasn’t capable of. In fact, I’d thought the vampires had no weaknesses at all.
“The vampires have a lot of enemies,” said Alissa. “Certainly, the older ones do.”
“If you mean the werewolves, didn’t you date one once?” asked the gargoyle closest to the doors, a brutish woman with thick dark hair.
Alissa flushed. “What does my love life have to do with anything?”
Steve’s eyes gleamed and he loomed over Alissa. “Did a werewolf put you up to this?”
“You’re being absurd,” she said. “I didn’t murder him. I’d have no reason to. And I’m not currently in contact with the werewolf pack.”
Indignation surged within me on her behalf, and it was tempting to point my malfunctioning wand in the general direction of the gargoyle and ‘accidentally’ make him grow a tail for poking his nose into Alissa’s private life. It still bewildered me a little that Alissa had dated the beta of the local pack, considering his hobby was playing the guitar for the possible worst band in the entire paranormal world. But that was none of the gargoyles’ business. Vampires were known for being paranoid, particularly where the werewolves were concerned, but I wanted Alissa away from the case before she ended up locked in jail.
“Alissa would have traces of the poison on her if she did it,” I pointed out. “And blood. Right?”
“Or,” said the nurse, “is it possible one of the donors was poisoned beforehand and we only found out today?”
“Someone would have noticed,” another nurse put in. “That blood has been there for days, at least, but it can be tested by a strong divining spell.”
“That’s up to the witches.” Steve didn’t move, remaining behind Alissa. “In the meantime, we need to take in the suspect as a precaution.”
“She hasn’t done anything to implicate herself as a suspect,” I said. “There are dozens of other people who use that room, right? Did she even know the guy?”
Alissa shot me a grateful look. “No, I can’t say I personally knew him.”
“There you have it. No motive.” I was trying to speak to Steve on his level, but his level was stubborn-as-a-rock and when he was on a mission, nothing would deter him.
At that moment, Vincent glided into the room, causing all attention to abruptly turn in his direction. “It seems a friend of mine has been murdered.”
There was a moment’s pause while everyone took in the vampire’s sudden appearance. His skin was icy pale, with the appearance of one of those almost-realistic-looking wax models. His tar-black hair made him look even paler and he wore a dark suit, like he’d walked out of a handbook describing what vampires were supposed to look like. He alternated between gloomy, cryptic, and creepily seductive, depending on the day of the week. I’d never thought I’d be glad to see him.
I glanced down to my feet in search of Sky, but he wasn’t there. Must have run back home, if he had any sense. I never did understand that cat.
Vincent’s gaze travelled across the gathered staff, along with a few patients who’d clearly sneaked in to see what was going on, and the grim-faced gargoyles. His scan of the room ended on Steve, who hovered behind Alissa as though he planned to send her right to the gallows. I couldn’t help myself from trying to catch his eye, but as a mind-reader, he’d likely have picked up on the situation—and Alissa’s innocence—the moment he entered the room.
“Vincent.” Steve gave him a nod that almost bordered on respectful. I blinked in surprise. I guessed even the chief of police showed deference to the town’s oldest resident. “I suppose you heard?”
“Through several means.”
A shiver went through the crowd as though everyone was trying hard not to imagine what those means might be.
“None of the people in this room committed the murder,” Vincent announced.
Steve looked as though Christmas had been cancelled. “In that case,” he said, addressing the nearest nurse, “contact
all staff who aren’t currently here but who might have been in the room today. In the meantime, I will question everyone who was near the donor room before his death.”
Alissa made an indignant noise. “You don’t want to distress the patients—"
“The killer might still be in the building!” said the female gargoyle beside the door. “In one of the other wards.”
Alissa moved to follow the gargoyles leaving the room, but Steve blocked the way.
At the same moment, the vampire took a casual step towards him. “Have you any evidence against that woman?” he asked.
“No,” Steve growled. Despite his furious expression, the vampire clearly rattled him. I stored that information away to tease him with later, and to my intense relief, Steve removed the handcuffs from Alissa and followed the other gargoyles. Several had caused a bottleneck in the corridor, their path blocked by nurses yelling, “This is a hospital! Keep the noise down!”
Freed from her handcuffs, Alissa made her way over to me. “Blair. What are you doing here?”
“Sky,” I said. “He dragged me here. Must have known. He and the vampire are friends—” I broke off as said vampire turned to face us.
Alissa took a step backwards, out of the vampire’s range. Vincent moved faster than ordinary people did and made little effort to hide it. While he seemed to have formed a weird friendship with my cat, that didn’t mean he liked either of us personally, but he had just spared Alissa a night in a jail cell.
“Er, thank you,” Alissa said tentatively.
“It took no great effort,” he said dismissively, his attention on me rather than her.
“Do you know who might have killed your friend?” I asked.
“I have a few suspicions,” said the vampire. “Steve’s quest to find the murderer in here is likely to be a disappointment. The killer will have left immediately after poisoning the blood.”
“He shouldn’t be allowed to distress the patients,” said Alissa, her hands clenching at her sides.
Vincent tilted his head. “It sounds like the nurses are winning the argument.”
The noise from the corridor was too jumbled for me to make much sense out of it, but having enhanced senses must come in handy.
“Is Steve scared of vampires?” I asked. “Why, it’s not like your fangs can bite through stone… can they?”
He gave me a wide humourless smile, and I wished I’d never asked.
“I would advise you to go home, Blair.”
Vincent disappeared before I could ask whether he’d been the one to lure Sky here. I’d say yes, unless my cat was psychic. You never knew.
The important thing was that Alissa and I were free—at least, for now.
“We should go,” I said to her. “I know you’re meant to be working, but—”
“Yeah.” She nodded. “I just hate the thought of Steve rampaging around terrorising the patients. He should be supervised.”
“He should, but not by us. If he suspects either of us, the other is guilty by association.”
Not to mention her relationship with Bryan of the werewolf pack. How had the gargoyles even known that? Steve might be the leader of the local law enforcement, but he wasn’t the most observant person and was prone to rash actions. Like the time he’d arrested me and several other innocent people when Mr Falconer had faked his own death. I had my doubts about his ability to catch the actual killer even if they were sitting in this very room. The vampire was probably better at sniffing out killers.
“If anything, Vincent should be the leader of the law enforcement,” I said, as we left the hospital. “There’s no way to hide your thoughts from someone.”
“You can sense lies,” she reminded me. “That’s just as useful.”
“Not if I don’t ask the right questions.” Not to mention my ability had been temporarily switched off by a siren’s magic recently… a weakness I hadn’t been aware of before, and which made me uncomfortable to say the least. I’d begun to grow more secure in my ability to detect whether or not people were telling the truth, but despite using said ability to solve two murders, Steve remained opposed to the idea that I might have anything remotely useful to say. And if the killer wasn’t in the room and it was too dark to search outside, I was most definitely not expert enough to solve this particular case.
It was probably for the best that I didn’t get involved in yet another murder, but worry for Alissa preyed on my mind. Not to mention, if even Steve was afraid of vampires, who would have the audacity to murder one of them in such a way that it couldn’t be passed off as an accident?
“Are you working this weekend?” I asked Alissa.
“Tomorrow. I hope they’ll have caught the killer by then, for the sake of the patients.”
“Same here. That Vincent, though—he can read anyone’s mind. As soon as the killer goes near him, it’s over.”
“That’s why I don’t understand how it happened in the first place,” she said. “The vampire who died, he had the same ability. He’d have known if the killer was in the room. It’s the reason they’re so tough to kill. They can see you coming a mile off, through their senses if not through reading your mind. They say stakes are the best way to kill a vampire, but that isn’t true.”
“Poison, though?” I said. “What type?”
“Hemlock.” She grimaced. “Deadly to humans, too. But obviously, the blood in that area of the hospital is reserved for vampires only. They’re very picky, for creatures whose diets consist only of blood.”
“Sounds like fun for the person who has to deal with it.”
“That would be me. Earlier. That’s why they thought I put the poison in there. But I wasn’t the only person to go into that room, and besides, they had nothing on me.”
“I’m sorry that happened,” I said. “And I thought I was the one who kept wandering into murder sites.”
Her brow furrowed. “Yes, you do. You shouldn’t have come.”
“Sky insisted. I didn’t actually know you were in handcuffs when he dragged me outside. He and Vincent are friends, after all, so maybe he found out that way.”
She shook her head. “There’s no way I’ll be able to come with you to the falls tonight. They might arrest both of us.”
“I have to go,” I said. “I know it’s dangerous, but—it’s my family. I’ll be fine. I faced off against killer plants once, remember?”
She didn’t smile. “Blair, I really don’t think… the falls are dangerous even when it’s light outside. Let alone with a killer on the loose. Won’t you consider saving it for another night?”
I released a breath. “I don’t know how to contact whoever left the note. It might be my only chance.” However unappealing the idea of going to the falls alone with a killer wandering around might be. Self-preservation fought curiosity, and self-preservation was on the winning side. But if my family could leave a note, they might at least have signed it. I didn’t even know who had left it.
My phone rang. Nathan. Oh no. I guess he heard.
“Hey,” I said to him. “Did you hear? I guess you’re on security duty, right?”
“Yes, I am, but I wanted to warn you not to go out tonight,” Nathan said. “I found a body in the woods, the police are involved—I know you like your night time excursions, but I guessed you wanted to cut our date short for a reason.”
Busted. In fairness, he had a point, but… who else died? “A body? Whose?” Not another vampire?
“Don’t come out tonight,” he repeated.
He hung up. I stared at the phone. “He can’t leave me hanging like that.”
“Nathan figured out your plan?” she asked.
“No, he still doesn’t know. And—and he found a body in the woods. What if it was the person I was supposed to meet with?”
“That’s a stretch. I wouldn’t jump to that conclusion. They wanted to meet you at the waterfall, not in the forest.”
“The forest is right next to the waterfall.”
The meeting is. I held my tongue. She’d been through enough tonight already, and I still hadn’t decided whether or not to go ahead and follow the note’s instructions even before dead bodies had started showing up.
I’d nearly paid for my last spate of reckless decisions with my life.
I hope I don’t regret this.
3
I was flying. Wings spread wide, over an endless expanse of blue. The wind whipped my hair back and roared in my ears. There were others around me, but my gaze was tied to the sky and I couldn’t look away to see who else was there. Under the wind, voices clashed around me, a jumble of noise.
Something was chasing us…
Crash.
For a brief instant, I thought I’d actually hit a tree head-first. Then I blinked dazedly, wriggling upright to find my legs tangled in my bedcovers on the floor. Sky the cat sat where I’d been lying, until he’d nudged me off the bed.
I groaned and disentangled myself from the covers. “Ow. Thanks for that.”
“Miaow.” Sky sat expectantly on the bed, wearing his ‘pet me’ expression.
“Yes, I know you warned me about Alissa.” I tossed the covers aside. I’d barely slept, knowing I’d made the sensible decision to stay put, but unable to rid myself of a deep, horrible ache in my chest.
I’d missed my chance to meet my family.
But what choice did I have? The forest had been right next to the waterfall, and Nathan’s strained voice when he’d told me about the body betrayed panic. Even if my family hadn’t been involved in whatever had taken place in the forest last night, they’d probably expected me to stay away from the falls for my own safety.
As midnight passed, I’d looked out the window at the pitch-black garden, wishing there was a way to get a message through to my family. Once or twice I’d been sure I’d seen the flutter of wings, and even grabbed my slippers and ran outside, but found nothing. Just my imagination.
It was way too early to be up on a Saturday, but I had to do something besides lie in bed feeling sorry for myself. Now daylight was here, it was past time for me to find out who’d died in the forest.
