“Get out of my chair! Y’all sit over here on the other side of the desk.”
“Make me move, pipsqueak,” Jake taunted, opening the file folder on Peewee’s desk.
“Hey!”
“Look, women are being murdered. You can play sheriff all day long when the killer is caught, but until then you need my help.”
“Your help? Since when did you become an officer of the law?”
Jake sent an unimpressed glance his cousin’s way. “Since when did you?”
“I have a badge.” Peewee pointed at his meager chest, showing off the badge pinned to his khaki button-down shirt.
“Big deal. I have experience, and I actually know what I’m going up against. If you truly want to protect your town, the best thing you can do is stay out of my way and let me do my job.”
“Why? Are vampires about to invade?” Peewee let out a shrill, high-pitched laugh, turning toward Nyla. “Do you know loverboy here thinks vampires are real?” He laughed a bit more, but sobered as he realized Nyla wasn’t laughing with him. “Oh, hell, you’re a frigging crackpot too.”
“I prefer the title of hunter,” she said firmly, narrowing her eyes, daring him to say something else smart to her about Jake.
“I wouldn’t piss her off, Peewee,” Jake warned. “The woman could kick your ass with both hands tied behind her back.”
“Get out of here, both of you,” Peewee ordered. “If you want to send me some help, send Jonah. He’s a real cop. He caught the last guy doing this.”
“No, the last guy ‘doing this’ caught him,” Jake rejoined, “and I was there to help save him.”
“What are you talking about?” Peewee looked back and forth between the two of them as if they’d both sprouted second heads.
“Carter Dunn was some sort of demon or devil worshiper, and he was killed by vampires, not Jonah.”
“Oh, for crying out loud,” Peewee said, rolling his eyes. “Get out of that file and leave!”
“Um, no.” Jake continued looking through the contents of the folder despite his cousin’s continued ranting, knowing the smaller man wasn’t going to do anything to him. “We have a better picture here, Nyla.”
Nyla walked over to the desk and leaned over Jake’s shoulder to see the picture he held. It was a clear shot of the last victim’s naked torso. There was a marking right above the third victim’s hip, but before she got a good look at it Peewee snatched the picture and the rest of the file away from Jake.
“Aw, Peewee, I was gonna give it back,” Jake said as his cousin stood over him, glaring down at him like he was a cockroach he wanted to stomp on.
“You and your little girlfriend get out before I toss you both into a cell.”
“For what?” Jake asked innocently.
Peewee’s eyes flared with anger. “For being an asshole your whole life.”
Jake laughed, an action which seemed to further anger his cousin. The wiry man made a move toward him, and Jake reached toward the waistband of his jeans.
Nyla instinctively backed up, giving Jake room to maneuver and readying herself should she need to come to his aid, but he wasn’t reaching for a weapon. He brought his cell phone up before Peewee could grab him, sticking it in his cousin’s face. “Call Jonah. I have him on speed dial.”
“Call Jonah for what?”
“Ask him what really happened. Ask him if what I said is true.”
“I’m not as stupid as you think I am, Jake. I push that button on your phone, and I’m going to get connected to one of your little accomplices. Whoever he is, he’ll sound just like Jonah and yeah, he’ll tell me all this crap you’re spouting is true.”
Jake laughed out loud. “Dude, you have issues. Call him on your own phone if you don’t trust me.”
Peewee looked between Jake and Nyla, disdain clearly evident in his cold glare and flaring nostrils, before picking up his phone and punching in a number.
“Will Jonah tell him the truth?” Nyla asked, bending down to whisper in Jake’s ear.
“If he knows I told Peewee the truth, he’ll verify it.”
“And then what’s our plan?”
“We get all the information Peewee and his merry little band of hillbilly bandits have collected and catch Curtis Dunn before I lose my patience and beat the crap out of my cousin.”
“Jake, he really could lock you up, you know.”
“Yeah, well, you’ll just have to break me out.”
Nyla rolled her eyes and shook her head. “What makes you think I wouldn’t consider a cage a good place to keep you?”
Jake chuckled good-naturedly before returning his attention to Peewee, who’d just gotten Jonah on the line. They both watched as Peewee’s smugness evaporated before their eyes “You’re serious?” they heard him ask, his color draining. “Did Jake put you up to this? This is all just a joke, right?”
Jake and Nyla chuckled as they watched Peewee continue to argue with Jonah over the phone, refusing to believe the truth. “You’re all nuts,” he said, disconnecting the line. “You’ve turned your brother into a nut case too,” he accused Jake, turning on him.
“Call me names if it helps you deal with the truth, Peewee, but vampires are real, and Satan really can control people. The killer who murdered the poor woman whose photo is in that file is not your normal kind of guy. Jonah realized he was in over his head with the guy’s brother. If you’re smart, you’ll recognize that you’re out of your league on this one. You need my help, Peewee.”
“No, I don’t. We know who the killer is. We have the information from Louisville’s police department, and we know that Curtis Dunn got away from Jonah and is carrying on his brother’s work. All we have to do is catch him.”
Jake laughed. “It’s that easy, is it?”
“I have a task force on this.”
“Ooh, Nyla, did you hear that? He has a task force and everything. And I bet they’re real pros.”
Peewee walked over to the door, flinging it open. Nyla thought he was going to order them out again, but instead he barked out an order for his task force to come into the office.
Two of the men they’d seen earlier walked through the door, along with a heavyset man wearing jeans, a flannel shirt, and a cargo vest. He carried a rifle in one hand and an open can of beer in the other. Nyla had to blink, swearing for a moment she was looking at the actor who played “Larry The Cable Guy” in the movie. The other two men were tall and slender, a dark-headed man with a mustache, and a baby-faced blond. All three had shoes and teeth, which was a step up from most of the townspeople, although the Larry-lookalike’s teeth were a shade of yellow Nyla wasn’t very familiar with.
“So this is the mighty task force that’s going to bring Curtis Dunn to justice?” Jake asked, not bothering to hide his amusement.
“We sure is,” the Larry-lookalike said, stepping forward. “And who is you, pretty boy?”
Jake smiled, obviously enjoying himself. “Me and my partner is the people who have come here to replace you boys,” he said, emphasizing his bad grammar with an exaggerated twang.
“I don’t think so. Petie Joe and Billy Bob here is all the help I need. I’ve tracked every kind of animal you can think of. This guy won’t be no different.”
“So you must be Bubba Lee, huh?”
The Larry-lookalike’s eyes widened. “How do you know my name?”
“Well, I just met Petie Joe and Billy Bob. What other inbred hillbilly name was left?”
Bubba Lee’s forehead crinkled, and Nyla struggled not to laugh while he took his time figuring out he’d just been insulted.
“Hey!” His eyes narrowed as it finally dawned on him what he’d been called. “I don’t care who you is, we don’t take a likin’ to you city folks comin’ down here tryin’ to make us al
l look stupid.”
“Now, Bubba Lee, why would I waste my time making you look stupid when you do such a fine job of it yourself?”
Bubba Lee’s eyes widened, as though surprised someone would say such a thing to him, and judging by his size, Nyla was sure the surprise was genuine. “Oh, you asked for it, boy . . .”
“Stop, Bubba Lee,” Peewee warned with a hand held up, signaling the burly man to not take another step. “He’s just baiting you. Y’all go on now and find something to do while my cousin and I have a little chat.”
Jake sat back in the chair, grinning. “Good idea, boys. Why don’t you go clean out your guns or something? Here’s a tip—unload ’em, first.”
Bubba Lee glared down at where Jake sat calmly, looking smugger than the cat that caught the mouse, and Nyla could imagine the murderous thoughts running through the big man’s mind. Finally, realizing the sheriff wasn’t going to intervene in his defense, he gestured for his teammates to follow him out, aiming a good, cold look at Jake before he shut the door behind them.
“What was that?” Peewee asked as the door closed. “You can’t just come in here issuing orders to my people like you own the place.”
“Oh, what? Like you know the right directions to give them,” Jake said. “Seriously, who the hell would elect you sheriff? Bubba Lee could probably do a better job.”
“Obviously, the town doesn’t agree.”
“Most of the town doesn’t even have enough sense to brush their teeth and put shoes on their feet,” Jake retorted. “Did you seriously assign a hunter to go after Curtis Dunn?”
“You two call yourself hunters.”
“We don’t go after squirrels and deer. There’s a distinction.”
“Oh, that’s right. You’re vampire hunters. I guess it would be safer if I sent two wackos out into the night fully loaded and ready to shoot. No, wait. You’d stake innocent people to death.”
“No, but we would kill the vampires.”
“Oh, for the love of . . . There is no such thing as vampires!”
“You have a lot of missing people out there on that bulletin board,” Nyla interjected.
“Yeah, so?”
“So do you normally have that many people missing?”
“No, but what’s that have to do with anything?”
“He really isn’t catching on,” Nyla said to Jake, who nodded in return. “Women have been murdered. The bodies have left a trail from Louisville to here.”
“The last body was found outside my town.”
“Trust me, the next one—and if we don’t find Curtis, there will be a next one—will be in your town. So, you have a trail of bodies leading to here, and several people are missing from here. Don’t you think the two situations might be connected?”
Peewee shuffled his feet, darting a look at Jake like he expected some sort of help, but Jake merely leaned back in the desk chair, grinning from ear to ear as he watched the man squirm.
“Yeah, it could be connected, but I still don’t see how vampires can be involved, seeing as how they don’t exist. Y’all know darn well those fang holes are just holes left by some sort of tubes. Carter Dunn was draining his victims to make them look like they’d been attacked by vampires, and his brother is doing the same thing. My boys can handle it.”
“Jake?”
“Yes, Nyla?”
“Can I tell Peewee what we did last night?”
Jake’s lips twitched. “Sure.”
“He won’t throw us in jail?”
“No, because if vampires don’t exist, we couldn’t have killed them, could we?”
“What are you two babbling about?” Peewee cut in, looking between them, not seeming to know which one to glare at longest.
“I beheaded a couple of flying vampires last night,” Nyla said. “Jake shot the other five with UV bullets, killing them. Those vampires looked a whole lot like those missing people on your board out there, except they had fangs.”
Peewee stared at her, slack-jawed and speechless. Nyla looked at Jake, receiving a shrug for the effort. She returned her gaze to Peewee, finding him in the same speechless state.
“What kind of sick joke is this?” he finally asked, again not seeming to know which of the two he should focus on. “I know those people. They have families.”
“And we feel bad for their families,” Nyla said, “but this is no joke. We were attacked at a cemetery. We had no choice.”
“You sick, psychotic—You’re lucky this is too insane to believe, or you’d both be arrested right now! Your poor mother, Jake.” Peewee shook his head in disgust. “I won’t even bother telling her—”
“He’s not going to believe us,” Jake said, interrupting what sounded like the beginning of a long insult. “He’s not going to help us, and, in fact, he’ll probably get in our way as much as he possibly can. We tried.”
Jake rose from the chair, gesturing for Peewee to take it. “There’s a vampire loose in your town, Peewee, and the bastard is changing your people into vamps. When you want to embrace the truth, you know how to reach me. Hopefully you’ll come to your senses before you run out of room on that bulletin board out there.”
Nyla followed Jake out the door, choosing to take the high road and ignore the scathing glare she received from Luanne. Instead, she asked, “What do we do now?”
“Stake out the area and review all the information we have,” Jake answered, stopping before the bulletin board. “Who the hell is changing over these people?”
Nyla felt a cold chill creep along her spine, and for the slightest of moments she felt a dark presence in her mind. She closed her eyes and focused on strengthening her mental blocks. Now was not the time for Demarcus to enter her head. There was too much going on.
She felt eyes on her back and whirled around impulsively, but her only danger seemed to be the heated glares of the three men Jake had insulted earlier—and Luanne, of course. The woman looked at her with murder in her eyes.
“We should go, Jake. The sun was already setting when we walked in here, and we shouldn’t waste time.”
“You’re right.” Jake peeled his gaze away from the bulletin board, giving Peewee’s task force a healthy smile before heading for the door.
“I think you made a good impression in there,” Nyla commented as they stepped out of the building and into the dark night.
Jake laughed. “Yeah, I should work in customer service.”
He unlocked the trunk of the Malibu, removing Nyla’s sword and knife sheaths, after glancing around to make sure no one was watching from any of the nearby buildings. She’d left them off since she was only wearing a T-shirt. Country hick-town or not, it was never wise to walk into a sheriff’s office sporting major cutlery.
“Better suit up. There is definitely something dark and evil going on, right here in this very town from the looks of it.”
“You really think Curtis is here?” she asked, slipping on the sheaths. “You thought he was in Louisville.”
“Since that’s where the first body was found, that was my original thought, but those vampires who attacked us came from here.”
“I wish we’d asked how long those people have been missing. Obviously it couldn’t be long enough for them to be fliers, but still . . .”
“I know. It doesn’t make any sense.” Jake shook his head. “The ability to fly is rare.”
“Especially for the newly turned.”
“Especially for so many newly turned.”
“You said Curtis’s brother had trapped a very powerful vampire.”
“Yeah?”
“So what if Curtis has trapped a very powerful vampire who has the ability to fly? And what if that vampire is being forced to change over the townspeople, and he’s passing along the ability?”
/>
Jake seemed to think about it before shaking his head. “I don’t think it’s an ability that can be passed along like that. The ability to fly is something only truly old and powerful vampires can do, and a vampire can’t transfer decades of experience and power to a fledgling.”
“What other explanation is there?”
“Carter Dunn was a scientific whiz. Curtis probably is too.”
“So you think Curtis is making vampires?”
“Maybe,” Jake said with a shrug. “It’s too coincidental for that many newly turned vamps to fly. We’ll ask Seta about it when she pops up again, but I’m pretty sure there has to be some type of tampering going on.”
“So you’re actually going to play nice with Seta?”
“I know. I can barely believe it myself, but it all comes down to the lesser of two evils. I kind of owe her anyway.” Jake closed the trunk, but made no effort to move. He stood where he was, staring up at the night sky, entertaining some hidden thought.
“Seta saved your brother.”
“That’s right.”
“And now she’s willing to help you again.”
Jake snorted in disgust. “She went into Carter Dunn’s house to save Aria and Eron. Saving my brother was an add-on, not something she did purely out of the goodness of her heart.”
“Then why is she helping us now?”
“Carter Dunn’s plan was to inspire belief in vampires by leaving his victims with fang marks. Once people began to believe in vamps, they’d want them killed, and that would create more vampire hunters. That, in turn, would wipe out vampires, which is what Dunn wanted. Now his brother Curtis is doing the same thing. Vampires kind of frown on exposure since belief in their existence will pretty much guarantee their extinction.”
“So you think Seta’s helping solely for her own personal gain.”
“For her and her kind, yes.”
“That’s crap, Jake. She could go after Curtis all by herself.”
Slayer's Prey Page 17
