by Tina Folsom
Tears welled up in her eyes. “This can’t be true.” She looked back at the picture which had frozen on the last frame. The white of the two vampires’ fangs fairly leapt off the screen. “But it must be. Wesley, they are vampires. The man who attacked me. And Ronny, Hannah’s boyfriend.” A tear she couldn’t stop rolled down her cheek. “What are we gonna do now? Hannah found out about them. They must have hurt her to protect their secret.”
The secret that vampires existed. That they weren’t just fictional.
Wesley slid onto the seat next to her. “Let’s look at it rationally.” He pointed to the screen. “This is probably a fake. It has to be. There’s a lot you can do nowadays with video editing software.”
“This isn’t edited. This is one continuous recording. Wesley, they’re transforming into vampires right in front of my eyes. Don’t you see that?” As hard as acknowledging this fact was, she couldn’t deny what she saw with her own eyes.
Wesley sighed. “I know it looks like it, but we have to weigh up all the possibilities first, before we jump to conclusions.”
She shook her head, slamming her fist on the table. “But I’m looking at it. It all makes sense now. That guy—” She pointed to the stranger in the video. “—when he attacked me, I thought I saw his eyes glare red. At first I thought it was just some light reflecting off his irises. But that’s not what it was. He was about to show his vampire side. If Blake hadn’t shown up when he did, he would have bitten me!”
“Lilo, calm down. You can’t know that!”
“I’m not crazy, Wesley!”
“I’m not saying you’re crazy.”
“You’re implying it.” She huffed. “Damn it, why don’t you look at it?” She pointed to the screen once more. “Ronny and his friend are vampires. And this is how Hannah found out. She accidentally recorded them. She was afraid for her life. That’s why she hid this in her appointment book, so if something happened to her, we would find it and figure out who hurt her.” She closed the window and ripped the stick from the port. “I’m going to take this to the police.”
“No,” Wesley protested.
She shot him a glare.
“I mean, they’re just gonna look at you like you’re crazy. They’ll never believe that this is real and not just some video some kid put together for Halloween. Think about it for a moment, before you do anything.”
“The police need to see this.” She jumped up.
“At least wait until Blake is back. Maybe he can make sense of this.”
“There’s no time. I can’t wait. Every second counts. If Hannah is still alive, and I pray she is, then I could never forgive myself if I waited even one minute when this information could help us find her.” She shoved the USB drive into her pants pocket.
She took a few steps toward the door, and Wesley followed her. He grabbed her arm, making her look over her shoulder.
“Some random policeman isn’t gonna believe you. It’s a waste of time.”
Lilo shook her head. “Call Blake and tell him I’m on my way to the police station. Tell him what we found. But I’ve got to go. Officer Donnelly already has a report about Hannah’s disappearance. He’s already working on this. When he sees this video, he’ll know what to do.”
At least she hoped so, because she didn’t know what else to do. She’d never had to deal with anything like this in her life.
Vampires!
Not only was their existence a shock she couldn’t begin to grasp, the horror of knowing that Hannah was in their hands filled her with pain to the point of paralyzing her. She needed help. She couldn’t wait for Blake. Who knew when he would be back? Besides, he was following up on other leads about Hannah’s whereabouts. No, the police would have to help her with this. They would have to use all their resources now to get Hannah back and protect the rest of the city from these monsters.
17
It had taken her nearly a quarter of an hour to hail a taxi. She’d had to walk two blocks to get to a busier area where more cars were circulating. Only now, in the late afternoon light, did she realize what an exclusive area Blake’s house was located in, away from the hustle and bustle of the city. But right now she couldn’t feel any appreciation for her surroundings, because her entire belief system had just collapsed.
Vampires! How could they possibly exist?
Guilt blasted through her once more. She’d failed Hannah. She hadn’t been there when her friend needed her most. How much her friend had needed help was only now becoming evident. And what had she done? She’d been concerned about the deadline for her book! As if that mattered now.
The video flashed in front of her eyes again. How would she ever forget what she’d seen? Monsters. Vile creatures, out to kill. The thought sent a chill through her bones. What if it was already too late for Hannah? What if they’d sucked her dry and killed her?
Lilo pushed the tears back. No, she couldn’t allow herself to cry. She had to keep up the hope that Hannah was alive.
“This is it,” the taxi driver announced, coming to a stop in front of the police station she’d visited only last night.
She paid the driver and got out. Her knees were shaking when she walked up the stairs to the front doors. For a brief moment she stopped there, taking a deep breath.
Inside the police station, she looked around. Several people were waiting, one female officer was talking to one person, and several others were crowding around them, talking excitedly. Behind the counter, several policemen in uniform and in plain clothes were milling about.
She craned her neck to look over the people in front of her to see if Officer Donnelly was sitting in one of the cubicles.
“Officer Donnelly?” she called out.
The policewoman at the counter cast her an annoyed look. “You’ll have to wait your turn, Ma’am. Take a seat.”
“But I just need to talk to Officer Donnelly. He knows me.”
“Be that as it may, as you can see, we’re busy here.”
“Donnelly isn’t on shift till tonight,” a policeman from behind the counter said, as he walked by.
“Oh, no!” She caught the policeman’s eye. “This is urgent. I filed a missing person’s case with him last night. And I have a lead on who might have kidnapped my friend.”
The policeman stopped and looked back at her. “Listen, Ma’am, just wait your turn, and somebody will be with you shortly.”
She squeezed through to the counter. “Please, Officer, I can’t wait. Every minute counts. The longer my friend is missing, the less likely it is that we find her alive. Please!” This time, she allowed the tears to well up in her eyes.
The police officer sighed. “Fine.” He waved to the door on the other side.
As she made her way there, several of the people in the waiting area grumbled about her jumping the line. But she ignored them. If only they knew what she’d found out.
The policeman opened the door for her and let her in. “I’m Officer Carter. What’s your name, Ma’am?”
“I’m Lilo Schroeder. I was here last night.”
He motioned to one of the cubicles. While he took the chair behind the desk, Lilo slunk into the one next to it.
“So, what can I help you with?”
Lilo leaned forward. “I think I know who took my friend.”
“So we’re talking about a kidnapping?” His gaze was steady and almost disinterested.
“Yes, well, I filed a missing person’s report last night, but now I’m pretty sure she was taken.”
“How’s that, Miss Schroeder?”
“I saw the man who attacked me in her apartment.”
“You were attacked in your friend’s apartment?”
She nodded eagerly. “Yes, yes, I told Officer Donnelly all about it last night. He’s got it in his report.” She pointed to the computer. “It’s all in there.”
“Hmm, well, let’s check then.” He put his fingers on the keyboard. “You don’t happen to have the case number?”
She
shook her head.
“No worries. How about the name of the missing person?”
“Hannah Bergdorf.”
He started typing, then glanced at the screen. “Hmm.” He looked back at her. “Hanna with an h or no h at the end?”
“An h.”
He typed again, pressing his lips together. “Hmm. That’s odd. There’s nothing in here. Maybe it was entered under your name.”
“Lieselotte Schroeder.”
He entered her name, then shook his head. “Nothing. You said you were here last night and you filed a report?”
“Yes.” She leaned forward to look at the monitor. “There must be something. I also reported the break-in.”
“A break-in?”
“Yes, in my friend’s apartment. By the guy who attacked me.”
The policeman tossed her a skeptical look. Did he not believe her?
“Please, you need to help me. I think I know who took my friend.” She dug into her pants pocket and pulled out the USB stick, showing it to him. “It’s all on here. It’s on video. It’s horrible.” She looked toward the counter, where civilians were getting impatient. “But you have to look at it somewhere in private. If people see what’s on there, there’ll be panic.”
He reached out his hand, taking the memory stick from her. “Mm-hmm.” His voice was a little softer than before, as if he was trying to calm her down.
Suddenly a hand swooped in and snatched the USB stick. “Why don’t I take it from here?”
She whirled her head to the man, who’d spoken and sighed with relief. “Officer Donnelly.”
“Miss Schroeder.”
“Donnelly, what are you doing here?”
Donnelly shrugged. “Thought I’d come in early. Heard it was busy.”
“Yeah, you can say that again.” The police officer paused for a moment, then pointed to the screen. “Couldn’t find the missing person’s report Miss Schroeder here was talking about.”
Donnelly cleared his throat. “Yeah, my system crashed after I entered it. Gotta reenter all the data.” Then he turned away from his colleague. “Now, Miss Schroeder, why don’t we go to my office. It’s way too loud out here to have a proper conversation.”
Relieved, she dropped her shoulders, relaxing a little. Donnelly would help her.
When Donnelly closed the door to his office behind them, shutting out the voices from the waiting area, it felt soothing.
“So, what’s going on, Miss Schroeder? Has something happened since last night?”
He pointed to the chair next to the desk and she sat down, while he leaned against the desk.
She pointed to the USB stick in his hand. “I found this in Hannah’s appointment book. I think she was hiding it in case something happened to her.”
“What is it?”
“A video. It shows her boyfriend arguing with the man who attacked me last night.”
He straightened. “Oh. That’s quite a find. And you recognize the man with one hundred percent certainty?”
“Yes. It’s him. There’s no doubt. But there’s something else. It’s horrible. At first, I couldn’t even believe my own eyes. But there’s no doubt.”
“About what?”
She pointed to the stick. “Watch it for yourself.”
He walked around the desk and inserted the memory stick into a USB port, then concentrated on the screen.
Lilo wrung her hands, waiting eagerly. If she had told Donnelly outright that the video showed two vampires, he would have probably dismissed her as crazy and ushered her out of the police station as quickly as possible. But if he saw it for himself, without her suggesting anything, then he’d have to believe it.
The snapping together of his eyebrows indicated that he’d gotten to the part in the video where both men showed their glaring red eyes and sharp white fangs. Seconds later, he looked away from the screen and met her eyes.
“This is impossible,” he said. “I know what it looks like on the screen, but I think we’re both being tricked here.”
“But you see it, too, don’t you? Those two men are turning into vampires. Right there.”
“I’ll take this into evidence and have our IT experts look at it to see if the file has been doctored or if it’s genuine.”
“But we don’t have time. My friend Hannah is in their hands. They’re hurting her. We can’t waste time.” She pointed to the screen. “And now that you know what my attacker looks like, you have a better chance of finding him. He has Hannah. He and Ronny, they have Hannah.”
“We don’t know that for sure.” When she tried to protest, he lifted his hand. “But I’ll run the picture of both men through our system to see whether we can identify who they are.”
“Thank you.” Then she remembered something. “The one guy, I know who he is. Ronny Clifford. He lives out in the Excelsior district.”
Officer Donnelly raised an eyebrow. “And you know this how?”
“My friend, Mr. Bond, found out,” she said quickly. Then she realized that this might look as if she’d been withholding information from the police. “I was gonna tell you and give you all his information so you could look for him.”
Donnelly’s cell phone pinged and he pulled it from his pocket, typed a few words, then put it back.
“We’ll do everything we can, I can assure you, Miss Schroeder.” She noticed him glancing to the clock on the wall. “But let’s go over all the details once more. I don’t want to miss anything that might help us find your friend.” He underscored his request with a warm smile.
Lilo felt some of the tension ease from her body and sighed.
18
“And you didn’t try to stop her?” Blake growled.
If Wesley had been standing in front of him, he would have had him by the throat. But as it was, Wes was reasonably safe at the other end of the line.
“I tried, but your new girlfriend is pretty determined.”
“She’s not my girlfriend,” Blake grunted.
“Oh, my bad. I thought because she’s sleeping at your house… It’s not like you invite every client to stay with you.”
“She had no place to stay. I couldn’t very well let her stay in Hannah’s flat, where the lock’s busted.”
“Course not.”
Blake turned away from the forensics team that was examining Hannah’s car in one of the subterranean levels of Scanguards’ headquarters. “Where is she now?”
“With Donnelly. He’ll stall her until you can get there.”
Blake looked at his watch. “It’s still daylight for over half an hour.”
“He knows that. Text him when you’re outside. It’ll take you a half hour anyway to make your way through traffic.”
He disconnected the call.
Wesley was right, of course, but that didn’t diminish the feeling of helplessness that rose in him. The one thing about being a vampire he didn’t like was how limited he was during daytime.
He hit the elevator button and waited impatiently, slamming his fist against the frame for good measure.
“Come on!”
He couldn’t even imagine what Lilo was thinking right now. Every human reacted differently when confronted with the knowledge that vampires existed. He’d seen both sides of the spectrum, from calm and efficient acceptance to downright I-must-be-hallucinating denial. He had no idea what camp Lilo would be in. But no matter what, he had two options: come clean and explain everything to her, or wipe her memory, so she would never know what she’d seen on the video.
The elevator doors suddenly opened and he nearly collided with John, who was rushing out.
“Blake,” John greeted him, shoving a hand through his hair. “Couldn’t get a hold of Wesley. Line’s busy all the time. So I was looking for you.”
“I just spoke to him. He’s at my place.” Blake darted into the elevator and pressed the button for the level where his car was parked.
“We got the results from the blood tests back.”
> “Blood tests?” The doors were already starting to close.
“Yeah, from a human Donnelly transferred over to us. Wes is gonna wanna know right away.”
Blake extended his arm and stopped the elevator doors from closing. “What did you find in his blood?”
John did a one-shouldered shrug. “Some strange herbs. The lab tech said only Wes would know. It had a foreign name. Something German sounding.”
“Höllenkraut?”
John gave him a surprised look. “Yeah. How did you know?”
“Just a gut feeling. Call Wes, you should be able to reach him now. And send Ryder to my house to watch the hybrids. Wes will want to head back to HQ and his lab.”
“Will do.”
Blake removed his hand to allow the doors to close. “Thanks.”
Moments later he was in his car and speeding out of Scanguards’ underground garage, merging onto busy Mission Street. The sun was hanging low over the horizon, but the specially designed windows of his Aston Martin protected him from its burning rays. The glass was covered with a UV-impenetrable film. In addition, the glass had been strengthened so that in case of an accident occurring during daylight hours, the windows wouldn’t shatter and expose the vampire inside.
This improvement had been necessary after an incident four years ago, when a damaged rear window had nearly cost him his life. But thoughts like this only distracted him from the task ahead: to make sure Lilo didn’t—whether on purpose or not—announce the existence of vampires to anybody who wasn’t authorized to handle this information. Once he’d contained that threat, then he’d have to make the decision of whether to tell Lilo the truth or wipe her memory.
The thought of doing the latter knotted his stomach uncomfortably. He’d never taken somebody’s memories lightly—he’d only ever used his skill to protect himself and his family: Scanguards. But today he was reluctant to even entertain the idea. Lilo was a brave woman, coming to San Francisco to look for her friend. And with her help alone, they’d already made progress: finding out about Ronny, and now having a visual of the guy who’d broken into Hannah’s flat and attacked Lilo. As soon as he could get his hands on the memory stick, he’d get Thomas to run it through facial recognition to identify the assailant.
