by Rose Wulf
Veronica started when the paper was suddenly snatched out of her hand, her eyes snapping up to Allison to find her friend shining the light of her iPhone over the paper with a thoughtful frown. “It’s not important,” Veronica tried to say, reaching for the paper.
Allison turned, taking the paper out of reach, and clucked her tongue. “Uh-uh. It is important, I can tell by the look on your face.” She drifted into silence for a beat before finally looking up and asking, “Is this related to that thing you told me you can’t tell me about?”
“…Yes,” Veronica offered carefully. Sometimes Allison was incredibly difficult to read.
Eyes darting back to the paper, Allison asked, “And whatever’s at this address is important, right? I mean, that’s why shady people do even shadier things like handing mysterious addresses to virtual strangers.”
“This isn’t a mystery novel, Ali,” Veronica said firmly, again reaching for the paper. This time she managed to successfully snag it out of her friend’s grasp and she added, “Don’t worry about it, okay?”
Sliding her phone back into her pocket, Allison declared, “Oh, I’m not going to. And I don’t read mystery novels—I don’t have the time. Now come on.” She turned before the words had even left her mouth and resumed walking.
Please, no, Veronica whispered silently before calling out, “Where are you leading me?”
“We’re going to that address,” Allison called back. “You’ll never resolve whatever it is you’ve gotten yourself into if you don’t occasionally do shady things yourself.”
“That doesn’t even make sense!” Veronica exclaimed, jogging for a moment to catch up with her. “Wait, Ali! This isn’t necessary. I’ll deal with it later.”
“Or you can deal with it now,” Allison insisted, never breaking stride as she began crossing the street. “And since we took my car out here, you’re going to, because I’m going.”
“Allison,” Veronica tried, desperate for a way to talk her friend out of her decision without breaking her promise to Seth. “Please, you don’t need to involve yourself in this, okay?”
“It’s either not a big deal, like you tried making it out to be last night, or it’s a very big deal and you should have your best friend around for moral support,” Allison returned easily. Veronica suspected she’d been rehearsing the line since the previous night.
She sucked in a breath, searching in vain for another tactic. She was still searching when they reached Allison’s car, and Allison was already reaching for her door. Veronica’s feet stopped moving somewhere beside the bumper, her heart pounding in her chest. This was a terrible idea. But then why was Allison’s insistence starting to make sense to her?
“You coming?” Allison asked, paused with one foot in the car as she glanced back at her friend.
This is a terrible idea. “Yeah,” Veronica replied as she moved forward and reached for the passenger door.
Allison didn’t ask a single question as she drove. Veronica spent half of the drive cursing her friend’s photographic memory and the other half thanking it. She doubted she’d have had the courage to go on her own, and Seth certainly wouldn’t have let her, but a morbid part of her really did want to know what was on the other end of that address. Not that she knew why, since it was guaranteed to be bad.
And then the car was slowing, pulling off of the road and onto a patch of gravel before stopping altogether. “This is it,” Allison declared as she cut the engine. “Ready?”
“No,” Veronica replied honestly as she released her seatbelt. “But let’s get this done.”
Together they climbed from the car and started forward, walking side-by-side toward the lone building. It looked condemned, which would actually make sense, since it was an abandoned neighborhood. The building—which no longer qualified as the small single-story house it had once been—had holes in the walls and jagged shards of glass serving as windows. The yard was horrendously overgrown and the door didn’t quite fit in the doorjamb.
“Because this isn’t spooky,” Allison mumbled as they paused in front of the door.
You have no idea, Veronica thought as she took a deep, stabilizing breath and stepped up. Someone had to go first, and since the note had been for her it only made sense that she be the one. Praying it wasn’t a trap, Veronica put her hand to the door and gave a light shove as she called, “Hello?”
The door swung open, creaking loudly, but nothing else moved. There were no other sounds and it was too dark inside for her to see anything. And then Allison switched on the flashlight mode on her phone and shone it forward, lighting the first few feet past the now-open doorway. Veronica immediately wished she hadn’t.
“Oh my god.”
Chapter Seven
“Is…is that…?” Allison’s question was nearly inaudible and the emotion was already thick in her voice, her eyes undoubtedly focused on the object only barely illuminated by her phone.
Veronica couldn’t bring herself to answer Allison’s question, just like she couldn’t bring herself to look away. She desperately needed to look away. She couldn’t breathe, her stomach was roiling like it did right before she threw up, and her knees were starting to feel weak. She had seen a body before, but this…this was different.
This was Mandy.
Only a few feet beyond the doorway, and barely within the beam of light, lay Mandy’s very-lifeless body. She was curled almost in a fetal position, only her shoulders turned so that her head was facing up, toward the roof. Her eyes were still open, hair tousled around her, and her arms were resting at odd angles on either side of her torso. Most importantly, however, was the gigantic chunk that seemed to be missing from her throat. Blood was drying all around her, caking a large portion of her hair and covering her left shoulder and the top of her chest beneath.
Veronica was still staring, searching for her breath and begging her eyes to look anywhere else, when the light clicked off and Mandy’s corpse was once again enshrouded in darkness. The sudden disappearance of the light seemed to shock her system into functioning, and she turned entirely around as she sucked in a shaky breath. It was only then that she realized she was crying.
Allison’s slightly-shaky hands were moving over her phone as she said, “I’m calling this in. And whatever it is you’re involved in? You’re telling me everything as soon as I’m off the phone.”
No police. Seth had requested she leave them out. Was that still the right thing? It felt like it, and that was all she had to go on. And then her hand was landing over the phone, tugging it from Allison’s startled grasp, and disconnecting the call before it could go through. “No, we can’t,” she mumbled.
“I’m sorry,” Allison began, her voice sounding more stable to Veronica’s ears than Veronica’s own as she snatched her phone back. “What? Why the hell not?”
“Just wait,” Veronica pleaded as she pulled her own phone from her pocket. “I have to call someone…but I’ll tell you, I promise.” Her hands were definitely shaking as she dialed the speed dial that would connect to Seth, and she was glad she didn’t have to hit more than three buttons.
Allison was giving her an impatient, suspicious look that was entirely foreign on her face, but she remained silent as she waited. And for that, at least, Veronica was grateful.
“Veronica?” Seth asked as he answered.
She dragged in another ragged breath, swallowing, and said, “I need you to meet me. Something’s…something’s happened, and I’m not sure what to do.”
“Where?”
Veronica rattled off the address after digging the crumpled paper from her pocket and squinting her blurry eyes at it, and she could only bring herself to nod when he assured her that he would arrive shortly. Then she pulled the phone from her ear, disconnected the call, and promptly sank to her knees.
****
Seth hung up his phone and returned his attention to the two women who were leaning against an early-model Prius, his chest tight. His introduction to Veroni
ca’s friend, Allison Drake, hadn’t exactly been fantastic but that was hardly what was bothering him. He was too old and too experienced to be bothered by mutilated bodies—at least on a physical level. The uncomfortable feeling inside of him—the feeling that made him want to tear out someone’s heart and possibly throw up—was entirely because of Veronica.
She hadn’t needed to gesture toward the building behind her when he got there in order for him to know that someone had died there recently—the scent of blood was still thick in the air. But, for the first time in a long time, it only made him angry. Veronica was a mess. Her blue eyes were surrounded by red lines. Her cheeks were stained with the tears he’d heard in her voice over the phone. Her shoulders were shaking from the effort it was taking her to restrain her sobs. Her bare knees were discolored from the overgrown grass that she was sitting in and indented by the little sticks and pebbles that were trapped beneath them. She hadn’t even been able to push to her feet for several minutes after his arrival.
Her friend had been slightly more composed, though her cheeks were nearly as tear-stained as Veronica’s. She was crying silently and had a tight grip on her phone that perfectly emphasized the distrustful shine in her eyes as she watched him. That distrustful shine only magnified when she learned the truth—a truth Seth had been very reluctant to tell.
Sometime after revealing that their friend, Mandy, had been murdered by a vampire Allison had practically dragged Veronica to her feet and over to the Prius, seeming to understand that they shouldn’t leave but clearly not wanting to be anywhere near him. He’d used the opportunity to make a couple of calls, knowing that the situation needed to be handled delicately. Now, however, it was time to see if Allison would let him talk to Veronica.
“The police are on their way,” Seth declared quietly as he came to a stop before them. The ache in his chest eased a little. It seemed, if only for the moment, that Veronica had stopped crying.
Allison was glaring at him through her red-rimmed eyes, arms crossed as she demanded, “And do you expect us to lie to them for you?”
“No,” Seth replied calmly. “You should tell them the truth—exactly as you knew it before I got here.”
Veronica swallowed, licked her lips, and asked, “But…won’t they be in your way?”
“Maybe,” Seth allowed, “but sometimes it’s necessary. There’s also the chance that, with the police searching for them, Richards and the others might slip up enough for me to find them.”
“What,” Allison began, angry sarcasm layering her tone, “are you some sort of vampire bounty-hunter?”
“Not technically,” Seth replied. “But I am looking for them in order to get them off the streets, so in this case that’s not too far off.”
Allison looked away and Seth pretended not to notice that she was struggling with a fresh round of tears before she grumbled, “This is crazy.” She cut her glare back to him and asked, “Why shouldn’t I tell them the truth as I know it now?”
“You could,” Seth assured her, “but then I imagine it’s you who would be considered ‘crazy’.”
Silence fell over them after that. The fight seemed to have fled from Allison’s system and she looked away again. Seth watched them for a moment, both bracing their weight against the car and holding themselves in search of comfort, and his heart ached. For a moment he stood there, wanting to pull Veronica into his arms to offer what little solace he could, but telling himself that he shouldn’t. And then she sniffled.
He didn’t even think as he strode forward and gently tugged Veronica into his chest, wrapping his arms around her tightly. She released a muted, choked sound, curled her fists into his shirt, and let herself cry into his shoulder. With one thumb rubbing soothing circles over her back, Seth bowed his head and pressed his lips to her hair. He wanted to do so much more, but he knew there wasn’t anything more that he could do, at least not in the moment. As he stood there, breathing in the mixed scents of a grieving Veronica and the drying blood of her friend, he vowed that he would find Gregory Richards. And when he found him, Richards would pay for every tear Veronica shed.
****
Dealing with the police had been terrible, though Veronica had managed to pull herself together enough to form coherent sentences by then. And though she felt bad for the tension between Allison and Seth she didn’t have the energy to smooth the ruffled feathers. She was just glad that Seth stayed with her the entire time. It was easier to breathe when he was near her.
She figured that was the reason she felt like she might collapse the moment Allison suggested going home.
Allison meant ‘come on, Veronica, I’ll take you home,’ which made sense since they had arrived together. Only, that wasn’t what Veronica wanted to do. She didn’t particularly care where she went—a roof was a roof—her problem was that she was feeling incredibly particular about what company she wanted to keep.
She didn’t realize she was staring at Allison’s car, frozen in place, until Seth’s hand landed lightly on her shoulder. “Veronica?” he asked just as gently.
Sucking in a breath, Veronica whispered, “I don’t think—.” No, she couldn’t say that. Instead, she turned her head enough to look up at him and asked, “Will you take me home? Can you…stay awhile?”
Seth inclined his head, giving her shoulder a light squeeze. She was touched by the sympathy and concern in his expression.
Turning her attention forward again, she found Allison watching with an odd look on her face, and offered, “I’m sorry, Ali…. Seth’s going to take me home, all right?”
There wasn’t an ounce of surprise in Allison’s eyes as she nodded. “All right. Be safe.” She ducked into the car without another word and with barely a glance at Seth.
Once Allison had rolled the engine over Seth said, “Come on, let’s get you inside.” As he spoke he let his hand trail down to the middle of her back in order to gently steer her toward his car, parked a car length behind Allison’s. Veronica let him guide her, moving on autopilot.
The drive to her house was quiet, Veronica spending it with her temple resting against the side window and her left hand wrapped securely in Seth’s right. She held on to his hand, to the feeling of his strength and support, and hoped it would seep into her after a while.
Seth was locking the front door behind them and Veronica had been, albeit slowly, moving toward her couch when one of the forbidden thoughts floating through her mind finally found a voice. At least Dad was cleaned up. Her forward momentum died as her throat swelled with the memory. She’d been trying so hard not to let what happened to Mandy send her back to that place, but she supposed that was unrealistic. His was, after all, the only other dead body she’d ever seen. And suddenly that open-casket funeral didn’t seem so horrifying.
Still, she didn’t want to dwell on that if she could avoid it. What had happened to Mandy was terrible enough; she didn’t need the reminder of how long it had been since she’d seen her father’s smiling face to exacerbate the grief. Ronald Wyndham’s murder had been tragic and traumatizing, but never in the past sixteen years had Veronica found a way to feel guilty for it. His death was not her fault. Mandy’s is.
That was so much worse.
She sucked in another ragged breath, her vision swimming with alternating images from her father’s funeral and the scene they had only just left behind. Another round of tears was coming.
Seth’s arms came around her again, this time effortlessly sweeping her up and carrying her to the couch just a few feet away. He must’ve known she didn’t have the strength to walk that far. When he sat, instead of settling her beside him, he adjusted her carefully and tucked her beneath his chin. Her head was turned in, ear against his shoulder and forehead brushing his throat, and she pulled in another breath. She was comfortable, whether or not she had a right to be, and that made it easy to let her emotions go.
****
For the first time in decades Seth was seriously considering calling Jasen and
asking him to help. Another night had gone by since Mandy’s murder and, much to Seth’s mounting frustration, Richards and his cohorts seemed to have vanished once again. A part of him was actually hoping that the Slayer he’d run into several nights prior had already found and staked them, but he imagined that was highly unlikely. And the longer it took him the more he felt like he was failing her.
Veronica had cried herself into a restless sleep that first night as he held her on her couch, and though she seemed to be slowly doing better, it would be a long time before she forgave herself for her friend’s death. He had tried explaining that she had no control over their actions, but she hadn’t been ready to hear it. It was killing something inside of him to watch her beat herself up, to watch her cry. That brightness he’d associated with her when he’d first laid eyes on her in the coffee shop was muted now, and though he was fairly sure that it was only temporary, he hated it.
“Dammit,” Seth cursed under his breath as he slid back into his car. Once again he’d been forced to detour to Robert’s office for an update that could have been handled over the phone. Robert had men helping in the search now, scouring the city for Richards and the Wilson brothers. He thought he was being helpful and it had taken more control than usual to keep from growling that he was actually making things harder. Robert’s men were inexperienced trackers, and their heavy-handed presence would only encourage their prey to stay locked in their dens. And if they were really unlucky it would draw the Slayer’s attention.
His hand was hovering over the keys, poised to roll the engine over, but he hesitated. The clock was ticking before Richards took another step, and if his pattern continued then he would only be escalating the damage. The thought of who might end up dead next was frightening. It’s time, Seth realized with a frown and a sigh.
He leaned back in his seat, tugged his phone out of his pocket, and dialed. Innocent lives were more important than any pride he was still holding on to.
