by J. Thiele
“Ray! Enough. You didn’t see what we saw last night. I don’t want to believe it either. I’m not saying there is any such thing as Vampires, but there is definitely something out there, and it’s not human. No human can take a bullet, then move as fast as that thing did, leaving without a trace.”
A loud grumble was heard making its way to the conference room. A voice Casey knew all too well. The door flew open, and Pearce stood before them. “Right kids, what’s happening on this fucking case? Who have you collared and when will the report land on my fucking desk?”
‘Fuck! He is going to have another heart attack if we tell him our theory and he'll land straight back in that hospital bed again.’ Casey thought to herself.
“Captain, welcome back. Are you ready?” she asked
“Well of course I’m ready!” He snapped. “Somebody’s got to keep the ball in play. You clowns seem to have come to a standstill, the mayors been calling all fucking morning looking for a name, and I tell him the same shit every time. ‘We’re working on it.’ the public outcry is going to force an early election if we don’t get this prick off the streets.” He winked at Casey and pulled up a seat. She shot him a brief smile, glad to hear that bitter sweet tone at the helm again. “So, what do we have on him so far?” he asked.
“Sir, there is a very real possibility that we are chasing a female.” The room fell silent, no-one was game to open up and start telling the old man what they’d witnessed the night before.
“I’ll say it.” Ray stated. “Sir the detectives here believe we are chasing a paranormal, a vampire to be more precise.”
Casey put her head in her hands, waiting for Pearce to explode, but the room stayed quiet.
“Yes, go on.” He insisted, breaking the silence.
Casey lifted her head, unsure of what to make of his reaction.
“Look you three; I’ve been in this business a long time. I’ve seen things that would give Charles Manson nightmares. If you think telling me the city has vampires roaming the streets is going to shock me, then you need to up whatever medications you’re on and give me something more than just a theory.”
Rick pulled all the photos and files and Casey started drawing lines on the whiteboard.
Ray sat dumbfounded, but even he had to admit that nothing else made sense. When the story led to the events of the previous night. The captain sat staring at Ray. “Keep up the fluids son. You need to replenish.” He turned his attention on the others, “This does not leave this room, is that understood? No-one else gets involved in this except those that are present right now. If I hear a whisper that any of you have spoken of it to anyone else I’ll have your badge and then have you committed to the nearest psych facility. Are we clear?” Not wanting the story leaked to the public for fear of pandemonium or worse, the loss of faith in law enforcement.
* * * * *
Later that evening, under the cover of night, the four of them headed to the western suburbs. They pulled their vehicles into an alleyway about a block from the warehouse.
“Right, we’ll split up here, and sweep the neighbourhood. If you see anything out of the norm, shoot to kill. I’ll take care of the paper work.” Pearce instructed. “And no heroics, I don’t want any more hospital beds taken up by my people. You all got your whistles?”
They all held up their regulation whistles. “Any trouble, don’t hesitate to blow that motherfucker as hard and as loud as you can. At this hour we shouldn’t have any trouble hearin’ ya.”
They exited the vehicle and went in four separate directions all leading toward the warehouse.
Casey felt like she was being watched. The hair on the back of her neck stood at attention and goose bumps covered her flesh. She was uneasy, as she felt the eyes that were praying on her were also closing in. She held her pistol bridging her wrist on her forearm as her flashlight scanned her surroundings. Constantly turning three hundred and sixty degrees, making sure nothing escaped the glow of her torch.
As she finished the final step of her turn, she came to face to face with the woman from Rays apartment. The woman let out a hissing sound and snarled, revealing her teeth. Her eye teeth protruded further than the others. The dark circles beneath her eyes made her appear demonic. Casey’s eyes were transfixed on hers. She stood frozen, fully conscious, but for some reason she was unable to move.
The woman pressed her face into Casey’s neck, and spoke with a tone that was hypnotic to her ears. “Interrupt me at meal time will you?”
Casey struggled to fight whatever force that was holding her still. She was not going down like this. But the more she struggled the tighter the grip appeared.
“You bitch! You fuck my friend just so you can feed on him, undo what ever spell you have on me and fight me like a woman.” Casey spat at her.
“Fuck your friend?” the woman laughed “I’d never let a human touch me, that my dear, was all in his head. An idea that I plated in him to avoid resistance. I merely wanted him to stay still while I had my way with him. This however is going to be very real.” She said as she pulled Casey’s hair tugging her head backwards exposing her neck. She drew her lips back from her fangs and was about to sink them into the soft exposed flesh of Casey’s throat, when Casey pulled every ounce of strength she had to pull forward and land a head butt to the woman’s face.
“Feisty hey?” she picked Casey up of the ground by the throat, her legs dangling like a puppet. Casey tried to kick out but her oxygen was being cut off and she’d used all the strength she could muster on the head butt. She threw Casey aside as if she were a discarded rag doll. She landed hard coughing and sputtering trying to catch her breath, to gather her bearings and fight the invisible force field all at the same time. She was face down on the bitumen when she heard the woman’s footsteps coming toward her. She rolled to her side to try and get a look at where she was, but as she did so the woman planted her boot into Casey’s stomach sending her flying again. ‘What the fuck is this bitch’ Casey couldn’t fathom the strength and speed that came from the woman whose frame was only slightly larger than her own. “Is that the best you’ve got BITCH?” Casey knew she shouldn’t try to antagonise her, but she was an antagonistic bitch herself by nature. The woman laid the boot in again, kicking Casey into a parked car, denting the side of it on impact. ‘Fuck! That’s gonna hurt in the morning.’ “Come on, you can do better than that.” Casey was starting to lose her vision; she knew one more blow would be the finish of her.
The female grabbed Casey by the ankle dragging her out into the open, bent over her and was about to administer the final blow when a hand from nowhere pulled her off of Casey. The person at the other end of the hand had the woman terrified. With a free hand he reached into the woman’s chest as if she were nothing more than tissue paper, and from it withdrew her heart. Black veins surfaced all over her body and her skin turned grey before she disintegrated into dust.
Casey shook her head, she must be hallucinating. Suddenly the person knelt down, and with the same hands lifted Casey into his arms. Her vision was blurred, but she knew it was……Damon.
* * * * *
“What are you?” she asked as he carried her in the direction of her friends, blowing her whistle because she was too weak to blow it sufficiently herself.
“Shhhh,” he said, “you’re weak, we’ll talk later. Right now you need your friends to help you.”
Just as the words left his lips, a figure came huffing and puffing around the corner, with a gun drawn and ready to fire. Casey was losing blood fast. “Put her down you motherfucker.” Pearce shouted with venom in his tone. Damon knew she needed help and wanted to delay it no more than necessary, so without argument he placed Casey’s now limp body on the pavement and stepped away. With every step Pearce took closer Damon stepped further away. Pearce bent over Casey checking for a pulse, Casey groaned, and Damon turned to leave while Pearce was preoccupied. He looked up “Stop, don’t move or I’ll shoot.” Damon kept walking. “I’m it
ching to put a bullet into you motherfucker so don’t fucking tempt me. STOP!” two shots rang out and Damon went down.
“Captain Nooo.” Casey tried to sit up.
“Stay down Case, we got him.” He said just as Rick and Ray came running up to the pair. “Call a bus,” he instructed. Casey was still trying to sit up. “Make it two buses.”
“Who’s the second one for sir?” Ray asked.
“Are you blind or just stupid, that piece of shit laying on the road over there?” He pointed to where Damon had gone down.
“Sir, there’s no-one over there.” Ray informed him.
Chapter Eighteen
Casey woke up to find Pearce sleeping in the chair beside her. Ray was asleep in the bed opposite her and Rick slumped in a chair in the corner. “What are we having a slumber party in here?” she asked startling the three men. “What happened? Did Cartwright make it?”
The three men looked at each other, tossing up who was going to fill her in.
“Case, you’ve been out for three days. We thought you were a goner. You took one hell of a beatin’ from that prick.” Pearce started to tell her.
“No Captain, you got it all wrong, Cartwright didn’t do this.” She looked straight at Ray.
Instinctively he and Rick knew it was his mystery woman, or whatever she was. “Cartwright came to my aid sir, if it wasn’t for him, I would be as you say, a goner.”
“So where’s this mystery woman? I want a piece of this bitch.” Pearce’s face was beginning to turn red.
“Relax captain, she’s dust, and I mean in the literal sense of the word.” Casey went on to tell them the story of her encounter and how she wound up in the arms of Damon Cartwright. “Now speaking of which, where is he? Did he make it? Last thing I remember is you popping a cap in his arse.”
They went on to tell her what had happened after Pearce had put two bullets in Damon’s back, looked away for only a matter of seconds and Cartwright was gone.
“All that was left of him was a pool of blood on the middle of the road. We took samples and sent them of for D.N.A testing just to get a profile on this cocksucker, but it was contaminated. Fuck knows how, but the reading came back with over one hundred positive matches just from the D.N.A data registrar alone and over a thousand unidentified markers that either aren’t in the system or predate testing.” Pearce concluded.
“Was there any dust or ash on the ground sir?” Casey asked.
“Not as far as we can tell, it wasn’t in the report, and there were no obvious signs of ash at the scene. Why?’ he asked.
“If he is, or was, one of whatever Rays mystery woman was, and he died at the scene, he too would be dust. But since there wasn’t any, I’m guessing he’s still out there.”
A few minutes later another person entered the room. “Ahh you’re awake at last.” Casey looked up at the woman who she thought seemed familiar but for some reason couldn’t place her.
“You probably won’t remember me, I’m Kara, I was one of the paramedics that was called to the scene the other night, I rode with you in the back of the ambulance. You were a little out of it at the time, kept calling me Jen.”
Casey Blushed “Uh hum, Kara has been coming in and checking on you every day Case.” Pearce stepped in to break the awkwardness.
“That’s very kind of you.” Casey told her “But you still seem very familiar.”
“That’s because Kara was one of the medics at the station the other day when Ray took a turn.” Rick reminded her.
“She was also there when the good Captain took his ride too.” Ray added.
“You seem to be our saviour.” Casey said with a smile.
“Just doing my job,” Kara remarked. “I’m glad to see you’re awake and feeling better.”
“Kara’s also studying to be a general practitioner.” Ray was quick to promote. “She’s sitting her final exam next week.”
“Wow!” Casey said. “That’s great.” Unsure of why she needed all this information.
A nurse entered the room, “Rose.” The captain greeted the nurse that Casey remembered only too well as the nurse that watched over Pearce’s recovery.
“Tony.” She responded trying not to be too friendly whilst on duty. She looked at Casey’s face and smiled. “I see you’re back in the land of the living.” She reached down for her wrist to check her pulse. “It’s good to see you Miss Casey.”
Casey smiled. She didn’t want to like Rose, but had to admit, she was doing a bang up job of taming the savage beast in Pearce.
“You lost a lot of blood, but you’re a tough one ain’t ya? Not a single broken bone. Even the doctor on duty, after seeing you on arrival was surprised. Not even a hairline fracture. He’ll be making his rounds shortly, so you people best skedaddle before he gets here. I took a hell of a chance lettin’ ya all stay overnight; especially since you didn’t keep ya noise down the night before like ya all promised. Now go on, get, all of you.”
The doctor came and examined Casey, all her vital signs were normal. Apart from some bruising she was fine, but he decided to keep her in one more night to be on the safe side.
* * * * *
The following day Casey was sitting in her home. She was trying to piece together the events over the past few weeks, and how much things had changed. The Shot she took from her own gun, the slaying of the gang she was investigating, the bond that was forming between herself, Ray and Rick, the loss of Jen, the accidental death of Amanda Lewis, not to mention the Captains new found love interest. She went from chasing drug lords to….Fucking vampires. ‘How is it even possible? ’She asked herself. ‘There has to be a logical explanation. And how the fuck am I healing so fast? And why didn’t she break a single bone when she was handing my arse to me on a platter?”
* * * * *
It was after dark when Casey decided to make herself a coffee. She was hoping that Ray would have stayed on a little while longer, she didn’t want to admit it, but she was looking forward to the company. She stood up from the comfort of her lounge and turned toward the kitchen, then froze. Staring straight in at her from her landing was Damon.
“Detective, relax. You are in no danger from me, I merely came to talk.” his voice came through the open door.
“What are you doing out there? How did you get in?” Casey asked. ‘Fuck I gotta start locking that fucking door!’ she thought to herself.
“Detective, I am not in, as you can see, I am out here.”
“Well you had to get in to get out didn’t you? Wise arse.” she responded looking around the room for some kind of a weapon. Her gun was found on the road the night of her attack and was in the evidence locker at the station until she was fit to return to work and collect it.
“What are you doing out there anyway...Sightseeing?”
“Detective, I’m waiting for you to invite me in.”
“HUH! You gotta be kidding me right? You break into my house; hide out on my landing then act like a fucking gentleman waiting for a fucking invite? You’re a real knight in shining armour ain’t ya?”
“Please detective? If you will just invite me in I will explain everything.”
“Get in here asshole, and sit your arse down! One false move and I swear you’ll be sightseeing American Airlines style.”
He looked at her puzzled.
“You’ll be flying economy to the ground floor.”
“I’ll take that as my invite.” He said as he cautiously stepped over the threshold, unsure if the invite was legit.
* * * * *
“Okay wise guy, start talkin’ or I'm calling ya in.” Casey said as she directed him to sit at the table.
“Detective, I think it’s pretty clear that I’m not your average human being. Wouldn’t you agree?”
Casey didn’t answer.
“Perhaps the best way for me to explain who I am is to show you.”
Casey braced herself. ‘What the fuck was he going to show her?’ she thought.
“Please look at me, let your mind go blank.”
Casey couldn’t resist, she found herself looking straight into his eyes. They were a strange tone of green that she hadn’t noticed before. She found her mind going blank, then it was in total darkness.
All of a sudden, like a burst of cinematography images came from the back of her memory bank and straight into the invisible screen behind her irises.
Damon’s face came from the shadows of the warehouse, no sooner had that image appeared did it vanish to be replaced with a vision of him standing on her landing the night she thought it was the neighbour’s cat. Then his hand shake at the station, she recalled the conversation about his hands being so cold. The image vanished to be taken over by Wes assaulting her, it was slowed down to reveal that the blurry shadow that she'd seen, was Damon swooping down from nowhere and whisking Wes away. The image changed quickly to vision of her tossing Jen's sterling silver chain at him and seeing him flinch away in fear of it touching his skin, then finally the night he rescued her from Ray’s mystery woman.
Tears fell from Casey’s eyes. “What the fuck are you?” she asked, now aware that he was her saviour not her enemy.
Chapter Nineteen
Casey thought about how she’d called him a knight in shining armour and felt foolish; he’d saved her from receiving a bullet in the head, rescued her from the onslaught of Wes’s attack and killed the bitch that had put her in hospital a few nights earlier. What else would you call him?
“Detective, I mean no harm to anyone, but your superior has surveillance on my abode twenty four hours a day. I need my sanctuary if I’m to keep my harmony.”
“You still haven’t told me what you are, why you’re helping me, and what the fuck did you do with that asshole Wes?” Casey demanded answers.
