Nikki realized how powerful her new abilities were the moment she started her car in Saul’s driveway. The ignition turned over as it always did, but what followed was astonishing: Nikki realized that she could hear the inner workings of the engine as well, noises that she had never heard as a driver before. She heard the crunching of gravel beneath the tires of her car as if it was some sort of new musical sound as she drove back to the main road.
By the time she had accelerated to fifty-five on the main road, Nikki found that she could push the sounds away easily and concentrate fully on what she was doing. It was almost like hitting some invisible switch inside of her head. By the time she reached her apartment, she had her enhanced hearing mastered.
Nikki took a shower, ate a dinner that consisted of a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and slightly-stale pretzels, and then fell asleep watching a block of Monk reruns.
Nikki slept soundly for several hours. When she awoke, she discovered another sign of her new powers: She was alert right away, not having to brush off the fogginess of just having woken up. She sat up on the couch; outside, night had fallen some time ago.
Nikki went to the windows and opened them, letting the night air in. As she glanced down at the darkened streets of Red Creek, she was overcome with a sudden pang of sadness. She imagined what Jason’s reaction would have been to discover that the girl he had been crushing on for the better part of a year was now a vampire. The hell of it was that, had he still been alive, she would have told him.
Thinking about this made her miss him terribly. Her mind went back to the few times he had so desperately tried to drop hints without being too obvious. With this new life of hers, would she ever get to experience that sort of aloof romance again? Or were things like that dead to her now that she was not entirely human any longer?
It was a trail of thoughts she wanted to explore, but as she tried following it, a peculiar scent hit her from the window. It was an easily detectable one, as it was foreign to her apartment and thus appeared glaringly out of place to her newly developed senses.
The world outside was bare to her senses: Nikki smelled honeysuckle from the woods behind the building, a dead cat several blocks over, the smell of oil and gasoline from a gas station that had closed for the day several hours ago. She could even detect the scent of old manure from Deke Goode’s farm on the other side of town.
But in the midst of it all, there was something else. Nikki took a deep breath, then made a face; the scent was foul but somehow familiar. It had a tinge of death to it, a layer of danger. She imagined it was what loathing might smell like if emotions had scents. She had smelled this before in her life as a complete mortal…had smelled it recently in fact and—
She went to the window and peered out. She had smelled that odor twice within the last few days. She had first smelled it when the hooded man with the monstrous face had attacked her in the Red Creek B&B parking lot. That man, of course, had been Leibald. The second time she had sensed it was when the vampire had sprung for her in Saul’s cabin.
Leibald was out there somewhere, still hiding in Red Creek. This angered her more than it scared her. This fact alone stirred up the new reserves of energy she had within her body. She stared out into the night and wondered…
Just how much power had he unknowingly transferred to her? For all Leibald knew, he had scared the hell out of her. Did he think she was still terrified, still trembling like a frightened little girl in Saul’s arms?
She smiled out into the night. She then went back to her couch, took her notepad and a pen from her small coffee table, and started to write.
3
The computer and software specialist the State Police had sent Kara for help was an overweight stout man by the name of Greg Doughty. He strode into the Red Creek police department like he owned the place, heading straight for the sheriff’s office. Once he had found it, he had knocked while opening the door, something Kara found not only pointless, but rude. The man then proceeded to give her a confounded look and frown, as if she was the rude one and he – the slighted party.
“I’m looking for Sheriff Morel,” Doughty said. “Where might I find him?”
“At his home,” Kara said. “He’s recovering from a very serious heart attack. He’s expected to be out for a few more days.” And God, she thought, I can’t wait until he’s back.
“I’m Agent Doughty from the State Police,” Doughty said, clearly disappointed. He showed his badge in a manner than indicated he was used to doing so. “Who might I speak to in regards to the Jason Eastman case?”
“Me,” she said. “I am the sheriff’s deputy. I’m covering his post while he’s out.”
The look that came across Doughty’s face was one she had seen a few times in the last two weeks or so since she had taken over the position. It was the look of a man that thought a woman had no business pulling sheriff duty.
“Do you have the laptop?” Doughty asked, as if it were an inconvenience and not the reason he had been sent to Red Creek in the first place.
“I do,” Kara answered. She might have gotten red in the face when she remembered almost leaving it at home that morning. She rolled her chair over to the large filing cabinet, stacked with mounds of Sheriff Morel’s documents, and took the laptop and its case from the bottom drawer.
“Thank you,” Doughty said. He took the computer and from that point on, he worked like a man that was very anxious to get out of her presence. He managed to pass this rudeness off as hard work, though. The moment the top of Jason’s laptop was opened, Doughty worked like a machine.
He didn’t speak to her a single time while he worked. Kara tried her best to stay busy with the paperwork in front of her but the rapid-fire typing of Doughty was beyond distracting. He stopped only once during his work, reaching into his jacket pocket for a USB card which he stuck into the side of the laptop. He made a few nods to himself as he worked and even gave a grunt of frustration at one point. But other than that, he seemed immobile as he sat behind Jason Eastman’s laptop.
Ten minutes later, he was done. He indicated as much by standing up from his seat, tapping Kara’s desk, and saying, “It’s done.”
“Thanks,” she said. “Is…is that it?”
“Yes ma’am,” he said.
Ma’am, she thought angrily. Not Sheriff. Honestly, she didn’t know why it bothered her so much, seeing as how she did not like this position one single bit.
“Well, thanks.”
“No problem. It was well worth the two-hour drive down here.” Again, he hid his contempt behind a nice smile and politeness that was very obviously sarcasm.
He held his hand out for s shake and when Kara took it, she made sure to use a firm grip. He smiled at her without looking and then left the office.
Kara shook her head at Doughty’s attitude and then turned the laptop around to face her. She sat back down in her chair and started going through Jason Eastman’s files again. She found right away that Doughty had done his job well. Not a single time was she asked for any sort of password.
Jason had kept his files well organized. After ignoring the system files and his iTunes library, Kara discovered that all of Jason’s personal files were divided into eight folders. One of these was labeled ARTICLES. When she opened this, she found seventeen articles that Jason had written in regards to the paranormal. The folder also had an Excel spreadsheet listing the publications he had sent them to. A note at the end of each listing read DECLINED.
She looked through another folder filled with random notes and what appeared to be attempts at short fiction before she came to a folder filled with a series of video files. There were twenty-six of them in all. She clicked on the first one and his video player popped up. The time bar at the bottom of the screen indicated that the video was six hours long. From what she could tell, the video was taken on a trap camera on some sort of hunting trail. She watched a few insects zip by before closing it.
She nearly closed out of the fol
der but stopped when she saw the file name of the last two. One read GOODE FARM and the other read GOODE FARM_short.
She opened the first one and saw that the trap cam had been positioned on a tree very close to Deke Goode’s cow pasture. This recording was also six hours long. She closed it and then opened the file labeled _short.
The scroll bar at the bottom showed that this one was only slightly over five minutes long. She watched the scene unfold, watching the three cows in front of the camera. Behind this trio, several others could be seen moving quickly away. She looked at the screen with a curious look on her face, already sensing that there was something amiss here—the very stature and behavior of the cows seemed off.
When the human-like figure swooped into the frame from the upper left corner, she choked back a gasp. Whatever it was, it moved fast and hurled itself at the cow closest to the screen—from what appeared to be a distance of maybe twenty or thirty feet from the camera.
She then watched the same scene that Nikki had watched in Jason’s bedroom five days ago. Even without watching the thing tear into the cows the way it did, its gait alone made it clear that this was not a man. This fact became increasingly clear as it pounced on one of the cows that tried to escape, running closer to the camera. She watched the figure leap onto the hefty animal, knocking it easily to the ground. Kara desperately wanted to look away from the gruesome sight but her curiosity and duty to find out what happened to Jason Eastman made her continue watching.
When the creature on the screen raised its head only to plunge it into the cow’s neck, she was glad her eyes were on the screen. Something clicked within her and when it did, her heart suddenly felt like it might explode. It was not the nearly demonic face she saw that raised her alarms; it was the way it crouched over the cow as it prepared to feed.
It was almost identical to the posture of the hooded man that had attacked Nikki after he’d had the girl on the ground.
Kara raised a hand to her mouth, certain that she was going to scream.
She watched the scene until the figure was gone, darting back out into the woods. Everything seemed to be swarming around her head, the bits and pieces of several mysteries trying to connect themselves. So this is what had been happening to Deke Goode’s cattle. And although it was something of a stretch, Kara’s intuition told her that this figure and the hooded man that had attacked Nikki were either one and the same or similar somehow.
Perhaps the figure she had seen on the screen also had something to do with Jason Eastman’s disappearance and likely his death. And more than that, if the figure had attacked Nikki, had he had a reason for doing so? What did Nikki know about this man and Jason’s whereabouts that she wasn’t telling?
And how in God’s name was she supposed to start putting the pieces together?
Kara looked at her watch; ten thirty a.m. She thought for a moment and then stood up and left her office. She walked out to her car and pulled away from the curb, headed for Deke Goode’s farm.
4
It was shortly after dawn when Nikki pulled her car into the gravel parking lot of the Red Creek B&B for the last time. As she stepped up onto the porch, her new senses took in the underlying noises that hid behind the picturesque quiet of the deep country morning. She heard birds in the trees, waking for the day, as if they were perched on her shoulder. She heard cars and trucks meandering down the country roads as their owners sped toward work.
And beneath it all, there was still that smell. She took it in, now slightly softer as it was padded by the pleasant scent of morning dew. It tapped that alien energy within her and Nikki hurried her step, finally reaching the front door. She opened the screen door and placed her note between the screen and the frame. She looked at it longingly, almost regretting her decision.
Nikki had never been crazy about the job. It was not her job she was saying goodbye to, however; it was her human life, her place in society – albeit the small, gossipy one of Red Creek.
The note was short and sweet. She was sure Lily would understand, even though Nikki had not offered her any real explanation.
Lily, she had written. I hate to do this to you, but I have to leave town. Things are okay and I am fine, but I just can’t work for you anymore. Thanks – Nikki.
Nikki turned away from the door and hurried down the porch. She tipped her head back and took in that foul scent. She was both pleased and alarmed when she discovered that she could detect which direction it was coming from rather easily. It was all about simply directing her thought towards it. All Nikki had to do was take in the scent, think I need to go there, and her instincts suddenly knew which way to go. The woodsy smells that accompanied it made it even simpler: She knew that the smell was coming from the forests around Red Creek.
Nikki jaunted across the pretty rear yard of the B&B and entered the woods. Had she been a normal nineteen year-old girl, the sight might have appeared poetic. The pines, spruces and elms all rose from the ground majestically, as if they were holding the beautiful dawn sky up themselves. Nikki walked slowly, her instincts assuring her that there was no rush in reaching her destination. Behind this new instinctual logic, there was also her old self—the rational mortal self that screamed to her that this was a very bad idea.
And hell, maybe it was. But Nikki had never been one for rational thinking; that had apparently not changed when these new abilities had popped up. Besides…the asshole had killed Jason—her only friend. And he apparently had a beef with Saul and his family. So as far as Nikki was concerned, Leibald was a prime candidate for testing her new powers. And with the way this new energy was coursing through her, she really didn’t see how anyone or anything could stop her.
Nikki made her way through the forest, tracing the foul scent as if she had been blessed with the gift all her life. As she progressed through brush and trees, she continued to work on her abilities. She would focus on one particular noise, such as a squirrel skittering on a branch just above her, and shut the rest out. She would then test detecting a more distant noise—this time a car’s engine. With a bit of concentration, she had been able to tell that the car was headed north.
It was overwhelming to know that she had such a power and had come to master it so quickly. Again, Nikki thought of how amazed Jason would have been by this entire development and a pang of sadness and anger shot through her.
Nikki paused as she spotted something lying at the base of a nearby tree. She reached down and grabbed it: a thick piece of wood, the strong branch of an oak that had likely broken off in a storm. It was about three feet in length with a jagged edge to it. She clutched it at her side, like a child’s weapon, and carried on.
The origin of the scent was getting closer and as it became more powerful, Nikki felt herself becoming much more alert. The smell now had a very pungent edge to it, one that reminded her of dead animals on the side of a highway.
Nikki estimated that she had walked about two miles into the forest when the smell reached its peak. Her nose told her that its source was very close, perhaps within a few feet. She looked around, but saw nothing more than a mossy patch of ground, a scattering of trees and a hill that began to creep upwards to the west.
The smell was coming from the direction of the hill and when Nikki started to walk that way, she saw harsh disturbances in the ground. It looked like something heavy had been dragged there recently. She followed this trail to a thin slit in the side of the hill, enclosed by exposed granite on both sides. Nikki looked inside the slit into darkness that opened up like a throat beyond. This was a cave, she realized with a start – and the smell was emanating from down there somewhere.
Nikki took a deep breath and pushed away the last vestiges of her mortal reason and fear. She wedged herself into the slit in the side of the hill and stepped inside. As the damp darkness consumed her, she found another new talent: the ability to see in the dark. She could see the cave walls to all side, opening wider as the cave floor gradually made its way down. Somewhere far be
low, liquid dripped against stone. And beyond that, something thumped steadily – not unlike a heart slow with sleep.
Got you, Nikki thought. She gripped her make-shift stake and descended even further.
Within fifty feet, the cave’s ceiling began to dip downward and she had to crouch in order to continue moving forward. Soon, however, the cramped tunnel gave way to a great chamber. It sprawled out before her, too large to take in all at once.
Which was probably why it took Nikki a moment or two before she noticed the dead bodies.
Through the blood and gore, Nikki was able to recognize one of them as Lester Dobbs. The other, though in worse shape, she knew to be Jason. Tears instantly sprang to Nikki’s eyes, but she fought them back. The rage boiled them away. She forced herself to study the rest of the bodies instead, somewhat relieved to find that she did not recognize any of them.
Not at first, anyway. There was one body that was lying a bit too naturally. There was a slight curl to it along the hips. Also, this was where the sound of the heartbeat was coming from. Nikki approached the shape and saw that it was totally naked. Beside it there was a mottled hooded sweatshirt that she knew only too well.
Nikki stepped quietly around the body. Rage and an overwhelming grief rose up in her at the sight of Leibald’s face, calm and somewhat gleeful even in sleep. It was that rage which caused her arms to rise up over her head, the broken oak branch held like a stake above the vampire’s body.
Leibald’s dead eyes opened just as the branch reached its summit.
Startled, Nikki took a fleeting step back and nearly tripped over Lester Dobbs’ arm. In the time it took her to regain her balance, Leibald was up and rushing toward her. Nikki raised the branch, hoping to impale him as he furiously ran towards her, but the vampire smacked it away easily. It went flying to the other side of the chamber where it clattered against the wall. Leibald did not break stride, obviously going for her neck. The simple-minded animalism of it kick-started Nikki’s own instincts, and she was moving before she knew it – ducking and rolling away with speed of such deftness that it took her breath away.
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