by Deborah Noel
A flash of lightning blinded me temporarily. Suddenly, hot breath traced the curves of my neck, burning as it hovered over my pulsing jugular vein. Something wet trickled down my collarbone. I thought I heard a faint hiss in my ear.
My breathing stopped and it felt as if my vocals cords wouldn't move. The scream I intended never came. Dread saturated my insides. My legs refused to hold me. They went limp as my body started to tremble with terror.
Seconds later, when I regained my sight, the creature was gone, along with its victim.
Regaining my composure, I slowly crawled over to the spot where the brush was pressed down. It retained the shape of the girl. I tried to find footprints. Off in the distance I heard a howl. As the rain washed the brush clean, I could find no trace of the girl and the creature, or of their disappearance. It was too human like to be an animal.
I climbed back down the vines to Bullet, who was still on his hind legs waiting for me. He jumped into my arms before I was firmly on the ground, nearly knocking me over. He was trembling. He fought to stay seated on my lap as I rowed the canoe back across the lake. He tripped me twice while I tried to put the canoe away.
We made our way quickly back to the Jeep. Once I arrived, I realized that my phone had been stuffed down my shirt and I could hear a muffled voice coming from it.
The rain had stopped, except for what dripped off the leaves of the canopy of the forest. It was a good thing I took the time to put the soft top on the Jeep when I arrived earlier.
I pulled the phone from inside my bra, and held it to my ear. Declan gave one more yell, causing me to drop the phone.
I picked it up, “Declan?”
“Jesus H. Christ, Cianna! What the fuck is going on?”
“I honestly don’t know.”
“Well, try to explain it to me.”
I sat myself into the driver’s seat and took in as much oxygen as my lungs could possibly hold. Then I let it out slowly. I explained all that happened to my husband over the phone. He was silent. A vehicle pulled up behind mine, catching me off guard. I spun around in my seat as Bullet jumped up on the console barking a warning.
It was Declan.
With breathless relief, I ran into the security of his arms.
Chapter Ten
Declan escorted Bullet and I back to the Castle. He shuffled us inside and sealed the door behind us. He insisted I rest on the sofa and wrapped a comforter from the bed around me. Bullet wormed his way under the cover and came to rest tight up against my thigh as Declan handed me a cup of chamomile peppermint tea. I sipped on it slowly.
After a few minutes, Declan urged me to retell the story again. I told him everything. Every detail. I even told him about both of my encounters with that guy, Foxx. He sat there next to me, shaking his head.
“A vampire, Ci?”
I shrugged my shoulders. “I know what I saw Declan.”
He cocked his head to the side, “I don’t doubt that, Cianna, but a vampire?”
“What, don’t you believe that they exist?” I said, my shoulders tightening.
He sat back for a moment, deep in thought. Then he smiled at me, “I guess I just never gave it any thought.”
“Well, pixies exist – we are living proof of that. Why can’t vampires?”
“Point taken.”
He was quiet for a moment. “But still…a vampire?”
“Well what else could it be, Declan? I am not crazy. I know what it was in front of me. I saw its eyes. I heard the screams and howls. I saw the girl’s body.” I shuddered. “It felt its breath on my neck.”
Subconsciously I ran my fingers over my neck and down over my collar bone. Declan grabbed my hand. He moved my hair out of the way and folded over my unbuttoned blouse covering my tank top. His eyes grew wider. I raised my eyebrows in concern. Icicles pierced every nerve in my body.
“Don’t move.”
He ran to the other room. I remained frozen. I took a mental scan of my body to see if I felt any pain around my neck or shoulders. Nothing. Declan returned with a q-tip and swabbed under my collar bone. He showed it to me.
The white tip was now red.
“Carefully take off your shirt.”
I followed his instructions. I looked and there was blood that had stained my white blouse. Heat from the sensation of that thing breathing on my neck found me again. I involuntarily shivered.
“See? I wasn’t lying,” I emphasized the finding of blood to collaborate my story.
He said nothing and checked my body for wounds.
“Do you believe me now?”
He only raised his eyebrows at me and half frowned. I laughed as his dimples overrode his sentiment.
“Okay, show me the scene.”
“With pleasure!” I jumped out from under the blanket.
We locked Bullet inside. Declan followed me to the spot where I climbed up. I started up, Declan at my heels. I took him the few short feet to where the brush was still crushed under the weight of the dead girl’s body. Although the weeds were starting to rebound, we could still make out the shape. I grabbed my phone off my waist and switched it to camera mode. I snapped several pictures. I leaned in for a close-up of some blood that hadn’t been washed away. Declan had grabbed a plastic sandwich bag and carefully dug up some of the dirt. We both searched for footprints but found nothing. We found a few droplets of fresh blood high up on some tree leaves about 20 feet away. I took photos of them before Declan collected those leaves in a separate plastic bag. We walked another 20 feet, finding nothing. We were about to turn back when I spotted a clump of hair tangled in a branch. We did the same routine: Took a few photos of the hair in its original place then collected it in a plastic bag. After another 25 feet, the trail ran cold. We worked our way back to the ledge and climbed down.
When we got to our door, something caught Declan’s attention. His outstretched hand stopped me from walking into him. I sucked in my breath. A scratching noise made its way to us from deeper in the mountain. We could also hear Bullet sniffing from behind our makeshift door.
The noise stopped abruptly.
So did Bullet.
When we opened the door, Bullet was sitting about three feet away, head leaning to the left staring at the bottom of the door. When he realized we had entered, his tail began to wag and he trotted over to say hello. We tidied up a bit, gathered Bullet, and headed back to the Jeep so we could be home in time for Mattie. Shane had promised to pick her up and wait with her at home until we got there. I had forgotten he was with Declan.
I drove home. Slowly.
When we got home, Shane and Mattie were already there. Shane had set her up in her room so she could do her homework. Sam was also there, sitting outside on the patio, chain smoking. Both rushed to help me inside and fumbled over each other to get me to the family room to sit and relax.
“I’m fine,” I hollered at them and shooed them away.
“She’s okay,” Declan assured them. “I checked.”
Everyone, including me, took a deep breath.
“Marcy is upstairs side-tracking Mattie,” Shane informed us.
“Mommy, are you okay?” my daughter asked me in my mind.
Declan and I looked at each other.
“Yes, honey, Mommy is fine now,” Declan assured her through our telepathic ability.
Knowing her limitations in telepathy, I turned to see her peeking around the corner into the family room.
“Marcy thinks I’m in the bathroom,” she answered before I could ask.
I smiled at her, “I’m okay, Doll Baby. Please go upstairs and work on your studies. I’ll be up to talk to you later.”
She blinked her eyes twice. I laughed to myself as she disappeared back upstairs.
Sam and Declan scrutinized the evidence we collected in Declan’s office, which was back beside his piano room. Shane was left to babysit me. He brought me some tea.
“Thank you.”
He nodded. He took a seat on the coffee ta
ble facing me. I tried hard to focus on my tea and ignore him. That didn’t work.
“Go ahead, Shane, ask.”
He smiled and lowered his head. He raised his eyes.
“What happened?”
For some reason, I trusted him enough to tell him what I saw.
“Do you think I’m crazy too?”
He was silent for a long time. I could almost see his thoughts processing in his brain.
“Listen, I’ll be fine, why don’t you go and check out what Declan and I collected,” I gave him a way out.
He just sat there a little longer. After a few long seconds, he leaned into me. In a low whisper he asked, “Can you describe it to me? What did it look like?” He reached over and took my hand.
I was almost taken back by his request. I shivered as I thought of the image in my head of that feral creature sucking the life out of that young girl.
I looked at Shane. “Really?”
He patted my hand with his. “One day, when you are ready to tell me, I would be interested in knowing. And, I believe you Mrs. Fitzgerald.”
“Please, it’s Cianna.”
He smiled warmly. “Cianna, I believe that you saw a vampire. They do exist.”
“I know,” I nervously chuckled at his validation. “I saw one at the most horrible state of ravenous abandon. He was in the process of taking the life from an innocent girl.”
He nodded and then politely excused himself and joined Declan and Sam.
Absolutely exhausted, I was asleep in seconds.
I woke to the pleasant smell of homemade food cooking in the kitchen, tickling the inside my nose with so many wonderful aromas. I recognized the smell of Declan’s hand-rub steaks and the mushrooms in his secret sauce.
Everything was done. Table was set for seven. Marcy’s parents had agreed she could stay and Sam was manning the grill. Bullet was curled up by my side, which, with food being prepared a few feet away, was surprising.
“I know, he’s been acting real weird,” Declan answered my question in my mind before I could comment. “He hasn’t left your side. Not once!”
I rubbed the side of my little dog. He sighed.
The dinner conversation was stifled with Mattie and Marcy there. Declan started to chatter in my mind about his findings until Mattie looked up at us with her face twisted in question. We forgot she could hear us.
I scolded him with my eyes and he understood.
Because Mattie and Declan had been working to strengthen her powers, I tried to see if I could still block Mattie out of my mind. I realized it was working when she threw her fists on the table and glared at me.
Sam looked questionably at her, as did Shane and Marcy. Declan gave her “the look” to settle her down.
“Sorry honey, Mommy and Daddy stuff,” I explained quickly inaudibly. “Don’t cause a scene at the table.”
She tried the sad face with us to get back in, but it wasn’t going to work.
I was surprised that I was able to put up a wall and still allow Declan in. So was he. We spent some time working on this new talent during dinner. Shane crossed his eyebrows and looked at me funny. Declan explained to me that Shane was trying to figure out Mattie’s now foul mood; in my mind, of course.
My husband was elated that I was now able to keep everyone else out, while he was still able to communicate with me. It would make things so much easier and he wouldn’t be freaking out when he couldn’t contact me. It was a relief.
For the rest of dinner, Declan explained to me what they found during my nap.
Sam had couriered all of the blood samples to the lab for analysis. They had searched the missing persons files and there were a couple hundred young girls listed as missing in our tri-county, but none local. The closest was about three hours away. Sam was working on getting pictures of the closest missing girls to us to see if any looked familiar to me.
They also ran the plate number from Foxx’s green Jeep. He was in his middle twenties. Apparently, he had been in trouble once for being too rowdy at a party back when he just turned 18. No trouble since then. Besides, that was just stupid teenage stuff. No harm, no foul. Declan was going to have Shane check into him a little more.
It seemed that Shane was developing an interest in and for the detective field. Declan had promise to show him the ropes and Sam was working on getting him entered into the Academy on his recommendation.
Dinner finished without a hitch. Everyone refused to let me help clean up.
The phone rang, and because I was the only one without anything in my hands, I answered it. It was Marcy’s mom. I quickly explained that we were just finishing up dinner and I’d have Marcy home shortly.
But that wasn’t why she had called. I froze when her mother explained the reason for the call. I asked Mrs. Mac Martin to hold the line.
I grabbed Declan and Sam and took them to the office and closed the door behind us. I put the phone on speaker and asked her to repeat what she had told me seconds earlier.
There was a sniffle on the line, “Well, my sister lives in New Jersey and her daughter went missing yesterday.” The line went quiet, save to a few more sniffles.
“They found pieces of Natalie’s clothing…” There was crying coming through the phone this time.
“They found them along the shore of the Delaware on the Pennsylvania side, down near…” there was more sobbing on the line. “Down near that plastic plant, um, what’s its name again?”
In the background we could hear Mr. Mac Martin yelling “Rohm Haas”.
“Yes that’s it, Rohm Hass. Bristol is the name of the town.
Anyways, we are going to go help and support my sister. I’d like to know if Marcy can stay with you for a few days until we get back.”
I looked to Declan and Sam, not for approval, but for validation of the huge emptiness and sickness in my gut.
“Of course, Mrs. Mac Martin. Marcy can stay with us.”
I heard her sigh in relief that she wouldn’t have to expose her fourteen-year-old daughter, Marcy, to the nasty circumstances surrounding her cousin’s death. “Oh thank you. I’ll bring a suitcase down on our way by. You still have the spare door key, yes?”
“Yes, I do. That will be fine, our door will be open, please just come in.”
“I can’t thank you enough,” she said.
Declan interjected, “Mrs. Mac Martin, do you have a picture of your niece?”
“I do, she was just here last week hanging out with Marcy,” she answered.
“May I see it? Can you bring it with you when you come by,” Declan asked.
“Sure,” she answered almost as a question.
“It’s a cop thing, I just want to see if I can help in the investigation,” he justified his request for the photo.
“Oh, sure, sure.”
“Thank you, Mrs. Mac Martin. We will see you when you get here. We won’t say anything to Marcy,” I jumped in.
“Thank you so much. I will explain it all to her when I stop by.”
I agreed, “Okay. We will see you in a bit.”
The call disconnected.
Sam excused himself to make a call outside while having a cigarette. Declan called Shane into the office and brought him up to speed on the new catastrophe. The two of them decided to do a little investigating on their own, especially since I witnessed the murder and the assailant was a vampire.
Shane hung his head. “I didn’t get a chance to meet Natalie last week.”
“We’re sorry for your family’s loss,” Declan laid his hand on Shane’s shoulder.
He nodded.
“Ready for the first hard lesson in detective work?”
Shane nodded, “The show must go on?”
“’Fraid so, mate.”
“Okay. What do you need of me?” Shane asked.
“I remember you saying you like to draw, yes?”
“Yes, I do like to draw.”
“Are you good at it?”
“Not bad,
in my own opinion.”
“Feel like testing your skills?”
He looked at Declan puzzled.
Declan tossed Shane a sketchpad and a package of colored pencils then turned to me. “Tell him every detail you can remember. No matter how disgusting.”
He looked to Shane, “You up for it?”
“Sure, I’ll give it a whirl.”
Declan left the office to handle everything else while I gave Shane every agonizing detail of what I saw.
I described the vampire first. Every detail I could remember. Shane had me start with a “basic” scene.
That was easy. I saw a terrifying savage with huge white fangs holding a dying girl in its arms as blood dangled and dripped from its mouth and her neck…
He started scribbling in his pad.
“Start describing him,” Shane said without looking up at me, but I noticed he repositioned his feet so that one of his feet came to rest against mine.
I leaned back and closed my eyes.
“Just think about what you saw,” Shane started. “Describe to me what you see in your mind. Specifically shapes. The shape of his face, his eyes, that sort of thing. Tell me things that stand out.”
I focused my mind on just the creature I saw. His hair was wild and not in any particular style. Even though it was wet, spikes of hair stuck out in every direction. It was blonde in color, as far as I could make out, and hung just past the broad shoulders of the beast. His eyes; never would I forget them. They were huge and bulging from the frenzy. The yellowish-orange madness glowed demonically with a dark red outline. Jet black stood out in the center of the iris making the pupils look bigger than they should ever be. Against his pale skin, those eyes stood out and burned vividly in my memory forever. Long, thick eyelashes looked as unkempt as his hair. His lips, though shapely, were taunt under those crimson stained fangs that were maybe two inches long ending in perfect points.
Shane was quickly switching between regular leaded pencils to colored pencils as I added color to my description. I quieted, waited for him to catch up, though he kept right on scrawling as he asked me to go on.
