Her tone set Jack on edge. He shook his head and shrugged reflexively.
“I’m not sure what you mean by that,” he said.
“You know exactly what I mean by that,” said Jessie. “I come from a different background than Sheriff Carter, or the mayor, or most of the people in this town. And I’m more open to taking help where I can find it.”
Jack narrowed his eyes, feeling an odd mixture of wariness and respect for the acting sheriff.
“What is it that you think I can do for you, Jessie?” he asked.
“There’s a group of looters holed up in the movie theater,” she said. “I’ve been ignoring them for most of the day, but they’ve been growing bolder. Flashing guns to rob people. I heard some shots go off earlier and think they might actually have done something stupid.”
Jack did his best to look confused.
“And what is it that you think I can—”
“Cut the bullshit,” said Jessie. “I know that you can handle them. Get them to surrender. Scare them off. Kill them. I’m giving you free rein here, Jack. I know what kind of man you are, and I trust that it won’t be too much trouble for you.”
Jack glanced away from her. How could she know what kind of man he was? He wasn’t sure he even knew that himself.
“If you get me the info I want on Zack Koffman, I’ll do it,” said Jack.
“Deal.” Jessie nodded to him and turned her attention back to the map.
Jack headed downstairs. Mira wasn’t in the soup kitchen, but he found her waiting for him outside. She smiled at him and stepped in close as he approached her.
“Off on an errand for the sheriff’s deputy, I presume?” she asked.
“Yeah,” he said. “What about you?”
“Just taking a break,” she said. “I’m still keeping my eyes open for the nymph. You’ll be the first to hear if I spot her.”
“Thanks,” he said. “Let’s hope you do. And let’s hope you do soon.”
“Be safe, dearest Jack,” whispered Mira. She kissed him on the cheek. Jack pulled her into a short hug and started off down the street.
CHAPTER 26
Lestaron Island’s sole movie theater was a small operation, basically just a single projector room, a popcorn machine, and a few promotional posters. The glass entrance doors had been smashed open, and Jack took careful steps around shards of broken glass as he slipped inside.
There was nobody watching the door that led to the projection room, and he could hear the sound of loud voices coming from within. He wasn’t dealing with professionals or even talented amateurs. He didn’t bother doing more than moving quietly as he approached the door and slipped through it.
“Jewelry is good, too,” said a woman’s voice. “It’s not something most people think to take with them.”
“Fuck that,” said a man’s voice. “Too traceable. Just go for as many wallets as you can grab.”
“Most people have their wallets with them, dumbass,” said another man.
“And that’s gonna stop us how?” said the first man. “We shot that old fucker when he tried to stop us. It’s not like anyone is going to notice how he died when his body washes up. If there’s even anything left of it once the fishes get done.”
Jack gritted his teeth. It was dark inside the projection room, with only the beams of a couple of flashlights illuminating the area down by the front where the looters were sitting. There were four of them in total, and even though they’d already admitted to murder, he felt like the easiest way to approach the situation would be to at least give them a choice. He walked to the top of the center of the aisle and cleared his throat.
“The game’s over,” said Jack. “I’ll give you a chance to surrender before getting serious.”
“Who the fuck are you?” One of the flashlight beams pivoted to illuminate Jack. He squinted through its brightness, picking out the outline of at least one pistol pointed at him.
“I’m the guy who you’re going to be terrified of in a couple of seconds if you don’t drop your weapons and come with me,” said Jack.
A forced laugh came from one of the men. Jack heard a gun being cocked, followed by a tired sigh.
“Fuck off,” said one of the men. “How ‘bout this? You turn your pockets inside out, and we’ll let you walk out of here alive.”
Jack took a step forward. He smiled and shook his head.
“Don’t come any closer, fuckface!” shouted the man. “I’m serious.”
Jack took another step forward. He saw the man with the gun’s arm tense as he steadied his aim. He stepped out of the flashlight’s beam just as the pistol rattled off a single bullet, and then cast Shadow Form.
The dark movie theater was the perfect setting for him to work his blood magic, though he was admittedly starting to run a little low on essence. Jack moved through the seats as an ethereal shadow, listening to the looters as they voiced their confusion.
“Where the fuck did he go?” cried the woman.
“He’s probably hiding behind some of the seats, pissing his pants in fear,” said one of the men. “Just spread out and search each row. And someone guard the door.”
Jack couldn’t have gotten them in a more favorable position if he’d asked. He watched as the woman ran up and stood in front of the projector room’s exit, preventing him from leaving, but doing the same for her compatriots.
One of the men walked over to the spot where they’d last seen him and bent over to search under the seats. Jack materialized directly behind him and summoned his Spectral Sword. He slammed it through the man’s back with a single, ruthless stab. The man didn’t even get a chance to scream, only managing to let out a wet gargle as the dark, magical blade impaled him through the shoulder blades. Jack pushed it a few inches further in, and then let it dissolve into ethereal smoke.
“Terrance?” shouted one of the other men. “What just happened?”
A flashlight beam panned to illuminate Jack, and he let it expose him for a moment before ducking out of the way. A salvo of gunshots exploded in his direction, and one of the bullets passed close enough by his head for him to feel the air shift across his hair.
He ducked behind a row of chairs and slowly began making his way toward the side aisle. The remaining three looters were shouting panicked words at each other, aware of the fact that they were losing control of the situation.
One of the men seemed to catch on to Jack’s new location and hurried up the side aisle to intercept him. Jack cast Spectral Hand, extending a shadowy tendril from the top of his shoulder. He reached out with it, looping it around the approaching looter’s ankle and tripping him as he took his next step.
The man landed on his chest with a thump and a gasp. Jack extended a second tendril, looping this one around the man’s neck and squeezing it tight. The looter struggled for a few counterproductive seconds, desperately trying to free himself and burning through the little oxygen left available to him in the process.
Jack left him where he was as soon as he stopped moving. The female looter was shouting out the names of the others, and the other remaining man was swinging his flashlight across the theater and shooting his gun into the shadows.
It took almost no effort for him to work his way around the edge of the room and position himself behind the man. He didn’t bother casting any spells, instead choosing to ambush the man with a headlock from behind. He felt the man clawing at the skin of his arm, but it wasn’t nearly enough to stop him.
Jack squeezed, putting his enhanced vampiric strength to good use as the man’s eyes bulged outward in their sockets. He gave his arm a hard, jerking twist, feeling a snap and knowing that it was probably the man’s spine.
“Jesus!” cried the woman, who’d been watching. “What the fuck?”
She turned to run. Jack cast Spectral Hand again, reaching out with a tendril to snag her by the ankles. She let out a bloodcurdling scream as he slowly pulled her in. She dug her fingers into the theater’s carpet
and tried to latch onto the legs of the seats as she passed by them. It wasn’t enough, and within a few seconds, Jack was standing over her.
“No!” shouted the woman. “Stay… stay away from me!”
“I gave you a chance,” said Jack. “And I have to admit, I’m almost glad that you didn’t take it.”
He let his tendril rove over her body, seizing her by the wrists this time. He lifted her into the air. The woman screamed the rest of the breath out of her lungs and shook her head. She had short blonde hair, and though she was a little on the curvaceous side, she was still rather attractive.
“I saved you for last,” said Jack. “Do you know why?”
“Help!” cried the woman. “Somebody! Please, god, please, somebody help me!”
Jack wondered if the old man that she and her friends had killed had even been given the chance to call for help. Probably not. He ran his fingers along the nape of the woman’s neck.
“I’m thirsty,” he said. “I have been all day, in fact.”
He leaned forward and sank his fangs into the woman’s neck. Her blood had a sour taste to it, which would have been interesting, if it wasn’t quite so overpowering. It reminded him of children’s sour candy, the kind that would give you a stomachache if you tried to eat too much.
He still wanted to drain her of every drop, and he had to force himself to pull back after just a few sips. Jack had told Jessie that he’d handle the looters, not slaughter them. He’d enthrall the woman but leave her alive to confess to their crimes.
“Now,” said Jack. “I want you to go and turn yourself in. You won’t hurt anybody else on the way there. You’ll tell the honest truth about all the crimes you’ve committed, and you’ll allow justice to be carried out. Do you understand?”
The woman’s eyes fluttered open.
“You…” she whispered. “What are you?”
Jack shrugged.
“Go on,” he said. “Do what I told you to do.”
The woman nodded. She stared at him with obvious longing in her eyes, and then hurried up the aisle and out of the theater.
CHAPTER 27
It was early evening when Jack made his way back out onto the street. The clouds in the sky were growing darker faster than the sun was setting, which gave the oncoming night an ominous edge. Jack walked back toward the municipal building with quick steps, hoping that he’d be able to do something about the water nymph before it was too late.
He made his way inside and upstairs. Jessie was in the office room where he’d last seen him, and she quirked an eyebrow at him as he entered.
“Did you handle the situation?” she asked.
Jack shrugged. “Didn’t really even have to. The looters turned on each other right after I announced my presence. Seemed like a pretty volatile group.”
Jessie nodded slowly, but there was a significant amount of incredulity in her expression.
“If that’s what happened,” she said. “Regardless, I sent a brave volunteer down to the station to see if the files you wanted were still there. They were, though there isn’t much.”
She passed him a thin manila folder. Jack inhaled sharply as he took it from her.
“That’s the only copy, so you’ll have to read it here and leave it with me,” said Jessie.
Jack nodded and flipped the folder open. There was a single, aged rap sheet on the other side, along with a cutout from a newspaper article. Jack scanned over Hoffman, Zack’s criminal record, skipping the section describing his height, hair, and eye color.
Assault. Kidnapping. Resisting arrest. Extortion. Manslaughter. Second-degree murder.
The charges meant nothing to him, other than confirming what he’d already suspected. Zack Hoffman had been a bad person. Someone who wouldn’t exactly have been missed if he was sacrificed for a spell that might save a dead child.
Of course, what Jack had seen in his memory regarding the personality of the sacrifice bleeding into the recipient of the life essence made it feel like a double-edged sword. How much of what he’d just done to the looters could be described in those same, criminal terms? Manslaughter? Murder?
Jack glanced at the newspaper clipping. It was a few sentences from a reporter who’d been covering one of Zack’s trials.
The accused appeared cold, unflinching, and unrepentant for his crimes.
“Is that what you needed?” asked Jessie.
Jack closed the folder. “No. But it is what I wanted.”
Jessie let out a small chuckle and shook her head. She had a confident, intense quality to her, and Jack paid a little too much attention to the way her finger grazed across his as he passed the documents back.
“There is one other thing I need,” he said. “It’s a little unconventional, but I think you might be able to help me out.”
“Shoot,” said Jessie.
Jack leaned in and told her what it was in a quiet voice. Jessie furrowed her brow and gave him a suspicious look.
“And a Ziploc bag to put it in,” said Jack.
“That’s… a little unusual,” said Jessie. “But you have been helpful, and it’s not like we don’t have a few laying around. Wait here.”
She left her office and came back a minute later, passing Jack what he’d requested. He tucked it into the pocket of his jeans, thanked her, and left.
He couldn’t find Mira downstairs. Bruce was still hanging around at one of the tables, and he noticed Jack looking.
“Your girlfriend went down to the beach,” said Bruce. “One of the kids mentioned seeing something strange in the water, and she wanted him to point it out to her.”
“She’s not my…” Jack trailed off and scratched the back of his head. “Whatever. Thanks.”
Bruce nodded and returned his attention to tapping his fingers against the table. Jack made his way outside. Mira wasn’t his girlfriend, but given the history between the two of them, and how close they’d grown, she was something.
It was a fair distance down to the beach. It gave Jack another opportunity to observe the damage done to the town. He wondered how many people would actually stay and attempt to rebuild.
The idea of Lesser Town dropping to a skeleton population, or worse, being completely abandoned, wasn’t something he liked to think about. It was where he’d spent his early childhood, and there was a certain finality about seeing it lose out to a natural disaster.
He shook the thoughts off, ignoring a pileup of destroyed cars that the rushing waters had swept down the street. The boardwalk had survived the flooding, at least, and the beach below looked cleaner than it had beforehand, if anything.
The sun was starting to set over the horizon, which emphasized just how few exterior lights were left working on the island. It looked blood red, and the dark clouds it was peeking out through took on a purple coloring that would have seemed beautiful, under normal circumstances.
Jack spotted Mira almost immediately. She’d found a towel somewhere, and was sitting across it, still clad in jeans and a v-neck. He made his way down the stairs and took his shoes and socks off before jogging over to her.
“Hey,” he said. “Enjoying the sunset?”
Mira shifted one of her bare feet through the sand, leaning onto her side with both legs curled atop one another.
“I’m helping you carry out your heroic duty,” she said, dryly. “One of the children at the shelter was playing down here earlier. He said that he saw a ‘blue naked lady’ swimming over by the buoy furthest to the right.”
She pointed out which one and licked her lips.
“That’ll make for a good place for me to start looking, then,” said Jack. “It’s actually not that far from where I encountered her when we were at the beach the other day.”
“Are you prepared to face this creature?” asked Mira. “It’s powerful, Jack. Far more than we originally gave it credit for.”
“It hasn’t killed me so far,” he said.
“Perhaps it didn’t see you as a threat,”
she said. “It’s a mistake many of your enemies have made before.”
Jack grinned. “True enough. Even you made that mistake, once upon a time.”
“I’m not so sure it can be called a mistake in my case,” said Mira. “After all, you never killed me.”
For some reason, the words sent an excited tingle of arousal through him. Mira shifted on the towel, and he was again impressed by how well she wore his v-neck. It was a look that more busty women needed to take for a spin.
“I’ll be okay,” said Jack. “I have a plan this time, and I still have the breath potion I bought from Palmer.”
“And your blood essence reserves?” asked Mira. “Shouldn’t you head into this encounter with a full tank, so to speak?”
One of her hands went up to the spot on her neck that Jack usually bit, and her thumb ran across it with an unconscious movement.
“I’d like to,” he said. “But there’s something that’s been concerning me lately. Mira… what are the long-term effects of feeding on a person?”
“You speak of enthrallment,” she said. “I believe you already know what that entails.”
“Not enthrallment,” he said. “I’m talking about the more standard mental effects. The rush that it gives, and how feeding almost seems addictive to the people on the receiving end of it, after a while.”
“You’re speaking of your maid?” asked Mira.
“Yeah,” said Jack. “Ryoko… she’s been depressed lately. And lethargic. All she seems to want whenever I talk to her is for me to bite her.”
Jack shook his head, feeling a small shudder run through him. Mira licked her lips, considering his words.
“I don’t believe that can be attributed to you feeding off her,” she said. “Especially given how much less frequently you’ve been drinking her blood over the past few days.”
“You’re sure?” asked Jack.
“My dear, do you truly think for a second that I would have allowed you to bite me if I thought that it would have a detrimental effect, beyond the risk of enthrallment?” asked Mira. “When have I ever been that reckless, in your opinion?”
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