At least I wasn’t tense about them when I left the office after turning in the equipment and my report. But I was stressed as hell about Silke, wondering why she’d chosen now to do a disappearing act. If she’d chosen to do so at all. I remembered her telling me that “they” could find her if they wanted….
As I drove to her place, I used my cell to check my messages, both phones. Nothing. Maybe she was simply acting out. She’d come to me for help and I had pushed her out of the case. Maybe together, we could make sense of what was going on.
Only Silke was gone.
Her apartment was a mess. Not the kind when there’d been foul play, but the Silke kind. Stuff all over. Including her Goth makeup. And her closet seemed torn apart, as if she’d been looking for something specific.
My gaze lit on the books she’d been reading. One had been left open. I glanced inside and saw something about creating a simple spell to control the elements. Well, if she’d been messing with Mother Nature, I didn’t know about it. We had a sunny summer day going for us.
So why was I so nervous about what she was up to?
I feared she’d decided to come to the party to play I Spy for herself.
“Silke, where are you? I would do anything to get one of those messages that make me so cranky.”
But of course the internal airwaves were silent. And I was beginning to feel really, really sick inside. If something had happened to her, I knew I had only myself to blame.
When had I disconnected with Silke?
When had I stop listening to that inner voice that told me when she was in trouble?
When had refusing to be open become part of my nature?
I thought about it and realized this went all the way back to my roughing up Silke’s wanna-be boyfriend. I’d been wrong and wouldn’t admit it then. And now, after all these years, I simply didn’t know how to be wrong anymore. That’s where the attitude came from—the one Silke and Mom and Al had all noted. Rather than accept failure and learn from it, I’d rejected the possibility of failing. Just as I’d rejected the gift Silke and I shared. In a way, I’d rejected her, the other half of myself.
My eyes filled with tears.
My life was looming before me like one big toilet bowl. I had no idea if I could actually resolve this case and put my ghosts to rest. Mom and I had an uneasy truce, but I didn’t know how long that would last. I’d been keeping everyone at bay. And now I feared something horrible had happened to my twin.
Losing Silke wasn’t an option.
I climbed onto her open sofa bed and hugged the pillow still sweet with her scent. Closing my eyes, I inhaled slowly.
Silke, where are you?
No response.
I concentrated on seeing her, not Goth Silke, but my twin Silke, my mirror image.
I know something’s wrong. Help me to help you.
Nothing.
Years ago, we’d taken yoga together. We’d learned to meditate. Well, I’d learned the theory anyway. The practice kind of drove me nuts. But I remembered the mantra. I lay back on the bed, eyes still closed, and relaxed my body. Then relaxed my mind.
For the first time since we were adolescents, I opened myself to what I feared most.
My breath came slow and deep as I opened the door to my subconscious. Over and over, I called to Silke as I felt myself drifting…searching…aware.
Suddenly I lay in a bed, not here, but someplace tomblike with flickers of light…torches whose flames licked the dark. I couldn’t move; my wrists and feet felt secured.
Silke, is that you?
Shell…?
I almost cried when I felt her.
Are you all right?
Afraid…
The word drifted through my mind. I didn’t think she actually said it, but I felt it like a cold fist closing around my heart. The darkness crowded in on me, and I could hardly breathe. I almost panicked out of my altered state. Somehow, I calmed myself and stayed there.
My mind was whirling. Hard to focus. Harder to form actual words. Drugged?
Silke, did they drug you?
I felt her assent rather than heard it. And then I felt her, as if she were inside me.
We were confused, disconnected from everyone but us.
We were one.
Then suddenly no Silke. I shot straight up with my heart pounding like mad.
“Silke…where did you go?”
I couldn’t complete the unthinkable.
I knew the murderer had her. I also knew she had one chance of getting out alive.
Me!
Chapter 17
Willing to do anything to get Silke back safe, I didn’t run off half-cocked.
I tried Norelli. I would take any help I could get, assuming I could get him to believe me. But Norelli’s voice mail answered; he must have gone out on another case.
“Norelli, this has to do with the murders. My sister’s been snatched and I’m after her. You get this before you hear from me again, call me on my cell.”
I left the same message for Walker.
Even though it took more precious time than I wanted to lose, I prepared properly for battle. Under my suit jacket, I carried not only my gun and holster, but also attached to my belt were handcuffs, a sheathed knife, a tactical light and telescoping steel baton, a stun gun and a canister of Mace. I’d also stuffed a half-dozen throwing stars that I’d bought in Chinatown in my breast pocket.
The problem was, what if Jake had been right and a standard weapon wouldn’t work on the killer?
I still didn’t believe in vampires, but I wasn’t going to let anything get by me, so as I set out, I stopped at the nearest Catholic church and then the local hardware store for additional “weapons” just in case. No point in taking any chances.
Nothing—and I mean nothing—was going to let me lose Silke.
Armed and dangerous, I was driving straight for Desiree’s mansion before deciding that perhaps I should have alerted Jake. I’d discredited his vampire spiel, but now I wasn’t so certain about anything. I had to admit that no matter how it played out, I would feel better with backup, and I’d never had better than Jake. Besides which, I couldn’t do what I might have to do if I made this official.
Calling Mom was out of the question, too. I didn’t want to freak her out, at least not until I figured out what was what.
I took out my cell phone and keyed in Jake’s number. No Jake, though. Just voice mail.
“It’s me. Silke’s gone. I think she’s in danger. I’m going to get her back. I’m starting at Desiree’s.” About to hang up, I quickly added, “I would feel better with you watching my back.”
But unfortunately, it looked as if I was on my own.
I was acting all brave and macho here, but part of me knew I could be killed. And to my surprise, I couldn’t stand the thought of dying without ever seeing Jake again.
By the time I turned down Desiree’s street, the afternoon shadows had grown long, but it was still full daylight. Jake had said he was sun sensitive, but I’d never seen him after dawn.
And maybe now I never would.
I left the duffel bag with its oversized weapon in the trunk of the car and stared up at the gray-stone building that looked shuttered and deserted.
Desiree was in there, I was certain…but what about Silke?
Now that I’d opened the floodgates, radio SILKE was sending out signals again, though they were sporadic and frightening. I got the definite idea that she believed she was in the hands of a real vampire.
All kinds of scenarios played through my head. Like Silke looking for me at the mansion. What if Desiree had been in the throes of her blood lust when Silke had met up with her?
What if the bar owner had figured out there were two of us and had decided that was one too many to make her feel safe? A cold hand wrapped around my heart as I took the front steps two at a time.
Forcing a woman to do something she didn’t want to do was Hung Chung territory. Or Elvin Mowry.
But I couldn’t discount Desiree, not until I checked her place for myself to see how deep she was into the cult.
I’d had no reason to notice the night before, but Desiree didn’t have a doorbell. Instead, I was met by a big brass knocker—a winged gargoyle that seemed to stare at me hungrily as I waited for someone to answer.
No one did.
I tried the handle. Locked. Too bad. I was going in and without a frickin’ search warrant. Nothing would stop me, not even if I had to kick down the door. Before putting my foot in jeopardy, however, I circled the building and looked up to see if that window along the back stairs was still cracked. It was. No ladders lying conveniently around. But there was a downspout that ran along the back of the building from the gutter on the roof straight into the ground.
Hoping that it would hold my weight, I tested it. Though old and loaded with peeling paint, the galvanized metal seemed sturdy enough. I reached high and hooked a hand in one of the metal hangers that attached the downspout to the building. I tugged. It didn’t budge, so I hung on to it with both hands and slapped both feet against the wall tight to either side of the drain. My climb from hanger to hanger a half floor up wasn’t pretty or smooth, but I managed it.
I paused to get my bearings, then reached out and grasped the sill of the open window. I slid my hand inside to find a better grip. Transferring the other hand over was a scary prospect, I was off balance, leaning way over sideways. And when I unhooked my right foot from behind the pipe, my body swung fast and slapped against the wall with a thud.
What was another bruise or three?
I grabbed on to the sill hard and pulled myself up, listened a moment to make certain the coast was clear, then stuck my head through the opening and used my shoulders to inch the window up higher so I could drag my body through.
I landed on the stairs as gently as possible. I paused to catch my breath and concentrated hard to sense Silke’s presence. Nothing. Either she wasn’t close by or she was passed out again.
The house was silent, the upstairs as dark as it had been the night before. I crept up the half flight and down the hall, leaving the fleeting light from the window behind me. Shadows layered over shadows. I imagined I heard them breathing. The very house seemed to be gasping for breath.
But no, just me.
Sounds I was making magnified themselves through my head. My heartbeat grew more rapid as I approached Desiree’s chambers. The door creaked open to reveal the dressing room empty but alight with candles. The room beyond was as dark as a tomb.
Before I could get to the bedroom to see if Silke lay between the bloodred sheets, an angry voice whispered in my ear, “How dare you violate my property?”
I jumped and whirled and came face-to-face with Desiree herself, her beautiful face twisted into a grotesque mask of anger. Surreptitiously, or so I thought, I reached for a weapon. Lightning fast, Desiree had hold of my wrist, her grip so tight I thought she would snap it.
How could a woman so slight be so strong?
Even so, she didn’t give my wrist that sharp twist that would break the bones, so I tried to relax, to sound normal. “The question is, who are you? Are you simply a bar owner into perverted sex acts or is there more?”
“Silke?”
She released my wrist. The anger in her face faded to puzzlement. And worry, though undoubtedly that was for herself. Okay, so she didn’t have my twin tied to her bed and probably didn’t know where Silke was. Which didn’t exactly clear her of all wrongdoing.
“Silke disappeared last night,” I said. “I’m her sister, Detective Shelley Caldwell. I’ve been the one working the bar the last several days.”
Desiree’s eyes closed and her head hung forward as if she were defeated. “The murders…the innocent girls…”
“And more,” I said without giving her the specifics of the homeless victims. “What do you know, Desiree? You need to cooperate.”
She said something low and passionate in French, then told me, “This never changes, no matter where I seek shelter.”
“Are you saying you’re the murderer?”
“No! I do not kill!”
Odd the way she stated her denial. A worm of discomfort crawled up my spine. “I saw you and the blonde last night, Desiree. I know what you did to her.”
“Ah, so you were under the bed. Did you enjoy watching?”
“I was disgusted.”
She dropped her gaze. “I try not to feed—sometimes I think to simply fade away—but survival instincts are strong.” She said again, “But I do not kill.”
Which reminded me of Jake’s assurance about vampires, how they normally didn’t kill their sources of food, but instead used them as blood donors. I tried to swallow the explanation, but it stuck in my throat.
“Start from the beginning,” I suggested.
“Not relevant. You were not even alive when I was made.”
Jaw clenching at the last, I said, “Try me.”
“You know what I am. I’ve been this way for so long that I do not remember the other. When I was like you.”
The bar owner was intimating that she was a vampire. So was everyone crazy but me?
“What are you now?” I asked.
“A woman who has nothing to live for. I did once, long ago. His name was Charles, and he didn’t care what I was.”
Desiree moved around the room, and as she spoke of her former lover, she glowed with beauty. Her eyes glowed also, for just a moment.
And then the light went out.
“Charles would have let me bleed him to survive, but I wouldn’t use him that way. It would have changed him. And I loved him too much to let him see me like that.”
Caught by the passion in her tone, I was moved. And I thought about Jake. Could I ever feel that way about him? Would I get the chance to find out?
“My master couldn’t tolerate my obsession for a human. Francois drained Charles’s blood and killed him. First I wept until there was nothing left in me but the thirst for revenge. And then I returned the favor.”
“You drained Francois’s blood?”
Laughing, Desiree stopped in front of me. “That wouldn’t have destroyed him. I cut out his heart.”
“You realize you just admitted to a crime.”
“I killed no one. Francois was undead. I merely destroyed his remains. Do you think to see that I am punished, sister-to-Silke? Nothing is worse than existing as I have all these years. When Charles died, I had made a vow never to drink human blood again, but I am too weak….”
“You expect me to believe you’re a real vampire.”
“I expect nothing of anyone but the worst, including myself. When the urge gets overwhelming, I do what I need to.” Again, she said, “I do not kill,” as if that would somehow excuse her from the things she did do that she hated so much.
Like Jake’s mother…
Not wanting to see her as some victim, I shook away the pity that threatened me. “Who does kill, Desiree?” I was certain she knew. “Elvin Mowry? Hung Chung?”
“I can’t tell you anything more.”
Desiree turned away from me, and this time I grabbed her wrist so she couldn’t leave. She snarled and struck out with such surprising quickness and strength that I went flying. My shoulder hit the gargoyle and when I landed on the floor, it was teetering on its pedestal and grinning down at me.
I scrambled to my feet away from it.
“The one I’m looking for does kill, Desiree. You know that. LaTonya, Thora, Raven…maybe others. He needs to be stopped.”
“I cannot help.”
“Can’t? Or won’t?”
“He’s far older than I…far more powerful.”
He. Despite the fact that I’d had to consider Desiree a suspect, I’d been pretty sure the murderer was a man.
“I cannot help you. He will sense me coming and will vanish. You’ll have to locate his lair yourself.”
“His lair?”
But before the words were ou
t of my mouth, Desiree had vanished into thin air. “Desiree?”
There was no answer. I rubbed my tired eyes, but there was no denying the fact that Desiree had vanished before me, just as Vampyres among Us said vampires could. If I believed in vampires.
I was beginning to wonder how I could not.
I searched the rest of the house for Desiree or signs of my sister and found neither of them. Desiree was just gone. But she had mentioned a lair before doing her bizarre disappearing act. The same lair Sheena had heard about from Mowry?
Those tunnels were extensive and my first venture into them had been a bust. I needed help…lots of it. Especially since I was starting to feel a little crazy myself.
As I drove off toward Lake Street, I tried Jake’s number and got his voice mail again. I didn’t bother to leave a message this time.
After parking directly in front of the boarded-up meat market, I got the duffel bag out of the trunk. Fear held me in its clammy palm at the thought of going back in the labyrinth alone.
This was Silke’s life and maybe my life, and whatever I found or didn’t find, I had to chance being wrong. But first I would try to get help. I called Area 4 and got Norelli.
“Norelli. I need backup and now. I got a lead…and the murderer has my sister.”
“You know that how?”
“I just know it. Trust me.”
I gave him the address. He said he and Walker would be there, but he didn’t sound as if he had a fire under him, and I didn’t trust him. So I did the only other thing I could. I called my mother. Unfortunately her voice mail picked up. Without giving her any but the barest details so she wouldn’t panic over Silke, I left a message asking her to send in the troops as soon as she heard this. If I was wrong about my instincts, I didn’t care anymore. Silke was in danger and I couldn’t let my ego get in the way of saving her.
Jake had slept like the undead. Something had awakened him, but he wasn’t quite sure what.
It felt as if he’d been on the move forever looking for his mother’s maker, when it had been in truth less than a decade. A decade since his mother had decided she’d had enough, that as much as she loved him, she couldn’t continue living like a ravaging animal.
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