Vampire's Shade Discounted Box Set

by Vivienne Neas

  "Yeah I think I'm going to call it a night," I said. I dropped the ID of the one vampire I'd gotten on his desk. He raised his eyebrows.

  "Before you say it," I said when I saw a complaint forming on his tongue. "You want to send me out there to do your dirty work you better bank on it that I'm going to take some time off to recover. Any other job has sick leave."

  "And other jobs pay tax," he said.

  "I'm going home. I'll call you," I answered and walked out. Sonya didn't say anything. She just stared. I bet she was damn happy about her safe little desk job.

  I made my way home slower than usual. I didn't want to run into a pole because my coordination was off. I was dizzy and I felt nauseous, the movement around me made it worse. I was sure I would have a concussion. I considered myself lucky I didn't have a broken nose. Small blessings.

  I made it home and into the shower. The water stung on my face. I had a split lip and I would have a black eye and a swollen jaw for a day or two. Nothing as pretty as girl after a cat fight. Thank goodness for healing abilities. When I looked in the mirror my colorful face complimented the scar down my neck for a change, and it blended rather than stood out. I shook my head at myself but I stopped again. My brain felt like it was loose in my head.

  I fell into bed. I had the mind to check my Glock before I put my head onto the pillow, and I let myself sink into a deep slumber.

  Chapter 5

  When I woke up again the light in my bedroom was all wrong. It was way past sunrise. I checked the clock on my nightstand and swore. I’d missed my class with Sensei and I had a missed call from Aspen on my phone. I pushed myself up and swore again when all my muscles screamed in protest. Sore muscles weren’t a new thing for me with how hard I trained, but there was a hell of a difference between lactic acid and bruises.

  I picked up the phone and dialed Aspen’s number.

  “Are you okay?” she asked when she picked up. “When you weren’t here I was worried.”

  “I had a rough night and slept it off. I’m sorry I didn’t let you know. I’ll be over later.”

  I phoned Sensei as well and rescheduled. I was relieved I hadn’t ended up going. I was stupid enough to train even when I was injured, and it wouldn’t have worked out well for me. The only reason I didn’t go now was because he didn’t have any other free slots on a Wednesday.

  When I looked at my reflection in the mirror in the light of day I looked better than expected. My eye was still bruised but it looked like the worst was over. Instead of an angry purple the way humans would have, it was a yellowy-blue like when it was healing. My split lip was healed, just tender. My head still hurt like hell. I tried to imagine what I would look like if I were a human.

  An image of Aspen on the floor in a pool of blood flashed in front of my eyes. A cut across her forehead, the blood slick and glistening on her cheek and the carpet. Teeth, sharp and elongated, and the guttural hiss that meant it was going to strike again. The slump form of my mother’s body under the table, the lifeless eyes staring through me.

  Well, that wasn’t what I’d wanted to see. I squeezed my eyes shut and grunted, grinding my teeth hard enough for my jaw to hurt. Pain grounded me when violence couldn’t. I had to get out of the house, get away from the memories.

  When I finally made it to the other side of Westham it was almost eleven and my internal clock was shot. I knocked on the door and Zelda opened. When she saw me she pulled up her eyebrows.

  “What happened to you?” she asked. I shrugged. “One of them got to me.” What was I going to say? I was getting into trouble and it was literally starting to bite me in the ass. Aspen was in her art room when I found her. She looked up at me, her face bright and open, but when she saw me the light dimmed in her eyes. She frowned.

  “Did you have a rough night?” Well, you could have said that. I didn’t look so bad but she knew I was healing fast enough for it to have been bad.

  I shook my head and forced a smile. “It looks a lot worse than it feels,” I lied. It felt like hell. It was more emotional than physical at this point though. “In my line of work these things happen once in a while.”

  Aspen pursed her lips into a thin line and her eyes became impossibly big, shimmering.

  “Don’t worry about me. I just had to come see you so you would know I’m alright.” I wasn’t sure if this would count as alright in her books. The truth was I’d come to see her to make sure she was the one that was alright.

  “Have you had anyone contact you lately?” I asked.

  “Contact me? How?” When she frowned and tipped her head to the side like that she looked exactly like she did when she was fourteen. Sometimes Aspen didn’t age a day. It was what made her so vulnerable. Even before she’d been wheelchair bound.

  “Don’t worry about it,” I said, shrugging to look less serious. “Someone mentioned something yesterday about half-breeds.”

  “You mean that we’re going to be thrown out in the open?” she asked.

  “I doubt that’s going to happen. Just tell me if anyone tries to call or anything, okay?”

  It wasn’t her they were after. It was me. Aspen wasn’t a threat because she didn’t go out there looking for trouble. I was the one the woman from last night was after. It was because I was leaving a trail, however thin, and it was something someone could follow.

  I swallowed hard and pushed the guilt away that throbbed in my gut. If I was caught or discovered somehow it would put Aspen in danger. And that would be the exact opposite of what I was trying to do every night.

  The only answer was to be careful and to keep an eye out for my attacker. And if it happened again, I wouldn’t lose. Not again. Only one person would walk away next time.

  “I wanted to talk to you about something,” I said, changing the subject. “I need your help.”

  “Oh, the great Adele comes to me for help?” Aspen said, beaming.

  “Don’t get a big head,” I said, but the light was back in her eyes and she radiated warmth. This was how I liked her. This was how she was meant to be.

  I told her about Jennifer and her job for me.

  “Isn’t this the kind of thing you’re supposed to be doing?” Aspen asked. Oh right, the police job I used as a front. In that case it would have made sense.

  “It’s not exactly in my line of work,” I answered. Not at all, actually. “I was wondering if I should take it anyway.”

  “I think you should,” she said.

  “Why?”

  “Because of how you told me that it’s probably the right thing to do. You seem convinced that it is, and that’s as good a reason as any. Besides, if vampires got this guy… it might be too late for him. He might be…”

  “I know,” I said softly. We were both influenced by what had happened to us. We couldn’t think of vampires the same anymore, no matter how related we ended up being. Aspen painted her emotions. I fought them out. To each their own, but we both had the same problem.

  “You have to save him, if you can,” Aspen said, and her voice was different. Thick like she was going to cry.

  “And if I can’t?”

  She shrugged. There wasn’t an answer she could give me, but I didn’t need one for that question from her. I could answer it for myself – kill him.

  “Thank you,” I said and got up, planting a kiss on her hair. “I’ll see you tomorrow.”

  “Let me know if something comes up again. I worry about you.”

  “I will,” I said and let myself out. It was sweet of her to worry about me. She didn’t have to. I worried enough for the both of us.

  On the bus back home I took out my phone and fished the business card out of my wallet. I dialed the number and waited. After the third ring an older voice picked up.

  “Jennifer Lawson’s office.”

  “I’d like to speak to Jennifer please,” I said. “Tell her it’s Adele Griffin calling.”

  Music blared over the line for a moment, and then Jennifer’s crisp voic
e rang out over the speaker.

  “I was beginning to think you’d given up on me,” she said. “I’m so glad you called.”

  “I’ll do it,” I said to her. She gasped into the phone and then her voice changed so it made me think she was getting emotional on me again.

  “Look, you have to give me something to work with,” I said before she could get blubbery on me. “A photo would be great, but more information like places he liked to go, an address maybe. You know, the important things. Anything that will help me find this guy as quickly as I can.”

  “Of course, I’ll send it to you. Do you have an e-mail address?”

  I gave her my home e-mail. I hardly every used it, I preferred to deal with my clients face-to-face in most cases. I would check later.

  I hung up the phone. Just as I did it rang in my hands, and I pushed the talk button.

  “Joel,” I said.

  “I have a hit on that social security number you were asking about. Do you want to swing by tonight to have a look?” Great. A kill was exactly what I needed.

  “You’re a saint, Joel. I’ll be there just after sunset.”

  I ended the conversation and hung up. It looked like it was going to be a good night. I dialed one more number. Sonya answered the phone, and when she heard it was me her words became clipped.

  “He’s in a meeting,” she said.

  “Just tell him I’m coming in tonight, but I’ll be a bit late.” I wasn’t going to beg to talk to Ruben. He wasn’t my favorite, and if it weren’t for my job I would choose never to see him again.

  At home I made a sandwich for lunch and switched on the computer I hardly ever used. A thick sheet of dust lay over the top, and it took a long time to think about it before it booted. One e-mail waited for me in my inbox. It had Jennifer Lawson’s letterhead boldly at the top and it was flagged urgent and private. I wondered if she knew that this address was so unused I doubted anyone would know about it to hack the information.

  I opened the e-mail. His name was Connor O’Neill, as she’d told me. A photo was attached of a young man with blond hair and a lot of muscle, but not in a showy way. It was lean muscle. Strength. His eyes were blue like the ocean, smiling at me. If I ever paid attention to that kind of quality in a man I had to admit he was attractive. He had the same glossiness about him that Jennifer had, the sheen that accompanied the rich. There was something very familiar about him, but I couldn’t place where I’d seen him before. His eyes were captivating, even in the photo.

  The address listed was 13 Mulberry drive. It was in an average neighborhood just this side of the business district. Nothing too rich and fancy, nothing that screamed social elite. She’d added a couple of his favorite hangouts and business meeting places, all very public and posh.

  That troubled me. If the address didn’t make sense, it might have been new. New addresses pointed to vampire changes, especially if they tried so hard to be inconspicuous. To me, nothing stood out more than a vampire trying to blend in.

  I sent the information to Joel to print out for when I got there. If anything had happened to Connor O’Neill all that information would be pretty useless, but it was a place to start at least. I wished I had a shirt or something with his smell. I wasn’t going to ask Jennifer for it. One way to betray your true identity was to act like a bloodhound and look like a human. Maybe the house in Mulberry Street would have something to offer. Jennifer was going to have to stay in the dark about my identity no matter how far that set me back in my search.

  Chapter 6

  By sunset I was ready to roll. I pulled my black leather jacket over the shoulder holster. I had the Smith & Wesson on me, freshly loaded with gleaming silver bullets. I wasn’t going to take chances with a smaller gun. At my back I had my SIG and my knife was in its thigh sheath I didn’t want another run-in with GI Jane, if she came at me again, I would get her.

  Still I felt naked. I wondered if it would be suspicious if I drove around with the Carbine on my back again, but I decided against it. The S&W would pack the right kind of punch if it came down to it, and Carbine hadn’t helped the night before.

  I’d applied make-up around my eye and on my jaw to cover up the yellowish smudge the bruises had gone down to, but it looked wrong. The color was wrong for my skin tone. I washed it off again. I didn’t care about what I looked like but I didn’t want to run around looking like I was obviously trying to cover something up.

  My phone vibrated in my pocket as I walked out the door.

  “The reporter was here again today,” Ruben’s gravelly voice scraped through the speaker.

  “You sure she doesn’t just want to write a review on your excellent accounting skills?” Ruben’s firm had a good name and he was charming enough to fool people who didn’t know enough. Reporters fell in the ‘ignorant’ bracket – for all their research they ended up empty-handed almost every time.

  “This one’s not letting go. She keeps insisting to pop by after hours, doesn’t want to take it when I tell her the offices are closed.”

  “Well, you are in the business of doing accounts for some vampires. Maybe it’s about that. But I’ll watch out,” I said. I slid one leg over my bike and straddled it. “I’ll come in in about an hour.”

  I hung up before he could argue with me. This was business, after all. He’d pointed Jennifer in my direction, he would pay me for my time to play good cop.

  I slipped my phone into my jacket pocket and pulled the helmet over my hair.

  Joel was waiting for me in his open garage when I arrived, and I pulled in.

  “What happened to you?” he asked the moment I took my helmet off. He knew too that I healed up fast. He was doing the math. I wondered if I should have covered up after all.

  “Someone’s on my trail,” I admitted. I could say something like that to Joel. He looked concerned and lifted his hand to my face. His fingers brushed the skin under my eye, and small jolts of electricity travelled into my skin when he did. Maybe in a different life something more could have happened between us.

  “It’s nothing. Just looks bad,” I said, leaning back so he wouldn’t touch me anymore. I wasn’t good with physical touch.

  “You need to up your training skills if you’re going to be fighting your victims like this.”

  “It wasn’t a victim. She said something about getting away with who I am, but to be honest I was getting beaten up too much to follow conversation.”

  “She?”

  I nodded. “Turns out I’m not the only girl that can fight like a man. If a woman punches without concern for a broken nail you must know you passed the cat-fight chapter.”

  Joel shook his head and turned toward the door, expecting me to follow. I did.

  “You’re going to run yourself into a corner one of these days,” he said over his shoulder.

  I shrugged but he couldn’t see it, and stepped into the stairwell.

  The place looked neater than the night before, and I wondered vaguely if he had domestic help that he let down here once in a while. I didn’t trust anyone with my equipment, but maybe he had found someone he could rely on. To each his own. Trust in general wasn’t my strong suit.

  Joel sat down in front of his computer. The bluish light fell on his face and colored his skin to a greenish color, making him seem bruised, like me. Or alien.

  “I didn’t get much for you, the system is still a tough one to crack. Whatever they’re using, it’s top of the range and the newest around. My software could only do so much.”

  “I didn’t know you could be outsmarted,” I teased. Joel prided himself by his ability to get into any system in the world if he had to.

  “Are you trying to be funny?” he asked. “Because you’re not.”

  His fingers clacked on the keys and windows popped open on the screen.

  “Did you get the e-mail I forwarded to you?” I asked.

  “I printed it out, it’s still in the rack,” he said, not looking at me. I walked over to the
corner where his printers and scanners were set up and took the pages out of the printing tray. I flipped through them.

  “You don’t usually take jobs on personally,” he said. He was talking about the fact that I’d sent him the details from my home e-mail and not from work.

  “I’m working on a search-and-rescue. Ruben thinks he’s being funny.”

  “Nice of you give back to the community once in a while.”

  “Bite me.”

  Joel snickered.

  “The guy your social security number brought up is called O’Neill,” Joel said.

  “What?” I walked over to him. O’Neill was a common surname but this kind of coincidence didn’t just happen. Not in Westham. Not to me. My life wasn’t a novel. I bent over Joel’s shoulder and looked at the screen.

  “Connor O’Neill, 442 Caldwell, Westham Hills,” Joel read out loud. “There’s secondary address listed,” he said.

  My head felt airy. I scrunched the edge of the paper I was holding and it crackled in my fist. “13 Mulberry Street?”

  Joel scrolled down.

  “Yes, actually… how did you--?”

  I held up the papers in my hand. Joel looked at it, and my eyes fell on the screen where the photo attached to his findings opened. The same photo smiled at me from the screen as the one in my hand.

  Ruben and Jennifer were after the same guy.

  Shit.

  Chapter 7

  “It’s not rocket science. If he’s a vampire already, kill him. If he’s still human, Ruben can’t have him taken out no matter how badly someone wants him. That’s just wrong.” Joel sipped on his coffee. He’d made us both a cup after I’d kicked over a chair. So I wasn’t great at anger management. The last twenty-four hours had made me edgy.

  The coffee was bitter and it tasted like he brewed it from a sock, but I sipped mine to be polite.

  “It’s not like my moral standards have been very high lately,” I said.

  “True, but you have your reasons.” He let those words hang in the air for a while. He knew a bit of what had happened. He didn’t know everything. I couldn’t bear to live through it long enough to verbalize. I pushed away the fact that he was giving me a reason for my less-than-acceptable behavior. “Besides, you can refuse on legal grounds. Ruben can’t say anything about it if it’s illegal.”