by C. L. Quinn
The language flying out of the girl halted when Bas came through the door. Her face was burgundy with anger, her mouth covered with drool. Her eyes opened wide.
She was hungry and it wasn’t for chocolate and icing. She dropped her head, couldn’t stop her tongue from snaking out, licking the air in anticipation.
“Here to feed the baby?” Vaz asked, knowing the answer.
Bas drew a long breath. “Yes, and then collapse until night as soon as I can. How’s she doing, Vaz?”
“Okay. Good. Like usual. I’m a motherfucking cocksucker who enjoys sheep, apparently. And I have a standing invitation to stick my tongue up her ass.”
Bas smiled. “As long as she’s keeping you entertained. Let’s get this over with.”
After all the vitriolic screaming, Bernie’s pain level must have eased because she laid down quietly and accepted her blood meal eagerly, and when it was done, she didn’t say a word as Bas disappeared behind the big door. She wouldn’t sleep and neither would Vaz.
Dwayne came down from upstairs dressed in the latest in dweeb duds. Tight fitting worn tee with an obscure scientific equation on the front and back, loose fitting sweat pants that had left the manufacturing floor no more recent than last decade, a bandana around his hair and forehead that didn’t match anything on earth. Zach glanced up and shielded his eyes.
“Didn’t we go over how to not repel women that last year in college?”
“Shut up. I’m doing you the favor. Anyway, I’ll be in the lab for most of the day. Believe me, there’s no one in there that gives a crap if I look like I slept in an alley every night. Beside, with you around, and that pretty boy face, no one will notice I exist.” He groaned as he tucked Zach’s bag in his pack. “I’d never get laid again if you stayed around. I don’t bear comparisons well.”
Zach laughed. “I’ll buy you ten pretty girls if you do this for me.”
“Well, good thing I have Lucky’s Corral on speed dial. Come on, traffics a bitch this time of day.”
“We’ll take my car.”
“Good. Mine’s out of gas.”
Park was adjusting to her new schedule, sleep days, wake after dark. She didn’t need a lot of hours of sleep, never had, so she got up to enjoy the lovely evening in the gardens that surrounded the manor house. They were spectacular, landscaped with an amazing variety of foliage and blooming plants. Many of the flowers bloomed all night or only at night. Waiting for her night dwelling companions to awaken, Park wandered through the lovely spaces outside.
She found a huge water fountain with concrete park benches all around it and sat on one that faced the west, where the setting sun was leaving streaks of watercolors in the fading blue above her head. Eugene had packed her a small basket with strawberries and a tub of real whipped cream. The combination of the lush environment, the departing sun, and the waterfalls from the fountain combined to create perhaps the most serene place on earth. At least to her. She popped a whip cream covered strawberry into her mouth and leaned back, closed her eyes for a moment and just listened to the trickling water and summer nighttime insects just beginning their serenades. For that moment in time, she never wanted to move again. If nothing else, she would remember what bliss felt like and carry that memory through her life.
She never expected that she’d be here long. Once the threat was past, she expected to be returned to her life, Bas and the vampire world a memory that changed her view of the world forever, but one that she couldn’t remain a part of. Before that happened, though, she hoped to convince Bas and his friends to allow her to do some research on the virus that altered them so completely. Tonight, she wanted to see Bernie, and draw some blood, get a sample of her DNA to study. But she doubted they would allow her to do so. Didn’t matter, she would ask anyway, and although she could never publish any results, her need to know was intense. Bas hadn’t said no when she suggested it in the car, but he hadn’t said yes either.
The sun was gone now, just the jet trail colors left behind, already dissipating. She felt a hand on her neck, and turned to find Iain sliding his fingers across her skin.
“Delicious,” he said, moving in closer. He sniffed her, then touched her neck with his tongue. She shot up to face him.
“Iain,” she started to say, hoping not to offend him.
He put his hand up. “Sorry, I shouldn’t have done that. But something Dez said made me curious. She’s right. You’re something different. You smell different, you taste different.”
“I’m just a woman, Iain. Just like thousands I’m sure you’ve tasted before.”
He shook his head. “No, you’re not. But don’t worry about me. I would never betray Bas. You belong to him.”
“Would you guys stop saying that? I belong to no one.”
Iain’s eyes looked above her head to something behind her and he smiled. She turned to see Bas nodding at Iain. She shook her head. “Vampires,” she said. But he grabbed her and swung her up into his arms.
“Iain, what are you doing with my woman?”
Parks struggled and made him let her down. “Vampire men are no different than human men!”
Iain laughed loudly. “I see you haven’t had sex with a vampire yet, little one, or you would know that is not true.”
Park thought she might have blushed. And…really?
She looked at Bas, who raised his eyebrows and winked at Iain. “Soon, my friend, soon.”
Yeah, she blushed. And even though it was nearly dark now, the garden was well lit, and she turned to pick up the basket to hide her face. She heard the loud report just a split second before something slammed into her back and sent her to the ground. Iain and Bas were yelling, but she couldn’t really focus on anything. It all seemed fuzzy, her vision unclear, sounds muffled. And she couldn’t move. A few moments later she realized she was hurt, really hurt. Bas was picking her up and yelling at someone. Iain was heading toward the house and he was yelling too. What was happening? Why was she losing consciousness. There was another loud crack. She tried to say something to Bas, but she couldn’t. She tried to hold on, but she faded and everything went dark.
Bas carried her into the house and laid her on the large table in the living area. Eugene was already there and calling Cherise. Dez had shown up.
“What’s wrong with your human?” she asked.
“She’s been shot. Long range rifle from the hills behind the house. Help me lift her and turn her over. I don’t want to hurt her more.”
Dez supported her as he turned her and laid her back down on the red soaked table, her blood stark against the white laminate. Park’s blood, he thought. Dez seemed concerned and he knew she’d do whatever she could to help, but he also noticed her sniffing the air. She could smell Park’s blood. He hoped she didn’t realize it was different.
“The enemy has found us,” she said.
Bas pulled her shirt up and exposed the heavily seeping entry point, a hole torn in Parks back just right of her spine and below her rib cage. He hoped it hadn’t punctured a lung or something internal. They had to get her to a surgeon.
He motioned to Dez to help him turn her back. “Would you have Jake bring the car around so we can get her to the hospital? I’m going to give her an infusion.”
His blood could help her begin to heal, but they had to ge the bullet out and that needed to be done by a proper surgeon with proper equipment. He ripped his arm open and started feeding her his blood. Iain came storming back to the house, cussing at everyone.
“The bastard got away. Your team’s combing the area now. How is she?”
“We need to get her to the hospital. She’s taken enough of my blood to keep her well until they get the bullet out. I dare not give her more in case we can’t track down any blood test they take.”
Dez walked back in and announced the car was ready. Bas lifted Parks still body and started up the stairs, Iain right after him. Dez ran her finger along the table top and put it to her tongue. Her eyes went wider.
They took her to the ER immediately, the nurses and ER doctors took over as soon as Bas carried her in. he followed them back, but was sent back out. Not before he caught a young Asian doctors eyes and told him what he needed. No one was aware of what transpired.
“You will take care of her, only her, and make sure she is seen immediately. Once she is out of danger, you will come to me in the waiting room and tell me everything you’ve done. Especially anything unusual. You understand?”
He blinked twice and nodded, then started issuing orders. Bas reluctantly went out to the waiting room. He hated leaving her in the hands of humans, but it was the best place for her right now. He would aid her healing after they got the bullet out and stabilized her. His security team arrived en masse and he gave them a look which meant for them to spread out and be less obtrusive. They broke up and wandered to different sections of the large waiting room. Yet still looked out of place because they were all dressed in black and pseudo military garb. Anyone really looking at them would notice the bulges where their concealed weapons were barely so. He pulled the head of the team aside.
“Post three with her at all times. I don’t want to risk the shooter using this opportunity to finish her off.”
He motioned to three of his team members and they went around a corner. Only he returned, nodded to let his boss know it was done.
Zach fidgeted. Tinkered. Dwayne told him to stop.
“You’re going to break something. Put that flask down, they cost seventy five dollars. I don’t have your money to burn. Go do something. It’s going to be another ten minutes before Harry gets those blood tests back. I can’t believe your friend hacked the hospital records.”
“I can’t believe she isn’t on file there. Or anywhere.”
“I don’t see how the blood results are going to help you, then. But I might be able to help with another lead. Did you guys have mustard at dinner that night? Common yellow mustard?”
“Hardly. I took her to one of the finest French restaurants in L.A. Why?”
“Because there’s a spot near the bottom of the bodice with a mustard stain. So either she went home and had a sandwich, or she ate in that dress after you fed her. Maybe he fed her before he…”
“That doesn’t make much sense. She did eat on our date…maybe not a lot, but as much as a girl like her usually would on a date. She couldn’t have been hungry. And why would someone abduct her and then feed her right away?”
“Maybe this will help. Or it’ll add to the mystery. The shoes were embedded with gravel. And the gravel had a coat of oil, like it was from a heavily used road or highway. The way they were scuffed indicates she’d kicked them off…or was knocked down while wearing them, since the damage is up on the top and sides of the shoe. The way they were damaged, I’d bet she kicked them off when she tried to get away from him.”
The wheels were spinning in Zach’s mind now. So, she’d eaten and had been trying to run from him. Okay, now what?
“Oh, fuck, Dwayne, I am not a detective. Maybe I should give this evidence to the police.”
“Yeah, because you being in possession of blood stained clothes from the missing girl on the night you were the last one with her…that’s not suspicious. Even the fact that you stole them from the scene…”
“Yeah, I get it. I’m an attorney, I know how this looks. I’m humped. Okay?”
“Well, one other thing. The shoes had a lot of diesel fuel on the bottoms. If she’d kicked them off to run, that shouldn’t account for how it got there. I’m wondering if he took her to a truck stop to eat. Maybe it was someone she knew, trusted, and then when they got back to the house, he did something then. I don’t know. Just a theory.”
Now the wheels were turning again. “Dwayne, you might have something. So, I need to hit truck stops off the road with a photo of her. I took one from her house…”
“Of course you did.”
“Well, I was going to be searching for her. It only made sense that I have a picture in case I wanted to see if someone had seen her. Thanks, Dwayne, at least you’ve given me something to go on.”
“Okay, well, if you want to take off, I’ll call you with the blood results. Although, until you get me a copy of her blood tests, don’t know how it’s going to help. We will, however, have good forensic evidence if they were to catch the guy, if it’s his blood on the dress. Oh, no, wait, the evidence has been compromised.”
“Aw, shut up, asshole. If something bad happened to her, and we can verify who did it, I’m not going to worry about due process. He gets a jury of his peer…me. So, I do want those results.”
“No sooner said than done, my friend. Gotta say, liking the new vigilante part of you.”
“The keyword is justice. I don’t care if it’s legal or not, as long as the guilty pay for the crime. I knew a long time ago that our system has some major flaws. And I’m okay with that…I can usually get the results I want, even within the system. But there are times when you have to do what’s right period.”
“Hey, I totally agree. I’m just surprised to hear the perfect law student from the biggest family firm in Los Angeles say it.”
“Yeah, well, let’s not let it get around. Wouldn’t want anyone at work accusing me of being a hero. Or traitor.”
“Yeah, that’s more like it.”
“Don’t I know it. I’m heading out. Call me as soon as you…”
Suddenly the theme song from Star Wars started playing. Dwayne gave Zach a “don’t you dare” stare and picked up. He listened carefully, his eyes shooting up to Zach at times, then he recorded a few numbers and thanked the person who called.
He threw the cell phone on the table. “Well, he said on an exhale. “We have another mystery. Harry ran the tests twice and there’s no mistake. There are two different blood types on that dress.”
Zach grinned. “That means we’ve got the killer. Well, if we can find him, we can verify him.”
“That’s not all, Zach. The blood…it’s different. It could be contaminated, but Harry doesn’t think so. Human blood has…”
“Human blood? You mean it’s animal blood?”
“No. Listen, this is strange. It’s like nothing Harry’s ever seen before. And he’s worked for one of the largest hospitals in the country for more years than he’d like to admit. So he knows blood. All the elements were highly elevated, well beyond the normal. Red blood cell, platelets, white blood cells, all the chemical elements, off the charts. The mass density of the blood was much higher than normal. Viscosity had a high value. It was not normal, not by a long shot. He couldn’t even type it. There were differences between the two types, but it won’t help you to detail it. Just suffice it to say, Harry wants to know where these samples came from. He said they’re impossible.”
Zach was stunned. This couldn’t be right. “Harry had to have made a mistake. Or it was contaminated. Either way, this is of no help. I’m going to look for my girl. Dwayne, thanks for your help. Will you hang onto the items for me for a while? I don’t want them lost, but I can’t take them home.”
“Sure. Hey, good luck man. If you need anything else, call. At a decent hour.”
Zach hit the road and for some reason, the odd blood results kept recycling in his head. What the hell? This whole thing was a mystery wrapped in a mystery.
He’d decided to start hitting diners along the way, show the photo around. Park was a stunner…people would remember her. Ideally, he’d start outside L.A. and work north, but he was already there outside San Francisco, might as well get started. Nightfall was imminent, so he pulled over to the first diner and had a burger. He noticed the common yellow mustard on the table.
It was amazing how much time it took to get on and off the highway, and go by each roadside truck stop and diner he could see from I-5.
144
Chapter Nine
The emergency room was busy, at least four people arriving for care moments after
he brought Park back, and a waiting room that was filling up fast. It made Bas nervous. With this volume of people, it was harder to keep the area secure, both from the potential threat and possibility of discovery. The discovery issue, it was usually small since people mostly saw only what they expected to see. The military types wandering around weren’t even that rare what with the “precarious world situation.” But in a medical facility, with Park, who was an unknown, biologically, they had to be very careful. Bas knew vampire blood was very different from human…and he had to assume, with the unusual nature of Parks, hers would be too. So they would have to recover any samples taken, any test records, and any person who saw those results. He had his work cut out for him. Mostly, though, Park had to be okay. And they had to find that shooter.
He’d thought the stronghold secure. He’d forgotten about skilled snipers…and although he didn’t think the enemy would know about this location, he’d been wrong. And that might cost Park her life. Rage soared inside him and he had to force it down. Rage compromised the ability to reason…and he needed everything to get them back home and back to one hundred percent secure. The walls were impenetrable by bullets, but he couldn’t rule out the much more aggressive attacks…like a grenade launcher. And with this incident, he truly expected a greater attack with greater weapons like that. He slipped out his mobile phone.
“Jake. Is everything secure there? Good. Listen, we’re going to have to step back and regroup. I want you to contact Graves. We need twenty of his men. And his best surveillance crew. Get any equipment they need, satellite hookups, infrared, anything that can detect anyone near my property. ASAP. And I need someone to go down to Los Angeles and pick up someone. A guy named Timothy Sanders. I’ll send you the details and address. He’ll need to be compelled…he’s human. I want him taken to an electronics facility. Have him purchase their state of the art equipment, best computers, everything he needs. He’s going to do some serious research for me. I should already have an IT guy in place. I’m slow. Not anymore. Also, no one outside the main house other than security. They need to be sharp, expect there are more snipers in the hills. I want food deliveries monitored, too. In fact, send a team out with a list and have everything purchased by them. I don’t trust anything being delivered in right now. If you think of any other security loopholes, or risks, take care of it and text me. Any questions?”
