30
AT LEAST, I ASSUMED IT was Dr. Shore, or had been at one time. I had never met the man, not having spent much time around mundane medical providers, but he looked like a doctor–complete with blue scrubs and a white lab coat. The coat was caked in dirt, making it look as if he had just risen as a vampire, which, given the insanity shining in his feral yellow eyes, was just possible. No one would mistake this creature for a powerful sorcerer-vampire who had lived among us in secret for countless years. This was one of the unfortunate victims of fate whose transformation had gone badly wrong, either because the original personality was unstable, the demon who chose the body was insane, or some combination of the two.
None of which mattered at that moment. Insane or not, unstable or not, he remained strong and deadly. He grunted in a way that made me wonder if he could speak, his eyes dancing past Nicolas as if he were invisible, but settling irrevocably on me.
No academy award-winning performance would work against this thing. He didn’t have foreplay on his mind, or what was left of his mind, only death and destruction.
I saw all that in his eyes the instant before he lunged at me, one hand going around my throat in a strangle hold I thought would break my neck. He lifted me off the ground, letting my feet dangle helplessly as he cut off the oxygen supply to my brain.
I couldn’t breathe, but unlike my plunge into a dark pool, this time I wouldn’t be able to kick my way to the surface. My mind flashed back to the other incident, making me live the two together, back and forth, like bits of my life flashing before my eyes. I kicked, but to no avail. My hands tore uselessly at the iron noose around my neck until my vision began to blur, and stars danced before my eyes.
When a burst of scalding heat surrounded me, I was sure I had died and gone to hell, but to my surprise, the vampire dropped me, and I could breathe again. Gasping for breath, I looked up to see the vampire’s clothes on fire, his face twisted in pain and rage as he bellowed some wordless oath.
There are times in your life when instinct takes over, because there simply isn’t enough time to think or reason. With a fiery vampire dancing around my office, likely to set his sights on me again at any time, now with new and improved flame-throwing ability, I didn’t hesitate. I couldn’t make it out the door with a vampire in the way, but I made it to the window, forcing it open with enough raw panic to shatter the glass, and jumped.
My office was on the third story, and I didn’t exactly have a lot of practice jumping from such a height, nor a conveniently soft place to land, so when I hit the pavement, I hit it hard. My legs slipped, I fell to my knees, scraping them raw, and for the second time in less than a week, I was sure I had done something to my ankle.
But I didn’t have time to lie there and feel sorry for myself. I had to get up and run, or a bad ankle would be the least of my complaints.
Above me, a stream of fire rushed out my office window, and realization flooded into my soul. I had fled, but my brother remained in that office, fighting for his life with a weapon that couldn’t kill a vampire, only make it angry.
I couldn’t leave him. I couldn’t help him, but something in me, the same something that wouldn’t let me leave Angie to Luke’s questionable mercy, refused to let me run away now. My earlier feelings of jealousy no longer mattered, nothing mattered except the battle. I probably couldn’t outrun the vampire anyway, but I could go down fighting.
My car, parked half a block away, might as well have been on the moon, but I hobbled to it, found the keys in my pocket, and remotely popped open the trunk, which still held my bow and arrows. Halfway there, an ear-piercing scream rent the air. Whirling, I saw a fireball fall from my office window, landing gracelessly on the pavement below.
The vampire, oblivious to the pain of the fire or the fall, cried out again, and started running in my direction. I stood there, keys held limply at my side, a lifetime of distance between me and the arrows that were my only weapon, learning firsthand what people meant by frozen in terror.
The fireball never reached me. One second, I felt the hot tendrils of death reaching out for me, and the next, a sonic boom flew out of the night to knock the vampire off his target.
Jason had arrived, though I couldn’t see him clearly. He looked to me like a force of nature, a whirlwind of strength and speed bent on destroying the evil creature threatening my existence.
I had never seen a vampire hunter fight, and I hope I never have to see it again. They moved together in a sinister dance, impossibly fast, destroying everything in their paths. At one point the sidewalk cracked, several shop windows shattered, a lamppost crashed to the ground, and a mailbox exploded, sending letters fluttering into the night.
The vampire lost his fiery edge quickly, the speed of his movements finally snuffing the flames, so I couldn’t tell friend from foe, and had no way of knowing who would win this fight.
Suddenly, a hand closed around my arm, causing my heart to miss several beats before I realized the hand belonged to Nicolas, and he was okay. Well, mostly okay. His clothes were charred, his face sooty, and he bled from multiple cuts, but he would live.
“Why aren’t you gone?” Nicolas had to shout to be heard over the sounds of the deadly fight.
I wanted to explain about my inability to leave him in danger, but it no longer sounded in any way rational, not even to myself.
“Let’s go,” I said instead, leading him toward my car.
No sooner had the words escaped my lips, then something flew overhead, landing hard on the green rental car that had been mine for the past three days. The car alarm chirped once, feebly, then died, as the vehicle flattened beneath the onslaught.
“This way.” Nicolas steered me back the way we had come, to his car, parked thankfully a few places away. I flung open the passenger door, sliding inside seconds before Nicolas joined me on the other side.
“Shouldn’t we wait for Jason?” I asked, looking anxiously around, but not spying the combatants.
“If he wins, he’ll find us. If he loses, we don’t want to be here.”
It was infinitely sensible, and the exact logic I should have used when fleeing the vampire and Nicolas, but it left my heart empty.
Nicolas turned the key in the ignition, but before he had a chance to pull into the street, the back door flew open, and something fast and heavy fell into the backseat.
I screamed. The sound echoed through the car, or at least, that’s what I thought at first. Then I realized Nicolas was screaming too.
“He’s dead,” Jason said, panting.
My racing heart remained unconvinced, so I shifted in my seat to make sure it really was Jason back there. It basically looked like my cousin, but with a lot more cuts and bruises than the last time I had seen him.
“I’ll be okay,” Jason said. “I heal quickly. Let’s just get to a threshold before we run into more of them.”
“Do you know where Kaitlin lives?” I asked Nicolas.
He shook his head.
“Then I’ll guide you.”
31
IF I HADN’T ALREADY BEEN sure how good a friend Kaitlin was, I would have been sure when I showed up at her door with bruises around my neck, blood trickling down my leg, a bloody younger brother, and a slightly worn vampire hunter. She didn’t even say anything. She just stood aside for us to come in. I noticed she did not specifically invite us, though. That was smart–a vampire wouldn’t have been able to come through the door without the invitation.
She also wore a gold cross around her neck–one of those I had given to the entire cheerleading squad back in tenth grade.
Kaitlin lived in a small apartment with a combined living/dining area, a small kitchenette, and three closed doors which led to two bedrooms and a bathroom.
The furniture in the living room was old, mismatched, and free. I headed straight for the orange armchair, Jason landed hard on the plaid love seat, and Nicolas took a more tentative seat on the purple couch.
“Anyone
want a soda?” Kaitlin asked.
Nicolas and I nodded, but Jason shook his head as he took a swig from the flask at his hip. He grinned at her, and she gave him an uncertain smile in response.
“What happened tonight?” I asked. “That guy came out of nowhere, and he specifically wanted to kill me.”
Nicolas nodded his agreement. “He didn’t even notice I was in the room when I set him on fire.”
“What have you been doing since yesterday morning?” I asked Jason. “Did someone find out you were poking around?”
“I paid a visit to our three suspects,” Jason said. “I saw Dr. Shore first, and he wasn’t a vampire yesterday evening. Since it takes twenty-four hours for a vamp to turn, someone got to him right after I left.”
My face paled. “What about the other two?”
“Robert, the hairdresser, was clean. I couldn’t get to the sheriff.” Jason gave me a significant look. “Did you tell him about Luke?”
“No, but he figured it out. He tried to call me yesterday, but we didn’t talk until today, and that’s when he told me Luke couldn’t have been our vamp.”
From somewhere in the kitchen, Kaitlin fumbled a tray of ice, and the contents spilled to the ground. I couldn’t imagine what she thought of our conversation. It was one thing to know sorcerers were real and lived in the community, another to have them sitting in your living room, casually discussing vampires.
“What I want to know,” I said, slowly, “is whether our guy sent Dr. Shore after me to kill me, or to try to convince me he was our guy. Surely, he didn’t think I was that stupid.”
Jason seemed to consider the question for a long time. “There are a couple of possibilities. He may have been getting desperate, because he thinks we’re too close to him, which is likely, but also, Dr. Shore didn’t turn well. It may have been an accident that he went tearing after you like that.”
There was a tense silent for a minute, while I tried to figure out if I would ever be safe again. Too close...too close...the only person we were close to suspecting at this point was the sheriff, but I hated the idea.
“We should find out for sure how long Dr. Shore was a vampire,” Jason said, finally. “There’s always a chance he found a way to fool me.”
“How do we do that?” I asked.
“I need to brew a potion.”
“What do you need?” Kaitlin asked from the kitchen, sounding remarkably composed.
“Most of it I have on me,” Jason said, “but I don’t suppose you have some garlic?”
“In a jar in the fridge,” Kaitlin said. “It’s not fresh.”
“Doesn’t matter,” Jason said. “Nicolas, want to give me a hand?”
The two men went into the kitchen, took out a saucepan, and started warming up the ingredients for their potion, while I limped into the bathroom with Kaitlin by my side. She dug out a first aid kit, helping me clean my hands and knees.
“That’s your cousin?” she asked in a low voice.
I nodded.
“You never said he was good looking,” Kaitlin said.
I shrugged. “He wasn’t that impressive the last time I saw him.”
“He is now.”
“Yes.” I gave her a wary look. “Kaitlin, what’s going on with you and Curtis? First you were flirting with Evan, and now you’re asking me about my cousin...”
She looked away.
“Kaitlin?”
“I’m not going to tell you. You’ll just say you told me so.”
“No, I won’t. Am I really that mean?”
“No,” she said, “but I’d deserve it. You did tell me so.”
I didn’t say anything, didn’t push. I assumed he had cheated on her again, but if she didn’t want to say it out loud, that was her prerogative.
“Oh, stop being so understanding all the time,” Kaitlin said. “So I’m looking for a way to get back at him, all right? I admit it.”
“And you think sleeping with someone else will help?”
“No.”
“Okay,” I said.
“So, is he seeing anyone?” Kaitlin asked.
For a moment, I had no idea who she was talking about. Then I put it together. “Jason? Not that I know of, but you don’t want to get involved with him. He never stays in the same place long, and he’s in a high mortality profession.”
That seemed to be exactly the wrong thing to say, because Kaitlin’s eyes grew suddenly dreamy.
“Snap out of it.” I finished putting a large band aid on my knee, then limped back into the living room to join Jason and Nicolas. My ankle didn’t feel sprained, only twisted, but without magic, I had no idea how long it would take to heal.
“What did you find out?” I asked, lowering myself to the couch.
“Someone turned him last night.” Jason gave me a significant look, and I knew when he said someone, he meant the sheriff.
“How can it be him? I’ve known him for a long time. He’s a good person. He keeps asking me to go back to work for him.”
“Some vampires are very good at putting on an act to blend in with society. I’ve known vampires to take wives and adopt children. The smart ones. When a cunning demon merges with an intelligent personality, they come up with all kinds of disguises. Some go crazy, like Dr. Shore seemed to have done, but they don’t all do that.”
I shook my head. “But he’s not a sorcerer.”
“As far as you know,” Jason said. “Do you think you know every practitioner in town?”
I hesitated. I did, actually, think I had a good idea who every magic user was, but, I supposed, I could have been wrong. Some liked their privacy, and worked hard to attain it.
“It all fits,” Jason said.
“Nothing fits. If it was him, then why would he be pushing me so hard to find the real vampire?”
“Because he knew you’d do it anyway,” Jason said. “Because he wanted to be there when you figured it out.”
It wasn’t proof. It was all circumstantial, and it didn’t feel right. “We’re missing something.”
“What?” Jason asked, his voice a challenge.
I closed my eyes, trying to shut out the noise of the world. “Monday night,” I said, “he came to Hodge Mill. He expected Belinda to be there, too.”
“It could have been an act.”
“If so, he’s doing a lot of acting,” I said. “And I know he was on a love potion then, I saw it in his eyes. The love potion might have driven a vampire to torture Belinda until she agreed to turn into one, but then, why stake her afterward?”
No one spoke, but I didn’t open my eyes to see their reactions.
“We’ve been assuming,” I said, “that Belinda only had the three lovers we know about from town gossip and rumors. But none of the latest conquests were in her scrapbook...” I trailed off. In fact, I had already supposed that someone deliberately removed those pages. Who said it was one of the three people we knew she had been involved with? If someone had removed pages from the scrapbook, he had removed all the pages, not just his own. There would have been little point in removing all of the pages, except that Belinda often cross-referenced her simultaneous conquests. So who else might she have enthralled? Who, that no one else knew about? It would have had to be a recent conquest, since word tended to spread quickly.
“I need to think. And sleep.” I often thought better after a good night’s sleep. Since I knew the spare bedroom was empty, even of a bed, I looked meaningfully at the couch.
“Fine,” Nicolas said, “I’m going home.”
“Good night,” I said, fighting back the lump in my throat that formed when I thought of home.
“Jason?” Nicolas said. “Coming?”
“Oh, maybe not,” Jason said. He shot Kaitlin a big smile and she melted into shy giggles.
You’ve got to be kidding me, I thought.
“Good night, then.” Nicolas gave Jason a conspiratorial wink, then let himself out.
“There are blankets and pillow
s in the closet in the second bedroom,” Kaitlin said, “but there’s no bed in there. You’ll have to sleep on the couch.”
Not wanting to see them flirt or disappear into Kaitlin’s bedroom together, I eagerly took the hint. I took my time in the second bedroom, choosing more blankets than I needed, and by the time I returned to the living room, they were gone.
When I laid down on the couch, I had every intention of pretending I didn’t know they were in Kaitlin’s bedroom together, but then the giggling started. Luckily, I spotted Kaitlin’s MP3 player lying on the end table and, setting the headphones firmly over my ears, I attempted to drown the noises in music.
It didn’t work. After a few minutes’ effort, I started looking for something to do to take my mind off the two of them, and what they were undoubtedly doing in the other room.
It’s not like it should have bothered me all that much, since they were both adults and Kaitlin wasn’t exactly innocent, but I knew that however much she would try to pretend this was a meaningless fling, she would get hurt. In a week or a month, when she knew Jason had blown through town, with or without saying good-bye, she would need a shoulder to cry on. And I would offer her mine, even though I could have told her what would happen, even though I did try to tell her. I had done it before, only this time it was my cousin on the other side of that tryst. He had saved my life, probably countless people’s lives, and yet I would have to be angry with him because that’s what best friends do.
I turned off the MP3 player and took off the headphones, because it wasn’t doing anything except filling my head with more noise. What Kaitlin did wasn’t any of my business, I reminded myself, and I had far bigger things to worry about, like the identity of a vampire, and how to earn enough money for groceries.
Which reminded me, I had forgotten to e-mail those pictures to Frank. And, thanks to the vampire, I had left my purse and camera at my office. I tried to remember when I had dropped the purse, and thought I might have done it while talking to Nicolas, before the vampire arrived, but that didn’t tell me whether or not the purse had been burned in the fight–along with the work of an evening.
Cassie Scot: ParaNormal Detective Page 23
