Yet, she hesitated.
She felt as if she was being manipulated somehow.
Blue was too obvious. That’s why it was in the centre.
He wanted her to pick the Blue.
And he wanted her to lose, right?
Haley looked up at the camera in the ceiling. That was there for a reason. He wanted to see this.
He wanted to see her sweat.
“Fucking asshole,” Haley cursed.
She put her hand to the Blue door. This was the one. This felt right. Except, for that other thing.
She looked to the other two doors.
She took a step to the left and stood in front of the Green door.
This door had absolutely nothing to do with Brock. But then perhaps there were other people out there. People she hadn’t considered. People who were carrying this old flag –
“No,” Haley said shaking her head. “This has already been eliminated. This is done.”
She walked back across passing the blue door.
She stood in front of the Red.
This had been the Count’s color.
Brock was the new Count, he’d taken over the Vampire Dating Agency – perhaps he was trying to transition over…
Bit of a stretch.
But then who knew how his pathetic mind worked?
Haley shook her head, dissatisfied. She moved back to the centre of the room and looked at all three doors.
“What’s stopping you?” she asked, staring at the blue door. “Are you afraid of it really being him?”
She knew it was him.
It had to be.
She’d just been talking to him for fuck’s sake!
“But what if it wasn’t,” Haley whispered. “What if he still loved me after all this time? What if he never had anything to do with this? What if he was just being impersonated or … what if the real killer was making him say those things?”
Her mind flashed with pain.
Who was lying to themselves now?
She took a step back towards the blue door.
It was pulsating.
Vibrating.
The colors were swirling around all over it.
Magic … was in the air…
Remember…
Remember our conversation earlier…
Remember, how I always…
Will.
Love.
You.
Haley’s eyes widened. She could feel him. She could feel the killer.
She knew exactly what he wanted her to do.
Hiding behind masks. And voice synthesizers.
And black feathers.
She could see him.
She knew who he was.
Haley chose a door…
CHAPTER EIGHTEEN
He wasn’t answering her calls. Ignoring her texts and voice messages. She didn’t even need to speak to him. One of his minions would do fine enough. The problem was that someone needed to get down here, and they needed to get down here fast. Nadine couldn’t handle this whole mess by herself.
“Bravo, bravo,” Nadine cried putting her hands together. “I’m the traitor. That’s really original, pointing the finger in my direction. Like I haven’t been accused before. Let’s not forget who was seen coming out of Jason’s house.”
“Who were you planning on killing next, I wonder?” the Count continued. “You did well enough shopping around the list, with each of the team’s addresses on it. What was your ultimate goal? To see everyone dead? Or just to torture the living hell out of them all?”
“Oh come on, you guys aren’t believing this are you? Jason – Jason, I’ve been with Jason the whole time. You can vouch for me.”
“Well, you were with me up until I fainted. And I was with Riley when Luna was attacked, so –”
“I don’t believe this,” Nadine said, the smile hurting her face. “You’re actually accusing me –”
“Do you have any proof Nadine was behind any of the murders?” Dino asked the Count. “Or are you just stalling for time?”
“Why do I need proof, when I have the true story,” the Count said. “Where shall we start from Nadine? When you started supplying my agency with information about the paranormal police? When you reached out to Madame Nightshade? Or shall we go further back? When you went undercover into my dating agency in hopes of unmasking the killer…”
CHAPTER NINETEEN
She’d been stalking me for weeks. Oh sure, I’d seen her about the place. I’d seen her looking at me. And I wasn’t fooled by the fake golden hair. Or the huge sunglasses to block her eyes. I didn’t know her true identity, or that she was after me, the killer, rather than me, the lover –
I thought I’d take her out. There wasn’t anyone else to my taste that evening, and I found her completely bothersome. It was later I learned it wasn’t only her appearance that was superficial. Without looking behind those dazzling blue eyes, I never knew her true motives.
“That’s it,” she said to me as I squeezed her neck. “Keep going. Make it hurt.”
My grip was so strong, she should have been close to choking.
Falling unconscious at the very least.
Even as the blood poured down my arms and her neck became bloodier and bloodier, still she egged me on.
“I want it,” she said. “Kill me…”
I couldn’t see it.
I couldn’t see what was going on inside her head.
Did she really wish to die? I was happy to oblige.
Haley found her in the garden a short time later. I saw her bend over and try and help her from where I standing. It was strange in a way, the old victim interacting with the new. Then Madame Nightshade came along and broke things up.
I turned away thought it was the end of the matter.
Later I learned that Madame Nightshade had spared her life. Brought her over to the dark side with the rest of us. Nadine had already been working the paranormal police from the inside anyway. She wanted to get out of it. She wanted it destroyed. Looking back, I wonder if she’d done it for me. And so I began to write to her while she was in prison. It was there I found out all sorts of dark things about her past and what had happened to her inside the paranormal police. It was there I too, allowed myself to become somewhat infatuated.
“Wait for me,” she’d said. “Wait for me before you strike again.”
And so I had waited.
Until it was time for Haley to open the door…
CHAPTER TWENTY
The lights weren’t working properly. They kept buzzing and going out every few seconds or so. The ground was a pattern of concrete slabs. They were all wet. Especially between each of their cracks.
The room was long. The walls were yellow. There was a wooden table towards the end of it, a laptop computer facing away from her. A small chair rested at the wall adjacent. Haley walked along the tiles, avoiding the dripping pipes overhead.
Had she chosen the right door?
Was he even here?
“Congratulations. You found me.”
Out from the shadows a giant raven swooped forth, landing on top of the table. His beak twitched. His neck spasmed.
The green eye stared within.
She had seen him before. She remembered now. It was in the middle of her fight with Edmond Rance that this creature had swooped in between them.
Haley stopped moving.
The raven’s shadow crept across the table, until its darkened pool had entrenched itself to the floor and then the adjacent wall. A cloud of purple smog began to hiss in the depths of the shadow. The raven dissolved before her eyes.
And then at the foot of the shadow, he appeared.
Cyrus Rance.
“I’m surprised,” Cyrus said. “I thought you were going to take the blue door.”
“I was going to,” Haley admitted. “For so long I thought it was Brock. I wasn’t … sure of course … but I didn’t know who else it could be. How was it that he phoned me?”
“No elaborate tricks, I’m afraid,” Cyrus said. “Magnus and Avril paid him a visit on my behalf. They made sure he understood that if he didn’t comply the room would be filled with gas, and you’d be killed.”
“Was he watching me then?”
“We’re all watching you, Haley.”
Haley was waiting for her emotions to kick in. Her rage, anger. Disgust. She knew what he’d done to her. To the people she loved. And yet inside, there was somehow nothing.
She didn’t know what to say.
“You were saying?” Cyrus said. “You were going to take the blue door, but…”
“It was too easy. Too simple. I didn’t want it to be him.”
“But why not take the red door then? Why did you choose the green?”
“I think the green was the one I was more afraid of. Besides you’d already said you weren’t the Count outright. It would be rather unfair of you to go back on your word there.”
“That’s true. I did want to play fair with you. For once.”
“Now obviously, I saw you die. Your body was in the water. A pole in your head…”
“Yes, it was a rather interesting anomaly. I’d half killed Edmond in our fight together and when I returned outside he took his revenge. When I realized I was in serious danger, I managed to escape my human form to that of the nearby bird. For a brief period I was terrified that I’d been trapped in the raven’s body, but later, after they had their way with you – I discovered that my body was indeed eternal. I looked over my former body, like a snake that had shed its skin, and I kicked the head off it just to be sure. I have other forms, it’s true – otherworldly forms. But I quite like Cyrus’s physique. It’s been fun to live in.”
“So you’re saying you can’t die?”
“I think everyone has a chance to live beyond this world. It is but a temporary place…”
“So what now?” Haley asked.
Cyrus opened his jacket. He took out a pair of gloves and put them on.
“I wish I could say that I’ve been thinking about you all these years,” Cyrus said. “That the love I had for you in one night would carry on for an eternity. Alas, you are nothing special to me. Live or die, it makes no difference now. I have killed hundreds of girls who look like you between our first night, and our last.”
“You sound proud of that.”
“I’m not proud,” Cyrus said. “I’m merely relaying your insignificance to me.”
“Have you no decency? No remorse? Only … this … hate…”
“Does the lion hate the antelope? I don’t believe so. It’s nothing personal. You’re just a food source.”
“Nothing personal,” Haley muttered. “You are so full of shit.”
Cyrus reached into his jacket.
He pulled out two small metal rods. One he rolled across the floor to Haley.
The other he kept.
“What’s this for?” Haley asked putting her foot to the rod to stop it from rolling.
“Don’t pretend you’ve forgotten.”
Haley picked it up.
“You’re not afraid, are you?” Cyrus asked. “I thought you’d be happy to get a chance to fight me.”
“When it’s over, and one of us is dead, will it make any difference? Will there be any peace left for anyone?”
“I think there might be peace for both of us.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE
It was hard to find. Hard to unlock. The violence inside, the training, the action and movement. Haley didn’t necessarily feel weak, rather … paralyzed. Cyrus was taking his time too. He seemed to be waiting for her to make the first move.
“Come on then,” he beckoned. “Don’t be shy.”
Haley still couldn’t move.
“Do you want me to go easy on you? Afraid I’ll bust up your pretty little face, is that it?”
Haley’s teeth clenched. She put a foot forward.
“You know I used to beat off to that tape that my cousin and sister made with you. I must have watched it a thousand times.”
Haley grimaced.
There goes the other foot.
“Sometimes I think about your Mom too, when I’m lonely.”
Haley screamed and ran at him blindly. Before reaching him, she jumped three feet into the air and steered the rod towards his face to land the first blow.
But she missed. And missed again.
And missed again.
He was dodging her swings.
“I’m not even going to start until you hit me, how about that?” he chuckled.
Haley turned the pole to its circular end and went to jab him in the chest with it.
Instead of hitting him, she again hit the air. And this time he was gone.
Purple smog clouded the ceiling, as his shadow became the bird once again. He flew across the ceiling to the room’s end, and burst through making a hole in the door.
Haley chased after him and ripped the door open.
She was now in a corridor. A corridor she didn’t recognize.
Did he go left or right?
“Bugger,” Haley cursed.
She wanted it now. She’d acquired a taste for it.
Even though his taunts were empty, still they yielded feelings long forgotten. She could feel him taunting her, taunting her the night he’d killed her family. The sickness of him. The filth. The pure, absolute evil.
There was a time, when she knew how to stand up for herself.
When she knew how to really fight.
“Oh Haley … over here.”
She whirled around to the left, only to see the shadow creeping around the distant corner.
She walked quickly towards the end, soon breaking out into a steady jog, before outright running. She turned the corner at high speed, continuing to run until she reached a section of double doors at the end. She forced them open and then found herself back in the middle of the dome area where she arrived.
Haley came to a stop, panting. Out of breath.
The crowd in front of her was as thick and full as it ever had been.
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
So this was it. The last moment. The final stand. I could already see how it was going to end.
Tap, tap, tap.
A spoon against glass.
Signaling a toast.
“Ladies and Gentlemen, could I have your attention please?” I said cheerfully. “Thank you. I’d like to first start by saying what wonderful hosts we have here tonight – you know who you are! Come on, everyone put your hands together.”
A flutter of clapping erupted amongst the room.
The hosts raised their glasses from where they were dinning.
I scanned the room for Haley.
“Now I’m sure everyone has heard of Count Ferns. Unfortunately, the Count got tied up – yes – and he won’t be making it tonight. But thankfully we still have his lovely bride with us here. Where is she? Come on, Haley. Show yourself.”
Now I was not alone in my search.
People turned to those beside them. They looked over their shoulders.
Suddenly I felt a chill down my neck.
“I’m right here,” Haley whispered in my ear behind me.
Then she struck. Her first blow hit me square in the back, radiating painful alarm across my entire body.
In other words, ecstasy.
I pounced up into the air and caught hold of one of the dangling chandeliers, swinging myself up across to an upper ledge. Disconcertment rushed throughout the crowd.
Haley stepped into the parting centre, pointing the rod up into the air towards me.
“Come down, you bleeding coward,” she roared.
I sat down on the ledge, my legs over the side of it, my arms folded.
“No,” I teased. “You come up here.”
Haley slowly lowered the rod.
I peered down at her, grinning.
She looked to either side of her, the crowd parting further. She backed up and steadied herself.
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I jumped back to my feet in anticipating.
Haley took a short run up and then sprang several feet into air.
Seconds later, she landed on her knees on the other side of the circle.
“Almost!” I cried down at her. “Try again!”
Haley stared up at me. She was getting really pissed now.
Instead of taking another run up, she grabbed hold of the nearest vampire, climbed up his back and spring-boarded herself back into the air.
I watched in amazement as she climbed several feet higher this time, the top of her rod glancing the dangling pieces of the chandelier.
But she was losing ground again.
Gravity had her. She was about to fall.
“Close enough,” I decided.
I leapt from my perch and crashed back down to meet with her halfway in the air. Her nails immediately sunk into my neck as she belted me with the rod in a frenzy. When we hit the ground I hadn’t even managed to get one hit in.
To begin with, I wasn’t trying properly, but now I was. And nothing was getting in clean.
Before I even had a chance to gain my composure again, Haley had belted me so hard across the face I had fallen to my knees.
Blood seeped from my forehead.
I sat there dazed as she marched over.
“Who’s laughing now?” she scolded.
She struck me the neck, chest and forehead.
I fell onto my back and she climbed on top of me.
“Wait,” I whispered to her.
I offered her my rod.
“It was a pleasure to have met you,” I said. “Though I’m sure the pleasure was all mine.”
“You weren’t trying, were you?” she asked. “Do you want to die?”
“I don’t want to die, so much as I want you to kill me. There’s a whole new adventure waiting for you on the other side of this. You’ll see.”
“Can I ask you one last thing?”
I smiled. “Anything for you, Haley.”
“Were you lying when you said you could bring my family back to life?”
“Perhaps. Perhaps I was…”
“Oh.”
“But perhaps it isn’t me who does it. Perhaps it’s you.”
Vampire Dating Agency: The Finale Page 4
