Moving with more than human speed, I drew one of my knives and drove it past his face into the back of the chair.
"Missed, cunt."
My smile widened. "Did I?"
He tried to lean forward but found his collar pinned to the seat. I twisted and pulled back the knife.
"Dani?" Ware started again.
I straightened and backed away from the thug. I looked at Ware. "Let's talk."
I left the office and waited for Ware to join me. Tanner gave Blake a look. Blake nodded and stood back against the wall, hand on his sidearm. Clearly they had reached an unspoken agreement for Blake to stand guard over our prisoners.
Tanner followed Ware out of the room with Reid bringing up the rear. I closed the door.
"You are one cold-blooded bitch," Tanner met my gaze and gave me a slight nod.
"Are you planning on torturing those suspects," Reid said.
"The agent's got a point," Ware said. "I get that we can't let the courts deal with the vampires, but these are human criminals."
I raised my hands as though to ward off the suggestion. "I don't plan to lay a hand on them." I sighed. "They may be scum, but they're also under vampiric Push. Push can be broken, but it takes driving somebody to their emotional limit. Fear is the easiest way." I did not tell them how unlikely even that would be. Not even fear of death could break Push. Finding even greater fear? That was the real challenge. "And right now, they're our only lead."
"Think you can do it?" Ware asked.
"Don't know, but it's worth a try."
"Okay," Ware said. "Let's see what we can get out of these guys."
Tanner and Reid returned to the room, but Ware placed a hand on my arm.
"Dani?" He looked me in the eye. "I've got to know. How many people have you killed? Not vampires. People."
"Honest truth?"
Ware nodded.
"Vampires usually have one or two humans working for them, someone who can guard them or deal with tasks during the day. Whatever led them to work for the vampires in the first place, whether it was promises or just plain Push, is not my place to judge. By the time I would get involved, any human servants would not be responsible for anything they were doing. Again, not my place to judge. There are people out there in therapy—Matei knows some good people—trying to come to terms with what they've done while under Push. But I won't lie to you. Sometimes it's been them or me and...Well, I'm still here so..."
"So...self defense then?"
"Never ruled on in court. Never even came to police notice." I shook my head. "Not until I came to Indianapolis anyway."
I reached out with a hand and brushed the back of his. "I'm a killer, James. It's what I do and I'm good at it. I kill vampires, not people. Still, I'm not going to let myself be killed simply because the one I'm facing is a human, even one controlled by a vampire."
Ware nodded. "Fair enough. Now let's see what we can get from these guys."
In the comics a guy in a stylized bat-motif costume is able to terrify criminals into giving up their secrets through sheer presence.
Unfortunately, I'm no Batman. Half an hour of threats and displays with the knife and...nothing. I either could not generate enough fear to break through the Push or they were actually loyal to the vampires.
I retreated into the hallway with Ware and shook my head.
"This isn't working."
Ware shook his head. "Got any other ideas?"
I rubbed at the back of my head. Between clearing the unit and dealing with the prisoners, I'd been distracted but the sense of a vampire nearby still tickled at me.
I poked my head back into the office. "Reid. You said there was a coffin back there?"
"That's right."
"Show me."
"Tanner?" Ware said past me.
"Don't sweat it, Sergeant. Blake and I have this."
Ware nodded.
Reid led the way back to a small storeroom at the back of the suite. A casket of dark polished wood stood propped on two sawhorses. Empty shelves lining the walls were the room's only other furnishings.
I circled the casket. I could still feel the presence of one or more vampires but in the city, they could be several hundred yards away. There was no particular reason why this casket would contain the vampire I sensed except, people whose only experience of vampires is through fiction presume vampires sleep in coffins.
On the other hand, that coffin could hold enough explosives to puree anybody in this room.
"Vampires, don't sleep in coffins. Away from sunlight, yes, but not..." I waved at the casket.
"So, why's it here?" Ware asked.
"Could be a booby trap, maybe intended to target your crime scene people once that—" I waved toward the front of the suite and the charnel horror in the conference room. "—came to light."
"Should we call bomb squad?" Reid asked.
"I don't want to get any more people involved here yet. The Secret has taken a beating but let's not add to the problem if we don't have to." I leaned close to the seam in the casket lid and sniffed. "Blood. Stale blood. Strange as it seems to me, I do think there's a vampire in here."
Reid reached out a hand toward the lid, but I put my hand on his arm and pushed it down.
"Let me open it. Why don't the two of you back up the hallway a bit, just in case?"
Ware took a step toward me. "Dani?"
"Let me deal with it, James," I said. "This is my job. You've got a city to protect."
He sucked in air over his teeth. "If you're sure."
I nodded. "I am."
Reid looked first from Ware to me, a scowl on his face.
I stared him in the eyes. "Do you have something to say, Special Agent?"
"Are you going to let personal feelings...?"
Ware broke in. "I don't think you're the one to be asking that question, Agent."
Reid held up his hands then backed out of the room.
"Stay safe," Ware said before following Reid.
I waited until they were well down the hallway before lifting the lid.
"Well, what do you know?"
Opening the casket proved anticlimactic. No bomb. No traps of any kind. Just one recently-turned vampire, dead to the world.
New vampires possess extreme pallor before their diet of living blood imbues them with a ruddy complexion. This vampire had skin of an almost albino hue, a sharp contrast to his dark brown hair. He wore a V-neck t-shirt and a leather jacket. The lower half of the casket was still closed so I could not see his pants.
"James? Reid? Can you head on back?"
A few seconds later they joined me. I waved down at the lifeless body. "Vampire. One each."
Ware swore. "I know this guy."
"You know a vampire?" Reid smirked.
Ware shrugged. "He wasn't a vampire when I knew him." Ware looked at me. "Remember when I told you about Mary's old pimp, Gregor?" Ware pointed at the body. "This is him. Was him."
"Well—" I reached into the casket and grabbed handfuls of Gregor's jacket. "—Humans are one thing. Vampires are something else entirely."
I heaved and hauled Gregor out of the casket. As he came out, I saw that he wore khaki trousers and expensive-looking leather dress shoes.
"Holy!" Reid stared at me. Of course, he had never seen my strength. We had told him but seeing it was still a surprise.
"Can somebody open the big door in the back?" I shifted Gregor in my arms, difficult to do when someone is as limp as death. After a moment, I got my left arm under his and up and around to grasp the right side of his collar. I had his right arm twisted up his back in a hammerlock. Vampires might be stronger than me, but I had all the leverage.
"Open the back door?" Ware asked.
"Yeah." I waddled toward the hallway, having to kick the vampire's feet aside with each step so I didn't trip. "I need to wake this guy to question him and sunlight's the only way to do that before sunset. Oh, maybe have Tanner and Blake bring our other prisoners. They might find it...mot
ivating."
Ware went to the rear to get the door. Reid went to the front to bring back Tanner and Blake.
I waited inside the broken remains of the warehouse door in a spot I judged would be shadowed when the garage door opened. Soon the thrum of the motorized overhead door opener sounded over the staccato beat of the generator. From the other direction Reid, Tanner, and Blake were shepherding the captured thugs.
Ware reached me first, followed swiftly by the others.
I grinned at the prisoners. "You didn't take me seriously. That was a mistake. Now you get to see why."
Pushing the vampire in front of me, I stepped out into the light.
The instant the light touched him, the vampire came alive in my arms. He writhed, grabbing at me with his free hand, but not finding any purchase. I cranked hard on his right arm, giving him something else to think about. He continued to struggle, mindless in his need to escape the sun.
The vampire began to scream.
I stepped back into the shadow. "Are you able to talk?"
The vampire did not speak but continued to struggle for several seconds, his strength subsiding until he hung limp in my grasp.
"Is he...is he dead?" One of the thugs asked.
I looked back at the thug in scorn. "He's been dead. That's what getting turned means. You die and something else takes over."
To Ware, I said, "This is going to take some doing. I've got to trigger enough survival instinct to get him awake then find the balance, enough sun to keep him awake but still coherent enough to respond to questions."
It took about half an hour. Each time I shoved the vampire into the sunlight, its screams became more insistent, its struggles more desperate. The dead weight started wearing down on me but, fortunately, the accumulated sun damage was also weakening the vampire.
Enough damage with its need to feed, combined with the proximity of sunlight, would drive the vampire to wakefulness even in the day.
"No. No, please," the vampire said as I started to push him once more into the sun.
"Why not, corpse?" I asked. "Why shouldn't I put you right back into the sun?"
"If you'd just wanted me dead, you'd have done it while I was in the coffin."
"Ooo, a smart one." I took half a step forward, not quite putting the vampire into the sunlight. "Or maybe I just wanted you awake and aware when I finished you. Maybe I wanted you to see and feel it coming."
"Maybe. But you are scared, Dhampyre. We are too strong. We are too many. And we know your weaknesses." He spoke louder. "Isn't that right, Detective Ware."
"What are you talking about, Gregor?"
"That little girl of yours. I wonder how she'd...taste."
Before Ware could move, I stepped forward into the light. The vampire screamed. A moment later, I stepped back.
It took a few seconds for the vampire's screams to turn to moans.
"That was...unnecessary," the vampire said at last.
"Enough of this," I said. "What I want to know is 'why?'"
"Why what?"
"Why so many vampires in town? Why working together? And why working so openly?"
"Is it not obvious?"
"Just answer the question."
"Humans have lost their fear of us. Tortured romantic creatures? Pfaugh. We are the superior species. Humans are nothing but food to us. And with the Secret out, they must learn that fear again."
"Terrorism," Ware said.
The vampire nodded. "Your pathetic human terrorists do not know what true terror is. We will teach you."
"I don't think so." I stepped forward again.
The vampire screamed once more. This time I did not step back. I stood and held him as his struggles grew weaker. Finally, his struggles stopped completely. I dragged the limp form to the open garage door and dropped him to the pavement. He was not dead yet, but was too weak to even seek shelter. I glanced up at the sun. A couple hours before it would settle behind the next building. Plenty of time to see the end of this vampire.
Ware joined me, standing at my side to look down at the dying vampire. He looked up at the open garage door then back into the warehouse.
"Jan, you want to call this in? I hate to fake a report but..." he pointed at the body. "You saw a man down." He pointed up. "Spotted an open door and on investigation—" He pointed toward the front of the suite. "—You found the massacre up there. Looks like gang violence, vampire cult work, right?"
"James, do you think they'll buy that?"
"They should," I said. "Most people will accept any mundane explanation rather than accept that there are monsters in the world."
What I did not say is that so long as Matei's Push lasted, the police and city leaders would be unable to consider the truth. Ware's explanation would fill the gap fine.
"Dani," Ware whispered to me when the others had retreated toward the front of the suite. "I've got to know. Was Gregor bluffing?"
"Bluffing?"
"About Liz."
My breath caught. I had forgotten the implied threat to Ware's daughter.
"Do you want me to check on them?"
"Fort Wayne," Ware said. "Takes about two hours." He looked up. "It will be dark by then."
I pulled out the phone. "Just give me the address."
He did and held out his keychain. "Take my car. I'll catch a ride with Jan."
I grabbed his keys and sprinted to where we had left his car.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Ware's car, for all its size, had a lot of punch under the hood. Even so, there were limits to how fast I could drive. If stopped, I could use Push to get a warning rather than a ticket, but having to stop and deal with the police officer would take more time than I'd save from the speed. I drove at slightly faster than the flow of traffic and kept a sharp eye out for any police cruisers.
Reds and purples still streaked the western sky although the sun had already dropped below the horizon as I reached the apartment building with the address Ware had given me. I pulled into a parking space and shut down the car. The back of my head itched. There was a vampire nearby.
Was I too late? I took out my phone and dialed a number Ware had given me. It was answered on the third ring.
"Hello?"
"Hi, Liz. This is Dani, your father's friend. Do you remember me? We met the other day at your house."
"How could I forget," her voice bubbled with the kind of enthusiasm only a teen girl could muster. "You killed a vampire."
"That's right. Now I need to know if you're okay."
"I'm fine. Really. Mom's in the kitchen making dinner."
"That's good." I lowered my voice. She didn't sound as though she were using speakerphone so by speaking softly even a vampire in the room with her would not hear. "If you're in any danger, just hang up. If you're not, keep talking."
"Really, Dani, I'm fine. You're starting to scare me here."
"Your father was worried about you so he wanted me to check. Okay if I come up?" I looked up at the darkening sky. "Things come out at night."
"You mean...are you gonna kill another vampire?"
"First things first. I need to make sure you and your mother are safe. So, can I come up?"
"Oh, sure. Hit the button...apartment four oh seven. I'll buzz you in."
"Is it just you and your mother? Where's your grandmother?" I remembered Ware's ex had said she was taking Liz to her mother's.
"Some kind of church thing. She's due back any time, though."
"All right," I said. "I'll see you in a few."
I ended the call and leaned back in the seat for a moment. Liz did sound okay. I did not think she would sound so perky if a vampire were in the room with her. A horrid thought occurred to me, but I dismissed it instantly. There had not been enough time for vampires to turn her. No, she was still a little girl and she believed herself safe.
I got out of the car and climbed the steps to the door of the building where I examined the buzzer panel. Five floors and eight apartments
per floor. I pushed the button for apartment four oh seven. The door buzzed and clicked, and I opened it.
Once more I wished my ability to sense vampires were more than "yes there are vampires nearby" or "no there aren't". I would have liked to know where the source of that buzz in the back of my head was coming from. While Liz's behavior made me confident they were not in her grandma's apartment, the vampire I felt could be anywhere within several hundred yards.
I looked at the elevator call button and shook my head. "I don't think so."
I opened the door to the stairwell and started up. While the stairwell was cramped quarters in case of a fight, it was better than an elevator.
I reached the fourth floor without incident. The continuing buzz in the back of my head drove away any thought that I was being paranoid. I cracked open the door and peered into the hallway. Nothing.
I eased open the door enough to slip through. I sidestepped down the hallway, reading apartment numbers as I went. I stopped at four oh seven and knocked on the door.
The door opened. I had just enough time to see Liz's expression change from delight to fear before something hit me from the side, bowling me over.
I knew what I faced before I even hit the floor. Only a vampire would be that strong. Sharp daggers of pain lanced through my side as our combined weight broke two ribs.
I managed to slip a stake free but before I could push it into the vampire someone, something grabbed my arm and drove it into the floor. Two vampires.
I still had the stake in my hand, but my arm was pinned, immobilized, to the floor. One vampire sat above me, his hands pinning my shoulders. I clutched the vampire's right arm with my left hand and tried to swing my left leg around in an arc to hook the vampire in the neck or chest with my heel and push him off me. My hips could flex enough to do it.
Something fell on my leg, clamping and pushing it back down. Three. Three vampires.
A fourth grabbed my head and twisted it to the side, not to break the neck, but to leave my carotid artery exposed.
Only my left hand was free. I felt at my waist, hoping to find one of the silvered knives. My hand closed on the grip of a knife. I knew as I began my draw that the knife was the wrong one. My hand held the bone hilt of that antique knife. Steel, no matter how well-forged, would be of no use against a vampire.
The Unmasking (Dhampyre the Hunter Book 1) Page 19
