The Bite of Winter (International Monster Slayers Book 2)

by Bethany Helwig

  “Says she couldn’t remember.” He rubs his chin in thought. “The selkies can be a little wild but I doubt Gillian would be using drugs, especially with Nessa as her sister. It would deteriorate her ability to be a guardian. And I can’t imagine they’d inject her with anything except a sedative. Taking blood would make more sense. Vampires have hit up blood donor vans before. If they liked the high of the magic in her blood, they probably wanted to store some for later.”

  “I don’t know,” I say and frown at my computer screens. I’ve frozen the image on the vampire in the hoodie running out to his car. “Something feels off about that. Vampires go wild over fresh blood. Why bag it up when they’ve already got her captive? Any other vampire would just bleed her out then and there, not bag her blood. I’ve never heard a vampire do that before. They’re sharks. They don’t stop once they start feeding.”

  “Well, there’s no denying it was a vampire. The rest is conjecture.”

  “Okay, fine. Then let’s find some hard evidence.”

  “Let’s.”

  We return to silence as I backtrack through the video until I reach the point where the Mustang pulls into the empty lot. Our hoodie vampire gets out of the driver’s seat and the girl with the pink scarf emerges from the passenger side. Together, the two captors pull Gillian out of the backseat and sling her across the male vamp’s shoulders to carry her into the warehouse. A tremor goes down my spine. This isn’t like watching a movie. This is real. This happened.

  There’s no movement for a while so I fast forward through the video until something catches my eye. A third figure stalks across the lot in long strides but I can’t tell if it’s a man or a woman beneath their heavy winter jacket with the hood up and a scarf wrapped around their face. Whoever it is marches straight up to the warehouse where the vampires are hiding and enters.

  “Charlie,” I say without taking my eyes off the screen.

  “It’s Junior Agent Jaeger.”

  “Whatever. I’ve got someone new here.”

  He wheels over and we both watch the screen.

  I point to the warehouse door as I speed forward until there’s movement again. “There. We have a third person—or vampire.”

  “Well, we figured there could be others.”

  The mystery figure emerges first and walks over to the Mustang. Following behind comes hoodie-vampire with a girl draped over his shoulders in a fireman’s carry. For a second I think it’s Gillian but the hair and clothing are all wrong.

  “Wait, that’s our pink scarf vampire,” I say. “What are they . . .”

  The girl is dumped unceremoniously into the trunk before the other two get into the car and drive off. There’s no struggle, no wrestling her into the car. She’s either unconscious or—

  “Can you pick them up on another feed?” Charlie asks, leaning into my personal space.

  I click through the videos, eyes dancing over the footage until I manage to pick them up again moving into the city. Unfortunately, that also takes them out of view from what surveillance feeds Hawk and Melody were able to acquire.

  “I lost them,” I grumble. “But our male vampire comes back at some point, we know that.”

  “Then speed up until the Mustang comes back.”

  I give him a sharp sideways look. “What do you think I’m doing?”

  Holding up his hands and rolling his eyes, he gives me some space as I angrily click the mouse button and fast forward again. Eventually the Mustang does return hours later. Once it reaches the lot, I start to backtrack the video to see where he came from. Maybe that’ll point us in the right direction as to where he is now. The Mustang zooms backwards further into the warehouses, past grain elevators, and along train tracks until it finally stops at the very edge of my surveillance feeds right next to the edge of the frozen harbor. I zip back to the point the Mustang first shows up there and then stop to watch.

  The vampire gets out of his car and opens the trunk. When he pulls out a big, lumpy black bag, my stomach knots.

  “Charlie . . .”

  I can’t look away as the vampire drags the bag over to the edge of the frozen inlet from the lake, then hops onto the ice and breaks open a hole. Charlie rolls closer again to look over my shoulder as the vampire shoves the bag into the hole and it disappears beneath the surface. The vampire glances around then gets into his Mustang to drive to the warehouse.

  I look to Charlie and his expression is grim. “You don’t think that was . . .”

  “Keep rewinding,” he says.

  He scoots closer so we can both watch as I push the video back further and we track the Mustang’s path. It drives into the docks from the interstate but we lose sight of it continuing to go back in time. We spend another fifteen minutes searching but without luck. Charlie claps a hand on my shoulder.

  “Keep looking,” he says. “I’m going to call Melody and have her find out what our vampire dumped in the lake.”

  He pulls out his cellphone and returns to Jefferson’s desk with the phone to his ear. Out of the corner of my eye I see him pull up a live feed of the same area of the lake where the vampire disposed of the bag. I try to focus on finding the Mustang in the old footage but can’t help dreading what Melody and Hawk might find. Charlie has a quick chat with Melody and then we wait. Twenty minutes pass before Charlie snaps his fingers and points to the live feed.

  “They just arrived,” he says for my benefit.

  I roll over in my chair and we both watch the long pixelated view of Melody, Hawk, and a woman I assume is Nessa get out of their SUV to walk the perimeter of the frozen inlet. Charlie calls Melody again and directs them to the right spot. There’s silence for a long time as they work at breaking up the fresh ice to see what’s underneath the surface. We watch Melody jog to the SUV and grab a shovel at one point. I’m almost holding my breath as they manage to find the black bag and haul it out of the water.

  Charlie turns the phone on speaker and we wait, listening to the rustle of the bag and the labored breathing on the other end of the line. The suspense is killing me. All three of our teammates freeze on the surveillance feed as Melody opens the bag.

  “What is it?” I ask, unable to restrain myself. “What’s inside?”

  Silence echoes for three seconds before Melody responds.

  “As far as I can tell, it’s a body.”

  Despite expecting the confirmation, a shock goes through my body. Charlie glances to me with a frown and leans in towards the phone. “What do you mean, as far as you can tell?”

  “Well, to put it more accurately, there are parts of a body. Lots of parts.”

  Chapter 12

  There’s a hollow ringing in my ears and a part of me goes numb. I’ve seen movies before where the poor victim’s body is mutilated, or the cops find a foot by itself in a river, or you watch the actor’s reaction to finding parts of a body but the camera never shows it. Knowing someone’s been dismembered into so many pieces that you can’t tell if it’s more than one body or not, and knowing it’s real, is something on a completely different level.

  Charlie and I watch the team in Duluth haul the bag into the back of the SUV then search the area for any clues or other bags the vampire might have dropped there. We keep the phone line open and listen to commentary from Melody through the speaker.

  “We aren’t finding anything else,” she says. She’s vanished from the angle of the live feed. “We’ll take the body back to the office and see what we can work out. I need you two to comb through the old footage and see if you can find anything else. There may be more victims we’re not aware of.”

  “You got it, Mels,” Charlie responds.

  “And keep it light, okay? Take a breather if you need one. This is grisly but we’ve got jobs to do. I’ll send you more footage once we get it and pictures from the autopsy after I get Dr. Malkebar here.”

  Charlie’s eyes flicker to me for a second before he leans in towards the phone. “If you need more hands on deck up the
re, we’d be more than happy to—”

  “No,” Melody says sharply. “You have your job, so get to it.”

  The line clicks and the conversation’s over. Charlie rather savagely shoves the phone into his pocket and rubs the back of his neck, eyes downcast. My gut continues to twist over the fact that somebody was chopped up and dumped in the lake. More than likely it’s the pink-scarf vampire but why would they kill her? What on earth is going on here? This isn’t normal vampire behavior. They never go to the trouble of chopping up their victims. They bleed them dry, leave them, and move on. They’re always looking for the next source of fresh blood, not messing over their leftovers. And Hawk’s up there right now with that psycho on the loose.

  “Let’s get to work,” I say and dive into the old footage.

  Charlie doesn’t respond but drags his chair to my side so we can go over the videos together. I let the footage play from when the hoodie-vampire dumped the bag in the lake just in case anything else happened between the time he returned to the warehouse to when we showed up. He pulls into the parking lot and exits the Mustang carrying some kind of box with a handle.

  “Is that a cooler?” Charlie asks.

  I nudge him with my elbow. “Blood needs to be kept refrigerated. Maybe our wild conjecture isn’t that far off.”

  Not long after the vampire enters the building he leaves again with the cooler in tow. Instead of driving off again, he sets the cooler on the backseat of the Mustang and then walks off between the buildings. It looks like he’s meandering until he stops against the side of one of the warehouses, braces his hands against the wall, and his shoulders start to shake.

  “Wait, is he . . . crying?” I ask and squint at the pixelated image. “Do vampires even cry?”

  Charlie’s eyes narrow as we both study the bizarre behavior. Nothing in this case has been making sense, this more than anything. The vampire stands there for a long time before he wanders between the buildings and disappears near the lake. Eventually our SUV pulls into the lot and I watch as we check the Mustang, then split off into teams.

  “There,” Charlie says and points to the dark side of the warehouse where our vampire is barely visible. He stands there and watches as we move between the warehouses and eventually all enter the one where Gillian is being kept. He doesn’t run off like a vampire ought to when the IMS prowls around. He doesn’t find a weapon and come after us either. He waits and waits and when Charlie and I exit the building to bring the SUV in, he actually shuffles forward a bit so he’s visible against the fence next to the parking lot.

  “What the—he wanted us to know he was there,” I say. “He waited until I spotted him before taking off. He wanted us to follow him. Why?”

  “Now that is an excellent question.”

  “I think we should—”

  “Start from the beginning,” we say in unison. Charlie leans into his chair like he’s shocked we’re on the same wavelength. I roll my eyes and dig through the list of feeds until I find the ones that cover Canal Park. Once I find one looking down the main drag in front of the Blue Comet, I blow it up and let it play. Charlie reclines in his chair as we watch the night progress.

  It takes some time for the players in this whole mess to appear. Ashley walks along the street, moving from one shop to the other at a leisurely pace. Several steps behind we spot pink-scarf-girl and hoodie-guy following in her wake, each sporting sunglasses even though it’s twilight. Once they come into view, both Charlie and I lean forward on the edge of our seats, eyebrows knit together in matching frowns. Ashley is all but oblivious to the two vampires stalking her, following her every move. I’m so focused on them that I don’t even notice the group of selkies making for the Blue Comet until Charlie points them out.

  The selkies walk towards the nightclub, and on the opposite side of the street Ashley’s two stalkers give them only a brief glance before remaining glued to Ashley moving into the Chocolate Factory. A while later she exits, hesitates on the sidewalk, then chooses to walk into the alley next to the Blue Comet. The girl dashes across the street and disappears behind another building, probably to head Ashley off, while hoodie-guy walks into the alley.

  “They were following Ashley the entire time,” I murmur. “They wanted her. I think they only took Gillian because she got in the way.”

  “But why?” Charlie asks. “If they wanted a meal, there were plenty of normal people walking around and in those alleys that they could have taken. Why would a couple of vampires pick out the one werewolf in the crowd?”

  Those are all excellent points and each make me incredibly uneasy. A thought suddenly occurs to me. “What if they’re still after her? Ashley could be in danger. That hoodie-loving vampire is still out there along with whomever our third mystery person is that checked into that warehouse and probably helped kill scarf-girl.” I’m already buttoning up my jacket. “I need to get to the school and warn her.”

  “I’m coming with,” Charlie says which surprises me.

  “You think I’m right?” I ask, turning to the weapon rack to grab a bio-mech gun and machete. The blade slides into a sheath inside my parka and the gun I tuck into a front pocket—my mother’s gun is already hidden in the holster on my belt.

  He shrugs into the sleeves of his jacket and starts trotting down the stairs. “I think we’re on to a possible lead and someone could be in danger. That’s enough for me.”

  We hop into the SUV and Charlie floors it to the school. My pulse quickens and I glance at the car’s clock every few seconds. We’ve spent enough time going through surveillance video that there’s only half an hour of school left. Ashley will be inside and that offers some protection. A vampire wouldn’t walk into the middle of a crowded school and pull her out. No, he would be waiting outside if he’s here at all. I need to keep my head on straight and do my due diligence. I call Hawk but it goes to voicemail so I leave a quick message letting him know what we discovered and what we’re doing now. As soon as I hang up, Charlie swings into a parking spot and turns off the vehicle.

  “You clear right and I’ll clear left?” he says. I nod. “Okay, and make sure no one sees you. You’re supposed to be out sick puking your guts into a toilet.”

  “Roger that.”

  We bail out at the same time, closing the car doors in sync. I can’t help but notice that we work well together when we’re focusing on the job and not on each other. That’s something I guess. He starts to edge through the parking lot, hands tucked into his pockets and glancing into vehicles. I walk in the opposite direction sticking to the outer edge of the lot which should be far enough away from the school’s windows so no one will recognize me. As I take careful footsteps across the icy pavement, I send a quick text to Ashley telling her to stay inside the building once school gets out and wait until we come get her. Hopefully she won’t freak out too much. I didn’t come right out and say there may be a vampire on her tail but there’s enough of a warning in my message that she could get worked up.

  I check through frosted windows and brush away snow here and there to make sure there aren’t any creepers lurking out here. A neighbor shoveling off his porch stops his work to watch me and I realize I must look like I’m trying to break into cars. Stopping to give him a friendly wave and dissuade his attention, I notice I’ve got a shadow coming up behind me and fast. My hand instinctively goes for the handle of the bio-mech gun in the pocket of my jacket and I spin around.

  Jefferson grabs my arm to keep me from pulling the gun out. He’s wearing his usual scowl.

  “What on earth are you doing?” he growls under his breath, his eyes flickering to the guy shoveling who’s paused again to watch our interaction. We both crack smiles and then Jefferson slings an arm around my shoulders to forcibly walk me towards the Green Monster parked on the far side of the lot.

  “I could ask you the same thing,” I say once we’re far enough away from the curious onlooker. “Where did you go? We tried to call you.”

  He shrug
s. “I had to take care of an emergency call that came in.”

  My eyes narrow. “Why didn’t you say something? You always let me or Hawk know before you run off so we can cover the office.”

  “Well, it’s a good thing I came back when I did,” he says, completely sidestepping my question. “I passed you and the boy wonder driving this way when you’re supposed to already be in school. Why are you prowling the lot?”

  I quickly fill him in on what we saw on the surveillance video and our suspicions that hoodie-vampire could be following Ashley. He scratches at his beard and we pause next to the Green Monster to scan the area.

  “If this vampire wanted to go after Ashley,” he says, “he’s already had plenty of time to do it. I don’t think he’d be waiting outside the school to grab her now.”

  I roll my lips and look away, shaking my head. “I really thought you’d be with me on this one.”

  “Oh?”

  “I figured you’d be tired of trying to protect people after the fact,” I say bitterly. “I know I am.”

  “Phoenix—”

  “So what if I’m wrong?” I say and throw up my hands. “Better safe than sorry, right? No one else is going to get hurt under my watch, you got it? I’m not letting anyone down like that again.”

  I try to storm away but he grabs my arm and pulls me back. It’d be easy to throw him off but I don’t. Instead, I refuse to look at him and stare angrily at the ice covered bricks of the school. I don’t want to talk about this. I had enough therapy sessions after shooting Dasc.

  “What is this all about?” he asks and tries to turn me so I have to meet his critical gaze but I don’t budge. “Might as well get that stick out of your butt before it starts to ache.”

  “Gross.”

  “This is about Dasc isn’t it?” he continues. I press my mouth into a thin line. He’s not going to let this go, is he? “Who do you think you let down, hmm? I’d be dead and your brother would be a brainwashed attack-zoid if it wasn’t for you. Half this town might be missing and turning the rest of the state if you hadn’t stopped Dasc.”