Vampire's Shade Discounted Box Set

by Vivienne Neas

  The house felt empty, but I could hear water running through the pipe and spray in the shower. I took eggs and bacon out of the fridge. Connor had his breakfast when he woke up, regardless of the time. I couldn’t eat breakfast at night, so I often went for a protein shake or whatever leftovers were available. It wasn’t always easy living with two different routines in the house, but we made it work.

  The shutters made a clicking sound, and then they slid up in their tracks with a scrape. True dark. I breathed in deeply and looked out through the window. The night was an inky blue, silhouetting trees and houses in black.

  “Hey sweetheart,” Connor said, padding into the room on bare feet. He wore only a pair of jeans. His hair was wet and beads of water clung to his pale chest. I leaned forward and kissed it. His skin was warm. Connor tipped my head up and kissed me full on the mouth, lingering. I felt his fangs on my lips, and slipped my tongue in between. It was a skill to kiss a vampire.

  “You smell like gunpowder,” he said.

  “Gunpowder and sweat,” I answered and I smiled wide enough to show my own fangs.

  I’d gotten them after I’d accepted the vampire side of me. They’d just kind of appeared. Before that I’d looked completely human. Now I had to smile discreetly, but practice makes perfect and I still managed to pull off looking human when I needed to.

  “How was your day?” he asked.

  “Fine, I had the cop again.”

  Connor nodded, focusing on the bacon he was laying side by side in the pan. He didn’t like Tyrone. He didn’t like the idea that I was training a police officer with the background I had. I used to do a lot of illegal stuff, and even though I hadn’t done any of that for over a year, I could still be charged. But I wasn’t worried. Tyrone wasn’t out to get anyone. He was just trying to better his skill.

  “What time are you headed out tonight?” I asked. His nightlife didn’t allow him to have a day job. He still spent a lot of time at the offices of his building downtown. Somehow his company had survived the media attacks after two master vampires had been doing vampire trafficking under the business name, and Connor didn’t have to close it.

  He’d fired all the old staff and hired a vampire and a human secretary that worked together to keep him updated when he went into the office at night.

  “I’m leaving at about ten. I’ll be back before sunrise.”

  “Of course,” I said. If he tried to come back after sunrise he wouldn’t come back at all. I watched him cook the rest of his breakfast, filled him in on the students I’d dealt with. In the evenings when I came home I told him about my day before I went to bed. In the mornings we reversed the roles. Somehow we made our schedules, our life together, work.

  “Are you going to see Aspen?” Connor asked. I checked on my sister now and then, but generally we had a standing arrangement for Thursday evenings. There was a time when I’d been overbearing. I’d been paranoid because of our past. But things were better now. I shook my head.

  “I’ll wait until Thursday.” Connor smiled. He knew how far I’d come. But my assurance in her safety was partly thanks to Joel. He used to be my partner in crime, a human technician that had helped me with my targets until he’d gotten kidnapped and my boss had gotten killed. With Ruben gone I had no job, and with the scare of a lifetime Joel had chosen a safer line of work.

  And started dating my sister. They were ridiculously happy together, and I knew she was going to be alright.

  Connor wasn’t done with his supper – breakfast, whatever – when the doorbell rang. It kept buzzing insistently. I walked to the door and pulled it open. Joel stood on my doorstep. His face was pale, and his eyes were large. His hair was a mess like he’d just woken up.

  “What’s wrong?” I asked, looking over his shoulder. His car was in the driveway, and Aspen sat in the passenger seat. She looked okay.

  “Carl’s in jail,” he said. He stopped talking, swallowed, tried to catch his breath.

  “What?”

  “Carl’s in jail. He’s been arrested for murdering a vampire.”

  Blood drained from my face and I suddenly felt cold. I looked at Aspen again. She looked worried in the dim light.

  “Get Aspen inside,” I said. “Connor’s still home.”

  Joel nodded and turned around. It took him ten minutes to get Aspen in her chair and inside the house. Connor had put his food aside and put on the kettle for coffee. When Aspen rolled into the light in the house I noticed her cheeks were stained with tears. She grabbed both my wrists when I went to her and pulled me down so that we were face to face.

  “You have to go get him out, Adele,” she said. “He didn’t do it.”

  I shook my head. “Me?”

  “He asked for you. He tried to phone you first but he couldn’t get through so he phoned me,” Aspen said.

  “He was arrested for the murder of a vampire?” I asked, repeating what Joel had told me in the door. “He probably did it.”

  “Don’t say that!” Aspen reprimanded me.

  “We have a history. That’s what we did, remember? I’m not going to go there and try bust him out of jail for doing what he did for years. He wasn’t forced into that lifestyle, neither of us were. They were choices we both made. If he killed a vampire—”

  “He said he didn’t do it,” Aspen insisted. I pinched the bridge of my nose between my eyes, squeezing my eyes shut. A headache was starting to throb dully between my temples. This was the road that I could have been walking if I’d been caught. This was what could have happened to me.

  “You have to go get him,” Aspen said. I opened my eyes and looked at her, pulling a face.

  “Me? You want me to go and get him? What can I do?”

  “You know how this stuff works. You know him. He asked for you, you can’t just leave him hanging.”

  I took a deep breath and blew it out with a shudder. What was I supposed to do? I didn’t know any of this ‘stuff’ at all. I started shaking my head, but the look on Connor’s face behind Aspen stopped me.

  “What?” I asked.

  “He would have done the same for you, babe,” he said. “In fact, he did do something like that for you. He’s bailed you out a lot of time. You owe him.”

  I threw my hands up in the air. Even if I did owe him, which I did because Connor was right, what could I do?

  “I would have a record about as long as his, and you guys want me to waltz into a police station? The point is to avoid the cops.”

  “Yeah, that’s why you’re training them, right?” Connor said, and his words stung. I narrowed my eyes at him. This was hardly the time.

  “I don’t know how to do this,” I said. I rubbed my hands down and back up my cheeks, and into my hair. “I don’t know how to get him out of jail.” Hell, I didn’t even know if he was really innocent. Carl was a seasoned killer, just the way I had been. And I didn’t really know if he ever gave it up after we parted ways with Cross Ledger Accounting, where we used to work as after hours vampire killers. No one really knew anything about Carl. We just knew that he was counted as part of the family because he sacrificed his life for us, as we did for him.

  It kind of ties you together.

  “Fine,” I finally said, one hand on my hip, the other on my forehead. “Fine, I’ll go. I’ll go get him.”

  “He’s in Fort Atkinson Correctional Facility,” Joel said.

  “What the hell is he doing in Fort Atkinson?” I asked. I would have to get on a plane to get over there, and it was very, very far away from home and all the vampires I knew here. Going to a new place with new monsters hiding in the shadows scared me.

  “Just get him back, okay?” Aspen said.

  “Since when do you care so much?” I asked her.

  Her face hardened and her eyes grew cold. “Since he was part of a team that risked their lives to save me. He deserves me to care so much. He deserves it from all of us.”

  I turned my back on them. She was right. He’d really gone the f
ull mile for her. I was being afraid for no good reason. He would have done the same for me if I was in jail. At least, I thought he might have, although I didn’t know for sure. Carl and I were never really friends in that sense of the word, and when we didn’t join forces for ‘the greater good’ we didn’t really get along.

  Why had he asked for me? I wasn’t sure. When I turned back to them, they all looked at me expectantly.

  “I’ll leave as soon as I can,” I said, and I knew I was going to regret it.

  I would have liked to get out of here as soon as I could, but I had to rearrange all my classes. I spoke to Tyrone face to face after our shooting lesson.

  “I have to go help out a friend in Fort Atkinson,” I said, trying to explain why I was cancelling lessons until further notice. “Phil will still take you for your MMA lessons. It’s just me.”

  He stepped closer to me, and I was aware of his presence. He was a block of a man, solid and invasive, and somehow I didn’t mind him being that close to me.

  “Is it anything I can help with?” he asked. His grey eyes were dark and penetrating.

  I sighed. “It’s just some family problems,” I said. “I have to leave to Fort Atkinson and I don’t know how long I’ll be away. It all depends on the law enforcement system.”

  He frowned and I knew right away that I shouldn’t have said that. Sometimes you just spill information to the wrong people – not because them knowing is a problem, but because if they know they’re going to get themselves involved. It was like a light went on in his eyes and he got that cop look that he wore when he was sighting down the barrel of a gun.

  “I can see what I can do for you,” he said. “I have contacts in Fort Atkinson.”

  “It’s really okay,” I said. I didn’t want him involved, this was my business and the further away we stayed from police the better.

  “I’m assuming someone’s in trouble there, what are they in for?”

  “You assume that someone’s in jail?” I asked as I was trying to stall. The fact that he was right was not only annoying but it was also embarrassing.

  He put a hand on my shoulder and I fought the urge to step back, out of his reach. His hand seared my skin through my shirt.

  “Let me help you,” he said. His eyes had lightened to a soft grey, and it was warm and comforting. He nodded to himself as if confirming. “I’ll phone you as soon as I have something.”

  He turned around and pulled off the bullet-proof vest he trained in. I could trace his muscles through his shirt, his shoulders muscular and strong, broad chest, well-defined pecks and the blocks in a row down his stomach – eight, not six – making up his washboard abs.

  I turned my face away. Tyrone picked up his bag, nodded a greeting to me, and walked out of the door. I blew out a breath I hadn’t known I’d been holding. I closed my eyes. This was going to be okay. He was just trying to help. Right? It wasn’t a bad thing to know that I needed help. I wasn’t sure that I did need help, but Tyrone was on the force.

  Carl needed help on the inside rather than the outside at this point.

  I nodded to myself, confirming the same way Tyrone had, and walked to the book where I filled it out with my comments about the session.

  “I’m headed out,” I said to Phil when I emerged from the locker room. I had my bag with me and I’d collected all my guns. I usually left them all there except for my Glock, which was still at home under my bed.

  “That’s a lot of guns,” Phil said, drawing up his eyebrows at the bag that dragged lopsidedly to the ground. I shrugged.

  “I have to be prepared,” I said.

  “For what? Are you taking on the entire police force up there?”

  I shrugged and felt silly. It was true, I was going into police territory. Guns probably weren’t the best idea. But it was the only thing that grounded me, my anchor in reality. It was the only thing that made me feel safe.

  “I’ll let you know how things go,” I said. We all cared about Carl. Everyone was stressed about it, even Phil, and he didn’t even like Carl all that much. That counted for a lot of people, I thought.

  Phil pulled me into a hug, and it was unexpected. We’d come a long way, him and I. He’d been the one to pick me up when I’d hit rock bottom. Everyone I’d cared about had either been kidnapped or died at that point, and he’d pulled me through. But we never really made any physical contact. We worked together, we hung out sometimes, and we kept everything at a safe distance.

  When I got home Connor was up. His face was cloudy, his blue eyes dark like the ocean. He looked up at me with questions plain on his face.

  “I’m working on hit. I’m leaving tomorrow evening,” I said. I’d booked a ticked earlier. I was leaving whether Tyrone contacted me or not.

  “Are you going to be okay? I can come with you,” he said. I shook my head.

  “I’m just going to find out what’s going on. I’m not going to look for trouble or anything.”

  He eyed the bag over my shoulder like he knew all my guns were in it. I felt silly and grinned.

  “I’m going to be okay, I promise.”

  He nodded and kissed me, wrapping his arms around my body.

  “Carl is one of us and I really want him to be safe and back where he belongs. But I would rather have you safe than him, if I have to choose. Come home to me, okay?”

  I nodded and put my head on his chest. I could hear his heart beating at a steady rhythm, and I sighed. This was home, and I would fight through anything to get back here.

  “I’ll be back as quickly as I can. I love you.”

  Chapter 2

  Fort Atkinson was a town that was built on the remainders of one of the originally colonies that settled in America back in the sixteen hundreds. It was nestled at the foot of the mountain, with the rock formations towering high above it. Snowcapped peaks finished off the postcard look. I could see the appeal, with the mountains in the background the town was safe from attacks that way.

  I would notice something like that. I hadn’t been allowed to take my guns on the plane. Something about licenses, and I had it sent by special courier. It would only arrive tomorrow, and I felt naked in this new town. I breathed in the crisp mountain air and drove down the road on the rental bike. I still couldn’t stomach a car, but that was because I was picky.

  I’d left the night before and stayed in a motel that was situated on the very edge of the town. I didn’t want to go into town where they’d already locked Carl up without being prepared and the police station would only be open during the day. When the sun came up I’d gone for a run around the town, just seeing what there was to see.

  Although the houses were long upgraded and the roads weren’t dirt anymore, the layout of the town was still exactly the same it had been long ago. By nine I drove into town. Main Street ran through the middle of the town, with all the shops and other important businesses on either side of it, and it was crossed by Church Street that ran in front of a church that looked like it was still the original building down to the last rough stone that made up the crude walls.

  I got shivers when I walked past the church. Churches did that to me. Myths and legends said that vampires couldn’t go on holy ground, that the people were safe in churches. It wasn’t true, I knew of a lot of vampires that believed, but I didn’t like churches. Something about them still got to me. It wasn’t that I would go up in flame, but I tried to stay away.

  The police station was across from the church. It seemed ominous and strangely fitting all at the same time. It was a squat building, stretched out away from the church like even the building was trying to keep its distance, and it was a lot more modern than the rest of the town. The entrance was a two glass door that swung into the building. Inside chairs were lined up around the walls and a counter was right in front of me.

  The police officer behind the counter had a handlebar moustache and dark hair that thinned out on top of his head. He had a stomach that suggested he’d had a desk job for
a long time. I walked up to him. He eyed me. I wasn’t even wearing my leathers, Tyrone had told me over the phone the afternoon before that I had to tone it down with the people around these parts. I hadn’t wanted to listen, but with the way he was looking at me like I was a threat, I was glad that I had.

  “I’m Adele Griffin,” I said. The officer slid his gaze down my body and back up and I felt the urge to dish out a right hook on the jaw. I didn’t like when men looked at me like that. “I’m here to see Carl Englesberg.”

  I looked at him straight in the eye, not looking away when he tried to level me with his stare. I was good at playing dominance games. If you wanted me to look away first you had another thing coming. He looked at me and I looked right back, until he finally nodded and looked down at his paperwork. It wasn’t an obvious submission, but it counted. Paperwork was no excuse to give up on a challenge.

  “Boyd told me to keep a look out for you, I just didn’t picture you to be such a woman.”

  It took me a moment to juggle the two bits of information. First I realized he was talking about Tyrone, referring to him by his last name, and secondly he’d insulted me straight to my face.

  “When can I see Mr. Englesberg?” I asked.

  “I’m going to have to make some calls. You sit yourself down over there and I’ll call you when I’ve cleared it.”

  I backed up and sat down. I didn’t turn around – I wasn’t going to turn my back on him. I never turned my back. It surprised me how easily it was all coming back to me. When I’d trained my late boss’s daughter I hadn’t felt all my own reflexes kick in so strongly. True, I was drowning in guilt because of Ruben’s death and what his loss meant to Sydney. But I had felt more like a victim then, even though it had been partly my fault.

  This time was different. I was in Fort Atkinson to get Carl out, and everything I used to be, everything I knew and all my habits and reflexes for self-preservation were intact. I wasn’t sure why. Maybe it had to do with the fact that I was slowly forgiving and accepting myself. Maybe it had to do with the fact that I was fighting again. Maybe not physically, but I didn’t need to think about it too hard to know that getting Carl out wasn’t going to be easy.