"Oh?" Ware spooned up the last of the vegetables that accompanied the trout he had ordered. The plate in front of me, practically scraped clean, had held shepherd's pie with vegetables and soda bread.
"Yeah, I'd just started working for Matei and, well, I'd screwed up and a vamp had gotten the drop on me. Dislocated my left shoulder—'bout tore the arm off—before I got a stake into him. The bruising spread down most of my upper arm and the other way up to my neck. Tom had...started shouting that my job was too dangerous. I should take a nice, safe job, something appropriate to raising a family."
"Uh, oh."
"I was not at all ready to talk about family then. We hadn't even talked about marriage. I wasn't quitting. He wasn't accepting. We...went our separate ways."
The part I did not tell where was the part where Tom had insisted I see a psychiatrist, insisting that my recklessness in keeping such a dangerous job for no good reason that he could see—I could not tell him about vampires and keeping them in check —derived from deep psychological problems. I had ended up having to "push" to get him to go away and leave me alone.
Ware caught the server's attention.
"What do you need, hon?"
"Dani, would you like desert?"
"That bread pudding looks good," I said, "but I don't think I can eat it myself. Split one?"
"Sounds good." Ware looked up at the server. "One bread pudding and I think I'm ready for the check."
"Right away." She stacked our empty dishes and took them with her as she left.
"So, when you started with Matei," Ware said. "And how long ago was that?"
"Caught that, huh?" I took a sip of Coke. "Yeah, it's been a few years. My job doesn't leave much time for relationships. You? Anybody since you and Belinda split?"
"Not really. Married to the job, you know."
The server brought the check and the bread pudding. Ware glanced at the check then handed it, along with his card, back to the server.
I looked at the pudding. Topped with whipped cream and drizzled with a butter that tasted of almond, my first bite brought a sigh of contentment. Ware and I took turns dipping our spoons into it until I reached in and scooped up the last of it.
Somewhere while we were finishing the desert, the server brought back the check and Ware's card, along with the receipts. He had signed off the tip and noted the amount on his own receipt.
I finished the last of my Coke and Ware the last of his beer and we left the pub. We were about halfway back to the hotel when Ware's phone buzzed.
"Ware."
His face grew dark as he listened."
"All right, I'll be right there," he said.
"Trouble, Detective?" I asked.
"Three bodies have been found in the canal. Jan was the responding detective and she thinks they might be our missing wounded from yesterday's shooting. She wants us to come down and take a look."
"Don't you mean you?" I asked, remembering Detective Janice Tanner's hostility toward me.
"No, she asked me to pick you up on the way if possible."
"How far?"
"Couple minutes once we get my car."
I nodded and gestured for him to lead the way.
The sign on one side of the street said IUPUI. There was a park on the other. Flashing red and blue lights just this side of a bridge told me where the center of the activity would be.
Ware pulled up to the barricade about a hundred yards before the bridge and rolled down his window. He held up his ID case with his badge visible to show the uniformed officer who approached.
"Detective Sergeant Ware," he said. "Detective Tanner called me."
"Yes, sir." The officer pointed to a cluster of people at the near end of the bridge. A stairway, flanked by the bridge on one side and a cluster of trees on the other, led down. I could not see what was below.
"Thank you," Ware said.
"If you could pull off to the side, sir? We need to leave this lane open for emergency vehicles."
"I know the procedure, son." I could hear the smile in Ware's voice. "But thank you for the reminder."
Ware pulled to the side and got out of the car. I followed him. He tucked the back of his ID case in his belt so that the badge hung open and visible from the front. I followed close behind him to make it clear to anyone who questioned my presence that I was with Ware. We reached the cluster. I recognized Tanner's red hair in the flashing lights of various emergency vehicles.
"Jan," Ware called.
"James. You made it." Her eyes fell on me and she frowned. "And I see you brought the consultant."
Her voice did not quite make the term an insult.
"You asked," Ware said. "What's up?"
Tanner looked at me, visibly took hold of herself and beckoned for me to follow her. She led the way down the stairs. Ware and I followed her.
Once we were away from the others she spoke softly. "You said this cult thinks they were really turning themselves into vampires?"
"That's what we've seen, yes," I said, sticking to the cover story that provided an excuse for my involvement.
"Well, you need to look at this, then."
At the bottom of the stairs, a team that I supposed was from the coroner's office was zipping up a body bag.
"Hold up, Frank," Tanner said. "Unzip it."
"Aw, Jan, I want to get this bagged up and transported."
"We've got ourselves an expert here." Tanner hitched a thumb at me. "She needs to see the body."
The man, Frank, looked at me and shrugged. "Unzip it, Earl."
The other man, Earl, unzipped the bag and spread it open. Inside lay an African-American man, nude. About five nine I guessed. Late teens. His hair, now waterlogged, had hung from his head in dreadlocks before his dunking into the canal. His face had gone slack in death, looking almost peaceful.
I squatted next to the body for a closer look. I reached a hand toward the face then paused before touching it and looked up at Tanner. She turned up a hand in a "be my guest" gesture. I gripped the jaw and tilted the head to the side.
In much vampire fiction, the bite of a vampire appears as two neat punctures. That wasn't what actual vampire bites looked like. Vampires, when they killed, bit and tore, ripping a large gash in the throat for blood to pour from. I could see where the fangs had ripped. I could see where the smaller teeth had cut into the skin, not deep enough to reach jugular or carotid, but adding to the bloody mess the wound would have been before the canal washed it clean
There was no way to mistake this for anything but a bite wound. And I knew that forensics would identify the size and shape to match a human jaw, a human jaw with fangs.
I stood up.
"So, does this look like your vampire cult?" Tanner said.
I stood for a moment, watching while Frank and Earl zipped up the body bag and lifted it onto a gurney.
"Yeah." I watched Frank and Earl push the gurney up a handicapped access ramp that angled up along the slope before doubling back to meet the top of the stairs. "It looks exactly like ones I've seen before."
"Seen a lot of bodies, have you?" Tanner asked.
"Matei Antonescu, my boss lived in a small town on the Romania-Serbia border before emigrating to the US." The cover story rolled off my lips. "A branch of this cult sprang up there. Before they could be stamped out, they'd killed Matei's parents and his sister."
I met Tanner's eye while I continued. "When he bought out Old Man McIntire, he made a point of trying to track down that cult wherever it was. Sometimes all he did was send someone." I tapped my chest. "To follow up after an incident. So, yes, Detective. I've seen a lot of bodies."
"Easy, Jan," Ware said. "She's on our side."
Tanner sighed and turned to him. "You're awfully cozy with the civvie. Is she that good in...?"
"Jan!"
Tanner wiped a hand over her face. "Okay, that was out of line. But, dammit, James, why are you letting that civvie tag along like this."
"I'll rem
ind you, you asked for her to be at this scene. But for the rest of it, I think her boss has political pull and he's used it to keep this an IPD investigation and not a Federal one. Do you want the Fibbies all over it?"
"Well, no, but..."
"I'd much rather deal with one civvie, who seems to be reasonably professional, than a horde of Fibbies."
"All right, all right. You've made your point."
"Look, I'll make sure you get credit for your part in it," Ware said. "Just make sure I get the coroner's report and whatever the crime scene techs find."
"Will do," Tanner said, then waved at the water. "Although there won't be much."
What I feared was that there would be too much.
The vampires were not even trying to disguise their kills. This was bad. This was very bad.
The discovery of the bodies ruined what had been a rather nice evening. When Ware dropped me off back at my hotel, I recalled that I still had a vampire body to dispose of. Late as it was, my day was not over yet.
Instead of going to my room, I crossed to the garage access. A few minutes later I was in the car and heading south. I needed seclusion, a place far enough from prying eyes that a large fire would draw no attention.
At an all-night grocery and department store I bought a gallon gas can, a spade, sweatshirt, and two pairs of jeans. I found a gas station that had kerosene available. It was closed but the pump accepted credit cards so I filled the gas can with kerosene.
I returned to the grocery store and pulled into the lot. Sitting in an occupied lot attracted far less attention than an unoccupied lot would. I unlocked my phone and started browsing the internet. Indiana had one national forest, but it was at the extreme south end of the State. Too far. State forests, however...
There was one, about an hour away. A gravel road could take me deep into it and this late there should be no prying eyes. I considered the car I was sitting in, a small car not designed for off-road use. Enterprise was going to hate me.
On the way out to the highway, I stopped at an all-night drive-through and grabbed their largest coffee. I still had a long night ahead of me.
CHAPTER FIFTEEN
Gravel, kicked up by my tires, rattled on the undercarriage of my car. Clouds blotted out the moon and most of the stars. My headlights formed twin pools of pale light in the otherwise Stygian darkness. No street lights, no city lights, nothing but the black forest around me.
When the GPS told me I'd gone far enough, I pulled over to the side I downed the last of my coffee and tossed the cup into the passenger side footwell. I managed to remove my skirt and slip into a pair of the jeans, then tugged the sweatshirt over my head. I secured the stakes in my back pockets. It was approaching one in the morning and I still had hours of work ahead of me.
I shut off the engine, then the headlights, turning the world pitch black. Thanks to the clouds, not even starlight illuminated the scene. No human would be able to travel these woods without some source of light. Fortunately, I was not human.
Gradually, my eyes adjusted to the dark, to the bare trickle of moonlight that filtered through the clouds, through the forest canopy. While I would not be able to see well, it would be enough to allow me to navigate the forest. Anyone else out at night would need light and that would warn me long before they knew I was there.
I got out of the car and circled to the back where I popped the trunk lock with the key fob. I lifted the lid. I swore and turned my head to the side, squeezing my eyes shut as the trunk light dazzled me. Stupid. I should have thought about that. I removed the can of kerosene from the trunk. The vampire head and body followed. Once I closed the trunk, I had to wait again for my eyes to adjust to the dark.
Eventually, I got the body up on one shoulder, the can of kerosene and the bag containing the head in the other hand. A loop of cord allowed me to carry the spade slung across my body from shoulder to hip. I walked off the road and into the woods. The forest floor was still wet from recent rain, so my footfalls made little noise.
The truth was, I was not any great mistress of the wilderness. Daniel Boone was not among my ancestors. I was a city girl, pure and simple and every branch, every bramble, seemed determined to demonstrate that I did not belong here.
Something with thorns had just caught on my sweatshirt, punching through the fabric and into the flesh of my arm, when I pulled up short. I felt the buzz in the back of my head that said "vampires."
I set the body down and squatted low to the ground, slowly turning to peer in all directions around me. Nothing but trees and brush revealed themselves to my gaze.
Here in the wilderness, without the huddled masses of the city to mask whatever I picked up on that warned me of the presence of vampires, I could sense them from much farther. The vampire I was feeling could be more than a mile away.
I considered the possibility that I had stumbled upon vampires who had nothing to do with my case and dismissed it. Just as I was a city girl, so too were vampires creatures of the towns and cities. Dracula's castle all alone in rural mountains is a romantic image, but it was easier for vampires to hide and find food that no one would miss, within the crime and underbelly of urban areas. To have vampires out here at all, and that at the same time I happened to pass by? No. They had followed me.
But how? There was no way they could have followed my car, not without coming close enough that I would have felt their presence.
I shook my head. Time enough for that later. The question was what to do about these now. That question had a simple enough answer. Kill them if I could.
Vampires had better night vision than I did. Not much better, but some. I looked down at my clothes. Not exactly woodland camouflage.
Moving slowly to minimize sounds, I removed the spade and set it down next to the vampire body. I scooped up some of the forest loam and started spreading it my face and arms. Become one with the forest, I told myself silently.
This was more "one" than I'd ever wanted to be.
I broke off several branches from the bush in which had tangled in my clothes. Affixing them to my clothing to break up my outline was no problem. Keeping them out of my skin was a larger challenge—one I eventually gave up on.
After a moment's thought, I removed the holster from my belt and clipped it to the lapel of my shirt, up near my neck where it would be easier to reach while I crept along on hands and feet. I then removed one of the stakes from my pocket and held it in my left hand before easing myself face down onto the ground.
Leaving the body and kerosene behind me I started creeping back the way I had come. If I was being followed that would be the direction from which they came. I did not think they could have circled around me. Too easy to guess wrong about my route and lose me. No, they would be following my trail.
The question was, which one of us would spot the other first?
Speed was always the enemy of stealth. Fortunately, I did not need to move fast. The vampires would come to me and they would need to move slowly, too. I just needed to put myself where I would see them before they saw me.
About fifteen minutes of careful work, staying low to the ground and moving when a breeze rustled the treetops to mask any sounds I made, put me underneath a bush with a view back along the way I had come. The body of my previous kill still lay where I had dropped it. Perhaps, I thought, it would provide a distraction for whatever was coming.
One would think that this sense I have that warns me of the presence of vampires would get stronger as they neared, or would be stronger when there were more vampires, but that wasn't the way it worked. It was a simple 'yes' or 'no.' Vampires near or no vampires near. It did work both ways. They could sense a dhampyre just like I could sense a vampire.
A noise interrupted my ruminations. A loud crack of a broken branch. While I noted the direction, I kept up my scan with my eyes, not letting them get focused just on the direction of the sound. I continued to listen for other sounds.
Another sound, the scrape of somet
hing against bark from about the same direction as the previous broken branch. This time my eyes caught a hint of movement too deep in the shadows to make out any details. I eased my gun out of the holster and pointed it in the direction of the sound, yet still reminded myself not to neglect the rest of the perimeter. The sound, the motion, could be a deliberate distraction.
A figure stepped out of the deeper shadow, male, just under six feet tall and in good shape, judging by the build. I could not make out the color of the clothing in the dim light. He wore a hat with a wide, flat brim that concealed his head and shoulders in shadow. A sidearm and several other objects hung from his belt.
I frowned. A park ranger was the last person I wanted to meet. My head throbbed with even the thought of pushing again so soon but if I could just get him to change his direction a bit...
I stopped and frowned. Something was not right.
Slowly, I raised the revolver. As a breeze blew through the treetops, I rose enough to pull my right leg forward. Still low, barely higher than a crawl, I balanced with one hand and two feet while I took aim with the revolver. The hand on the ground still clutched a stake.
Every gun shoots slightly differently, old guns more so. I still had not sighted in this revolver to see how it would shoot for me.
I waited as the approaching figure neared. I did not hear any noises to indicate anyone else approaching. The figure stopped and looked around. His head turned in the direction of my concealing bush. He hesitated.
My finger tightened on the trigger. Light and noise blossomed as the gun fired. Before my vision had begun to clear from the flash, I sprinted forward in the remembered direction of the figure. I collided with the figure and we fell to the ground. A hand with immense strength grabbed my right arm and twisted. Another clutched my throat. My wind cut off. I had moments.
Still unable to see, I raked the tip of the stake down the other's chest. When I passed over the last rib, I paused for a bare instant and angled the stake. I drove in and up. The hand holding me went slack.
As the other's grip loosened, I rolled to my back and lay gasping.
The Unmasking (Dhampyre the Hunter Book 1) Page 11
