by J N Duncan
She laughed-a deep, throaty sound leaving no doubt about her amusement. “Nick has it down to an art, Agent Rutledge. He would prefer to tell you absolutely nothing or just enough to make you go away.”
The inside of Shelby’s apartment was an interesting contrast of old Chicago warehouse loft and Victorian England. The furnishings were all antiques, in pristine condition by the look of things, but Jackie was far from an expert on furniture. The place would be featured in some home magazine. The kitchen was partially enclosed on one side of the large space, with a bedroom loft above it. An enormous four-poster bed swathed in gauzy curtains shrouded the area in a cloudy haze. Above them, a large glass chandelier illuminated the space. Outside, Chicago’s wind whipped a light rain against the great wall of windows.
Shelby grabbed a gray sweatshirt off one of the sofas and walked toward the kitchen. “Anything to drink? I’ve got tea and water, but no coffee. Sorry, Agent Rutledge.” She flashed a charming smile over her shoulder at Jackie.
What the hell was that for? “Thanks. I’m sure I’ll manage.”
“Tea,” Laurel said, clearing her throat. “Tea is fine.”
“Earl Grey?”
“Um, yes. That’d be nice.”
Jackie turned to Laurel, a questioning eyebrow cocked up, but Laurel refused to look at her, instead sitting down on one of the pretty little sofas with its frilly throw pillows. Preferring to walk, Jackie kept slowly perusing the space, stopping to idly check on a Tiffany lamp or an old painting on the wall.
A few moments later, Shelby came out with a tray holding a lavishly painted tea set with a pot and two cups. It certainly struck an interesting contrast to the BMW-biker-chick motif she walked around with. Jackie didn’t give her time to stop serving. She was tired of waiting.
“Look, Ms. Fontaine,” Jackie said. “The tea is nice and all, but you said you had the whole story for us.”
Shelby dropped a cube of sugar into Laurel’s tea and handed the cup to her, her hand lingering on Laurel’s for just a moment longer than necessary. Laurel’s faint smile faltered for a second, but Shelby’s flashing teeth and full, lush lips brought it back. “Patience, Jackie. When you’ve been around as long as I have and lived with Nick Anderson, you learn to have some.”
Jackie took a deep breath. “Look, Ms. Fontaine. I don’t know how seriously you take this situation, but I do. I’ve got blood-drained children. I’ve got a suspect and his business partner slash former lover slash fiance slash whatever, who aren’t really what they appear to be. You and Mr. Anderson have given us nothing but bullshit from the outset, and one or both of you have been lying about this whole thing from the beginning. You tell me that you’re out hunting because there will be a next victim soon. Excuse me if I’m a little short on patience today.”
Shelby grinned at Jackie, and without turning back to face Laurel, said, “Is she always such a hard-ass?”
Laurel paused, assessing her reply. “Pretty much.”
“Explains why Nick finds her so appealing.”
Laurel nearly spit her tea back into her cup, and Jackie found herself momentarily speechless.
“What?” Jackie said.
“Appealing,” Shelby repeated, smirking at Jackie. “He likes you, Agent Rutledge. Your hard edges suit him.”
Jackie avoided glancing at Laurel, who she was sure had some smarmy look on her face. “You would think he’d be a bit more cooperative if he liked me, Ms. Fontaine. I hardly think there is any interest there.”
“If I’m going to help you, Agent Rutledge, you can start by calling me Shelby. I hate Ms. Fontaine. Makes me sound like a third-grade teacher.”
Jackie shrugged. “Fine. Shelby. So what’s the real story?”
Shelby took a deep breath and drank down the rest of her tea. Jackie studied her, wondering if she might be preparing the next round of lies or if indeed she meant to help. After she set down the teacup, Shelby looked up directly at her, those eyes glowing even brighter than Nick’s had. Laurel’s words about them being dead ran through her head, and Jackie looked away.
“First off, I’ll tell you that Nick has been silent in an effort to protect you, Agent Rutledge.”
“I don’t need protecting,” she said. “This is my job, Shelby. Not his.”
“Not just you. Laurel, too. Anyone not personally involved in this.”
Laurel inched forward toward Shelby, her hands steepled under her chin as if she were in prayer, attention riveted.
Jackie wondered what she could be doing. Maybe it was some kind of psychic thing. “Except we are involved. What makes this ghost so bad? He sounds much like any other psycho we’ve dealt with before.”
She gave Jackie a wry smile. “For one, he’s a vampire, not a ghost.”
Jackie ignored the sharp inhalation of breath from Laurel, who glanced up at her with a moment of “I told you so” fear.
“The FBI is pretty adept at handling even the worst cases. Drinking blood doesn’t come close to topping our list of worst-case scenarios.”
“That’s the least of your concerns,” she said.
“Well, why don’t you tell us what we should be concerned about then? It’s about time we got some real information out of you two.”
Shelby took a sip from her tea and then got up to walk around. “The man’s name is Cornelius Drake. At least, that’s the name he’s been going by. I don’t know what his real name is.”
The name didn’t ring any bells for Jackie. “Okay, we’ll check that out.”
“Like I said,” she continued, “he’s a vampire, meaning he needs to consume blood to stay alive. Without an adequate supply, he’d be as dead as the day he should’ve died.”
Shelby’s explanation lost her. “What do you mean that he should’ve died?”
Shelby continued pacing, making her way over toward the kitchen. “Some time in the past-who knows when-Cornelius Drake should have died. Something happened that was going to end his life, but he was able, through consuming blood, to draw upon the life force held within that blood to keep himself in the world of the living.”
“And how the hell did he do that?”
Shelby opened her refrigerator and reached inside. She came out with a metallic bottle in her hand. “I don’t know. Someone must have showed him.”
Jackie couldn’t help but be skeptical. The whole thing sounded so absurd. “That’s handy. Here, drink this and you’ll live forever?”
“It’s a bit more complicated than that,” she said. “You have to want it. You need a certain force of will for it to work. At least, I think so.”
Laurel’s voice, shaky and quiet, spoke up. “So that means you and Nick?”
Shelby nodded with a little shrug of a shoulder. “Yes. We’re vampires, too.”
Jackie could tell by Laurel’s expression that there was no disagreement. Lovely. The whole far-fucking-fetched story was true. “This Drake guy show you how?”
She shook her head. “Showed Nick. Nick showed me.”
“Wait. What?” Jackie stared incredulously at the metallic bottle being offered to her by Shelby. “Nick turned you into a vampire? What’s this?”
“Yes, he did. And that,” she said, “is the worst-tasting shit you will ever drink.”
“What is it?”
“Synthetic blood.”
Jackie nearly dropped the bottle. “Blood? This is what you drink?”
She nodded. “Yep. Developed by Nick and his brainiacs over at Bloodwork Industries.”
Jackie handed the bottle off to Laurel, who looked far more intrigued by it than she was. The notion of bottled blood creeped her out. “I see.”
“Why did Nick turn-or, um, show-you how to be a vampire?” Laurel asked, turning the bottle over in her hands.
At that, Shelby gave a sardonic little laugh. “Because he couldn’t let me die.”
“Care to explain?” Jackie said.
“Drake had shot me,” she replied. “This was back in 1934. My guts were pr
actically on the floor, and I was going to die. Nick couldn’t bear to let Drake win, so he did what he thought was his only option.”
Jackie tried to consider if she would want to stay alive if the option were to consume blood to keep living. No. Not a chance in hell. “Why would he do that to you?”
She smiled at Jackie, wistful and knowing. “Love can make you do strange things.”
“That it can,” Laurel whispered.
Jackie gave Laurel a sidelong glance, who turned her gaze quickly away and then held up her teacup. “Can I have a bit more, please?”
Shelby flowed around the couch with the smooth grace of a dancer. “Certainly.”
A knot formed in Jackie’s gut. What was up with Laurel? She was being no use at all with this. “All insanity aside, why not come forward with this? No laws have been broken. Law enforcement is far different now than in 1970.”
“I promised Nick a long time ago that I would never expose him or what was going on. The decision was his to make.”
“It’s getting people killed is what it’s doing,” Jackie stated. “You’ve obviously had no luck stopping him to this point.”
“Agent Rutledge… Laurel.” Shelby turned and gave a sweet little smile to Laurel. “You need our help. We need yours. Nick has a lot of blood on his hands and would rather this played itself out without any additional casualties.”
“Chivalrous of him,” Jackie said. “It’s obstruction, too. I should have him arrested.”
The smile on Shelby’s face vanished. “You can’t arrest him. At least, not yet.”
“I didn’t say I was, but I-”
“No.” Shelby shook her head. “Drake will come after him no matter where he is. You won’t be able to stop him.”
Jackie avoided rolling her eyes. Cocky bitch. But her earnestness gave Jackie pause. “Why is this guy so dangerous that even the FBI can’t handle him?”
Shelby’s smile was more of a wince. “He can do things we don’t quite understand. He has power that goes beyond just drinking some blood. Trust me, I know.”
No. Jackie was pretty sure she didn’t want to know about that, but what choice did she have? They needed information. “Give me an example.”
“He can travel in ways that make him untrackable. We’ll sense him someplace, and then, just like that, he’ll be gone. That’s just an annoyance, though, compared to the real power we have, which is this kind of hypnotic control over people.”
“Hypnosis?” Not a trick Jackie had ever had any faith in, but she knew of its possible effects. “So all that movie crap is true?”
She laughed, a bubbling, lively sound that filled the room. “God, no. I love garlic. Crucifixes don’t burn my flesh, and I don’t sleep in a coffin. The sun, however, does bother me.”
“So the whole bright-eyes thing? That’s an effect of being a vampire?” Under other circumstances, Jackie would have laughed at this line of questioning. Even working with Laurel, who had spoken to a ghost or two in her lifetime, would not have taken her into the realm of vampires.
“Oh, these,” Shelby said, her fingers touching the skin beside her eyes. “They’re contacts.”
“I knew it!” Jackie had pegged something right about them at least.
“You don’t want to see the real thing.”
“Perhaps I do,” Jackie said with a defiant tilt of her head.
“Then maybe you’d like to spend the rest of the afternoon polishing my mahogany bedposts?”
“What?”
“It’s what I could have you doing if I caught you in my gaze long enough.”
“Seriously.” Jackie didn’t believe it. A look at Laurel, though, said otherwise. She half expected her to get up and go polishing. Was Shelby working some kind of vampire voodoo on her now?
“Yep.” Shelby nodded. “Unless it’s something that might get you killed. I can bend your will only so far.”
“I see.” Okay, she didn’t really. Jackie was half tempted to take Shelby up on that bet but thought better of it. “And Drake does this to his victims?”
“Yes. Only, there is no resisting him. You can’t say no.”
“I find that hard to believe,” she said. “You telling me this guy could make me just walk off a cliff to my death or pull out my gun and shoot myself in the head?”
“Basically, yes. Maybe not directly, but his power is such that he would give you a compelling reason to believe that walking off that cliff or shooting yourself in the head was the most appealing option available to you.”
All right, then. That notion set Jackie’s nerves on edge. “This why Nick is trying to keep everyone else out?”
“Yes. He knows that if you encounter him, the result will likely mean your death.”
Laurel sat up straight now. “Then how does he plan to stop him?”
“That’s the infuriating thing about Nick Anderson,” she said, her voice showing the first real signs of anger Jackie had heard. “I don’t think he’s planning on stopping him at all.”
“Wait.” Jackie held up her hand. “Hold on. He’s trying to keep us away from a murderer he isn’t trying to stop?”
“Oh, he’ll try,” she said. “Nick is alive today because he promised to try to stop him, but he’s sure he can’t. He’s just playing this game out until its inevitable conclusion, which with three more deaths will come to its horrible, mindless end.”
“What end is that?”
“Drake is going to kill Nick.”
“Ah.” Things were falling into place now. The history was making some twisted sort of sense. Jackie walked over and sat down next to Laurel. “Maybe you should give us your whole story, from the beginning.”
She laughed again. “You have a few hours?”
Jackie leaned back and folded her hands over her stomach. “Yeah. Yeah, we do.”
Chapter 23
Only an hour later, Jackie leaned back in the safety and privacy of her Durango and ran her fingers through her hair. She closed her eyes, waiting, hoping for things to settle, come together, and get off the tabloid pages.
“You okay?” Laurel said and then laughed nervously. “I couldn’t tell if you were going to laugh her out of the room or slap her upside the head.”
Jackie dropped her hands to her lap. “I wanted to smack you a couple times. What the hell was going on in there? It was like watching a supernatural episode of The Dating Game.”
She looked at Jackie for only a second and then looked outside, at her hands, and at anywhere but near Jackie’s face. “Sorry. It… I was just… um…” Her face scrunched up, trying to unscramble whatever jumble of words were running through her head.
The pink flush of embarrassment brought a smirk to Jackie’s mouth. She had never seen Laurel in this state before. It had always been the other way around. “It wasn’t very subtle, you know. She touched you every chance she got.”
Laurel sighed. “Pretty obvious, huh?”
“I should arrest her just on principle, flirting with an FBI agent in the middle of an interview.”
Laurel came halfheartedly to Shelby’s defense. “I don’t think she was trying to disrupt our questioning.”
“I think Ms. Fontaine is the sort of woman who does what she wants, when she wants, and doesn’t give a rat’s ass what anyone else thinks about it.”
Laurel gave her a meager nod and shrug of agreement.
“That’s… You like that sort of… Shit! I should have slapped her upside the head.”
“I could have dissuaded her if I’d wanted to, Jackie. You don’t have to protect me from that.”
“I know,” Jackie said, flustered. “It’s just that… um… just, I’ve never seen you do this before. Like, ever.”
“I should have been more professional. I’m sorry.”
“Well,” she started. Laurel was right, of course, but why now of all times? “Yeah, you should have, but maybe it helped loosen her up, too. She was nervous.” Despite the incredulity of the story, Jackie could
not free up her mind from their interaction. “She’s really that irresistable?”
Laurel nodded. “Oh, yeah, and then some, but it’s more than that. She’s… powerful is the only word I can think of. But it’s more than that.”
Jackie started up the Durango finally and got them back on the road. “Is it because she claims she’s a vampire?”
“No. Well, I guess that has something to do with it.” She laughed. “Crazy, isn’t it?”
Who was Jackie to say? She could hardly make any claims to know anything about healthy relationships, but one fact remained, nonetheless. “You can’t pursue this right now, you know.”
Laurel leaned back against the seat with a heavy sigh. “I know. I have a tendency to fall for women I can’t have. It’s a curse.”
Jackie watched the road in silence, the words sinking in. “Okay, I guess we’re going to have this conversation now.”
She sat quietly in her seat, eyes closed for a moment. “I was in love with you, Jackie.” There was a mixture of anger and regret in her voice. “And, yes, I know it was dumb and irrational, but you were what I wanted, simple as that, and despite the advice of several therapists, I could not let you go. You needed me as much as I needed you.”
Jackie stared straight ahead. What could she say to that? What did she want to say? This was virgin territory, beyond her realm of experience. Was there a Dummies book for this kind of shit? And, of course, what she did say sounded completely inane and absurd to her ears. “When did you get over me?”
“About an hour ago.”
The light they were stopped at turned green, but Jackie’s feet were frozen. She stared over at her best friend. “I wish I’d known.”
Laurel laughed at Jackie, perhaps a little too bitterly. “Why? Would it have made things better? Would you have sat there with me in the seat next to you, feeling comfortable knowing I was in love with you? That I dreamed of making love to you?”
Jackie squirmed in her seat, and someone behind honked. She put the portable siren out on the roof and rolled the window back up. “I don’t know how I would have felt, Laur. I didn’t get the chance, and maybe you’re right. Fuck, you probably are right. I’d have been weirded out. But I’m your best friend, and doing good by you matters more to me than anything. I’d have dealt with it.”
