“What happened?” James had to ask.
“Well, at first I thought it was from, you know, that night—that I just never wanted to even be close to or alone with another man. So there was no way I would ever say yes to Milton. But then, I really heard this voice in my head.”
“What did it say?” He wanted to lock her in a closet to keep her safe while he went door-to-door and turned over every rock hunting this creature. Doc had said there were no physical marks on the vampire’s victims. Hell, Doc had no idea what this monster was capable of doing.
“It asked questions. It asked me if I went out with Milton and Milton put his hands on me, would I be thinking of him and the way he’d touched me, or would I see him and not Milton.”
“Are you sure it wasn’t just your imagination, just your desire not to be close to another man?” James had to ask.
“I’m sure. It was his voice. I’ll never forget that voice,” she said without hesitation.
She still looked at her hands and absently moved her feet in the water. James wanted to command she look at him. But remembering and sharing were hard enough for her. “Where were you when you heard this voice?” he asked softly, doing his best to keep his voice calm. Yet, he knew she had to be acute enough to hear the edge in his words.
“On the sidewalk, down by the square.”
“When was this?”
“More than a year ago, in the summer. It was lunchtime, and I was eating my lunch on one of the benches. Milton came over and sat with me.”
“There were a lot of people around?” he asked.
“Yes, every bench was taken. That’s why Milton probably sat with me, but then he struck up a conversation. And the next thing I knew he was asking if I wanted to meet him at the diner for supper,” Emma explained.
James fought down a million questions, not wanting to add to her fear. “Did this voice ever talk to you when you were alone?”
Emma had to think for a long moment. “No. It seems like it was always outside, always when there were a lot of people around—once at the high school band concert in the park, once during the Island Days picnic celebration and a few other places.”
“What else were some of the things he said to you, do you remember?” James’s throat was so tight with the need to keep his voice calm that it hurt.
“At the picnic he simply asked me if I liked the chocolate cone I was eating, like he just wanted to let me know he was there, watching, close enough to see that I ate a chocolate ice cream cone,” she explained. “At the concert, he told me he wished I was closer to him. That time scared me the most.”
“Why?” James was terrified at her answer, and yet he had to ask.
For a long moment, the room was quiet.
“Because his words sounded so much like that night five years ago. I remember looking around, trying to put a face with his voice and not able to. People probably did really think I was crazy, scanning faces in the park like that. I wanted to get up and run, but I was terrified to leave the crowd. I felt like I was safer there. I knew at home I’d be alone, so I sat there and tried to listen to the music.” Her words trailed off with the memory as she stared past James’s feet to the wall.
“Emma?”
She finally met his gaze.
“You aren’t crazy. You didn’t hear him any more besides those times?”
She shrugged. “At the store, at the library. There might have been other times. I know it sounds stupid, but I got to where I learned to ignore him. So I’d have to think about those times to remember exactly what he said.”
“Do you want to know what I think?”
“What?” She climbed out of the pool and stood before him.
James stared up at her, taking in the way she stood, glistening and dripping, looking beautiful. “I think he was simply testing his abilities, seeing if he could talk in your mind, seeing if you could hear him, seeing if he could still frighten you.”
She shivered visibly as the cool air touched her wet body. “Well, it worked,” she said. “So how do I keep him from doing it anymore?” she had to ask.
“We find him and destroy him once and for all,” he said calmly.
Emma let out a heavy breath. “I guess we should get started then. Give me a few minutes in the shower,” she said, walking away. At the door, she turned back to him. “If he’s been here all this time, ever since that night . . .” The words “that night” were merely whispered. “. . . why is he suddenly doing this now?”
“There are two kinds of vampires,” he explained. “Good ones and bad ones. He’s doing this now because he can, because he’s bad and he has grown strong enough and perfected his abilities enough to be able to do this. Like I said, talking to you telepathically was probably practice for him. He’s probably spent the past several years killing small animals or using mind control on the weak or the old.” As soon as he said the words, James regretted them, and he knew instantly what her next question would be.
“Do you think I was weak? Is that why he was able to do what he did to me?”
James shook his head. “You were afraid, terrified. Fear does strange things to a person.”
“Like make you weaker?” she asked.
Again, he shook his head and got up from the chair. Carrying the paper in one hand, he approached her. “It doesn’t make you weaker, but it makes you focus on certain things while missing others. It can consume you.”
“I guess I should be glad since he’s now learned how to use it to kill people. He didn’t practice on me.”
“Yes, but in your case, he knew about your fear, and he used it against you. That doesn’t make you weak. It makes you human.”
His answer seemed to satisfy her, because she next asked, “Do you really hunt them?”
“Yes,” he admitted. “I’ve spent many years learning their secrets and hunting them.” It wasn’t a lie. It was just easier for him to learn about them and hunt them because he was one of them.
“Why?”
He looked at her for a long moment. “I don’t know. I suppose it’s a calling, no different from you working in medicine. It’s all a part of my need to protect mankind, like being Chief of Police here.” He thought his explanation sounded tall and heroic, but it was the truth. He’d had a mentor, the vampire who’d turned him to save his life when he was dying of an incurable illness, a vampire who was initially his friend. Deke had been a vampire, and James had not had a clue. But the moment James was turned, he’d felt the acute difference between the good and the bad. Like his mentor, he’d vowed to stop the bad and to protect all others. He didn’t explain all this to Emma. Perhaps in time, he could share it with her. “It’s simply what I do,” he said, as if it could be that simple. Hell, he wished he could share this part of his life with her. It tore at his heart to know that when she found out he was really no different than the monster who’d ripped the rug out from beneath her world, she would probably hate him.
“James, will you kiss me again?” she asked softly.
At least for now, in this moment in time, she didn’t hate him. The touch of his lips was his answer.
When he finally pulled away, she said, “That was nice. I had forgotten how wonderful a kiss could feel.”
“It was nice,” he agreed. Too nice, he thought.
“You only touched me with your lips.”
“You’re all wet and soft. It would be dangerous for me to touch you right now.” Worse than dangerous, he thought. For her, it could be life-altering. He felt the tips of his teeth grow at the thought of her warm and soft and wet beneath him, and he fought away the urge to touch her again. What made it all the worse was the fact that she had no idea how dangerous it could be for him to touch her.
She blinked at him, as if she didn’t understand his meaning. “Oh,” she said, before she headed off to take a quick shower. “Thanks for letting me swim,” she said over her shoulder.
James didn’t trust his voice or his words just then, even th
ough his teeth had returned to normal. The way she’d looked at him over her shoulder, with her skin slick and wet, was enough to send him into overdrive. Her sweet, woodsy scent, heightened by the clean freshness of the water, was strong, and he could have cut with a knife the heat he felt radiating from her. He merely nodded at her thanks.
He’d had no idea what one dream and a kiss—make that two kisses—could do. And he wasn’t certain which was worse, having a vampire to hunt distract him from pursuing Emma, or allowing his pursuit of Emma to distract him from the vampire hunt. All this time, he had waited for her. Now she was close, so close, and her closeness terrified him. It was only speculation, of course, but others had said that if one’s soul mate rejected him in any way, it would be like a stake through the heart and he would die.
James was taking a great risk being with her, touching her, kissing her. Especially since being with her, touching her and kissing her only made him want her more. And yet, he found he could no longer stay away. It was simply a chance he had to take. He had the feeling that if he left her now, if he tried to live without her, it would rip his heart out just as easily as a stake would end his life.
He thought of the creature who spoke to her, and he had no idea how to hunt this kind of monster, since he’d never before been forced to do so.
What bothered him most was the idea that if this creature could speak into Emma’s mind, did he always know where she was, what she was doing and with whom? Could he see her?
And if so, how would he react when he saw her with James?
Could he know James was a vampire as strong as he was? James didn’t think he knew, otherwise he would have reacted long before now. But sooner or later—probably sooner—he would discover the truth. And James had no doubt all hell would break loose then.
* * * *
Before going to Glenda Farmington’s duplex, James drove them to the police station. The ride there was quiet, except for the few times the radio squawked to life. The day had turned blustery, and Emma was grateful for the way James held her hand as he drove. He still held her hand as he led them into the police station house.
Susan, the receptionist-slash-dispatcher wasn’t yet at her desk. Officer Logan was still on duty, sitting in front of a computer typing his latest report. And Deke stood in the doorway of James’s office, drinking a cup of coffee.
“Any news, Logan?” James asked.
“Nothing out of the ordinary so far this morning,” Logan replied, doing the hunt-and-peck with two fingers on the computer keys. “Ghetts is home for the day, so any speeding teenagers who decided to play hooky will be safe for a while. Heck, that guy wrote a total of seven tickets last night. Do you think he simply followed them around, egging them on, while waiting for them to go a few miles over the speed limit?”
He finally looked up and noticed Emma next to James. “Oh, hi,” he said to her, obviously not expecting an answer to his question about Ghetts. “You’re the girl from Doc Jenkins’s office, aren’t you?”
“Yes, my name’s Emma,” she replied.
Logan took his hands from the computer long enough to reach out to her so she could shake his hand. “I’m Vince Logan.”
“It’s nice to meet you.”
“Do we have an official report about Glenda Farmington’s death?” James asked him.
Logan looked at Emma, then Deke, before returning his gaze to James. “Can we talk about this in front of her?”
“Yes, she’ll be helping us, as well as helping Doc with the autopsy,” James explained. “So what about the report?”
“It’s not quite finished. Her mother still needs to come in and make an official statement, but we have a complete report about everything found at the scene. Hayden—” He looked at Emma. “—that’s another officer,” he explained, “dusted the bathroom and bedroom windows looking for any prints.”
“Why did you check the windows for prints?” James asked.
“Because those two windows were open—not much, just a couple of inches. So far, Hayden found only the Farmington girl’s prints. I wondered why she might have opened the windows. It wasn’t exactly warm last night.”
James took the report that Logan handed him.
“Oh, and there was something else that was strange,” Logan added.
“What?” James asked.
“There was water in the bathtub and in the sink in the bathroom,” Logan replied, before he continued his pecking at the computer.
“Maybe she was going to take a bath,” Emma offered.
Logan shrugged. “I guess she could have lied to her mother, but Hayden heard her mother tell Ghetts last night that Glenda said she couldn’t talk because she was on her way out the door. Either way, I think it’s kind of weird to leave water in both the sink and the tub.” He looked at James. “You know as well as I do she had on makeup and clothes. She didn’t look as if she’d planned to take a bath for a while. Besides, it wasn’t much water, just an inch or two.”
James had to agree that it was strange. He looked at Deke. “Do you have anything new to add?” As he waited for Deke’s answer, he quickly glanced through the report he’d just taken from Logan.
“I’m still making out my report,” Deke replied. “But we need to talk. Can you step into the office for a minute?”
“Sure.” James set the report back on the desk next to Logan and told Emma, “I’ll be right back.”
She nodded and watched as he stepped into his office behind Deke and closed the door.
There was a simple moment of silence between the two men. James glanced out the glass and found Emma watching him. Deke followed his gaze and took her in, too. “Do you think you can keep her safe?” Deke asked.
“If I can’t, then I’ll have to die with her,” James said simply. “Have you found anything yet?”
“Not a damned thing. I’ve searched this town—hell, this entire island—for any sign, any feeling that there is a vampire here, and I’ve come up empty. What if it’s not a vampire?”
“I don’t know,” James replied honestly. “I’ve looked around, too, and except for a simple feeling in the breeze, I haven’t felt anything, either. Have you ever seen anything like this?”
“I once had a friend long ago who could control humans with his thoughts, and he said any of us could easily do it with a little practice. But this is different. If there was a vampire sending enough fear into a victim to frighten her to death, one of us, if not both of us, should feel something from him, at least feel the victim’s fear. It’s what we do, it’s how we know to go somewhere and stop the bad ones.”
James sent his attention to the lobby where he heard Vince Logan tell Emma, “Ghetts has always been a mouthy guy, and his voice can drive a person insane. He refers to the Chief as Jimbo behind his back. One time, he had the guts to call him that right here in this very office. Of course, the Chief’s door was closed, like it is now. But you know what? I saw the Chief look up just like he heard what Ghetts said.”
“Jimbo?” Emma replied.
James knew well about Ghetts’s nicknames for everyone. He let go of their conversation and returned his attention to Deke. “I know, I’ve been beating myself up over this since the first time I looked at Jillian McComb’s terrified expression,” James replied. “But all I really felt was just that cold wind, nothing more.”
Deke looked at him intently. “Do you really think any of this has to do with what happened five years ago?”
“Yes, I do. And Emma and Doc both made reference to the same thing.”
Deke glanced out the window where Emma laughed at something Officer Logan had said. “Gut feelings, right?”
“We’ve depended on them before,” James reminded him.
“I don’t know. I’ve cased this entire island, and I haven’t found one sign of a vampire. I even talked to Doc. No one’s been into the clinic suffering from anemia or anything else out of the ordinary.”
“No, but apparently Jillian was in the clin
ic not feeling well. I know that could be nothing more than a coincidence, but we’re going to keep casing the island, because I think he’s here, and I think he’s close,” James insisted.
Deke met his gaze evenly. “If he’s here, why aren’t we feeling him?”
“I don’t know. Better yet, why doesn’t he recognize us?”
“Now there’s a question, and I’ve got a theory.”
James raised a brow. “And when were you going to share it?”
“When I thought about it long enough for it to make sense.”
“Typical,” James muttered. “Spill it.”
“If this ability—or whatever it is he’s doing—is taking all his energy, all of his concentration, maybe he doesn’t have any room left to notice or feel us.”
“It makes sense. And at the same time, it could be why we don’t recognize him.”
“How so?”
“If he’s not concentrating on hunting or other normal vampire stuff, we might not see him.”
Deke shrugged. “It’s just speculation. And what if we’re wrong about all of this? What if it’s something worse? Or what if it’s nothing at all—two girls dead of natural causes?”
James looked at Emma and returned her small smile through the glass. “I can’t take that chance, not with her.”
Deke let out a long sigh. “All right. I’ll keep looking.”
“And try to focus on the emotions you feel.”
“I try, but human emotion is so draining.”
James chuckled.
“And I’ll call you if I find anything out of the ordinary, but I wouldn’t hold my breath if I were you,” Deke muttered.
James put his hand on the doorknob, then turned back to Deke. “Emma tells me he has spoken to her a few times since that night.”
“Spoken to her how?”
James quickly explained how this creature talked into her mind and repeated the things he’d said.
Deke was thoughtful for a long moment. “Let me ask a few friends, see what they know about this.”
No Fear Page 15
